Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, members of this House should be very concerned when a government can freeze the assets, effectively unbank and unperson a Canadian, without them having any recourse. One cannot possibly think it is okay in a democracy to freeze the assets of somebody whose opinion one does not agree with. This act goes too far and should have never been used.
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Mr. Speaker, “a positive, optimistic, hopeful vision of public life isn’t a naive dream; it can be a powerful force for change” and “if Canadians are to trust their government, their government needs to trust Canadians”. Those are the words of the Prime Minister in 2015. “Very often misogynistic”, “racist”, “women haters”, “science deniers”, “the fringe”: these words were said by the same Prime Mi…
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Mr. Speaker, that is unbecoming as a Prime Minister. It has been 48 hours that the government went from doing nothing to a national emergency, 48 hours into using the measures, 48 hours without providing Parliament with a justification, so my question is simple. When will the Prime Minister admit that he has lost control of the situation, that he has lost control of his country, that he has lost c…
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Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. I am a strong Jewish woman, a member of the House and a descendant of Holocaust survivors. This has never been singled out and I have never been made to feel less, except for today, when the Prime Minister accused me of standing with swastikas. I think he owes me an apology. I would like an apology, and I think he owes an apology to all members of the House…
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Mr. Speaker, we have seen provinces across the country lift restrictions. We have seen public health experts and those in the provinces, and Dr. Tam in Canada, say that it is time to move on, that it is time to have a reopening and drop these restrictions, or at least evaluate them. What we are asking for is a plan for the government to move forward and have us live with COVID, just like every hea…
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Mr. Speaker, I am going to be splitting my time with the member for Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes. I have thought long and hard about my comments today. More importantly I took the opportunity to think about the values of empathy, compassion and understanding, and I think those values are missing from this debate. I think those values are missing from this conversation. These a…
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Mr. Speaker, the hon. member did say one thing. I think this is the Prime Minister's problem, and it is a problem of a lack of a leadership from the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister can talk to anyone he wants. He can call a press conference. He can pick up the phone. He can dial down the rhetoric. This is wedge politics, and it is being played by the members opposite. We have heard it from memb…
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Mr. Speaker, I am not sure which direction my hon. colleague is going in his speech. We talked about the ineffective, costly travel measures when it comes to testing, and I will stand by those comments because I do not think they make a lot of sense. We are asking the government, through this motion, for a plan to get us out of this pandemic. We are asking them to stop the restrictions, stop the m…
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Mr. Speaker, Canadians have been misled. Our travel restrictions are not symmetrical with those of the United States. Our requirement for an arrival PCR test is the only one in the G7, and the minister knows that. PCR arrival testing is wasteful, it is punitive and it is ineffective. Canadians want to know: On what day will the government drop these ineffective and costly travel restrictions?
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Mr. Speaker, can somebody update the minister's talking points? Across the country provincial governments are listening and they are presenting plans. The chief public health officer of Canada, as well as provincial health officers, have all said it is time. We have 90% of Canadians who are vaccinated, so I am asking the Prime Minister when he will stop traumatizing Canadians and give us a plan to…
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Mr. Speaker, a senior Liberal has shared his concerns that the government mandates are divisive and harmful to the Canadian people. The Prime Minister and his government need to stop politicizing the pandemic, because it is fracturing our society and dividing Canadians. Will the Prime Minister listen to the voices within his own party and present Parliament and the rest of Canada with something, a…
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Mr. Speaker, somebody needs to tell the minister that it is 2022. The redundant PCR testing for asymptomatic, fully vaccinated travellers does not make any sense. Permanent travel restrictions are not the answer, because the current ones are ineffective. The government's duplicative arrival testing regime is out of step with the world. It takes up to a week for the results. That means forced quara…
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Mr. Speaker, Canadians are undoubtedly frustrated with the continued COVID restrictions. This weekend the transport minister stated that the cross-border trucking mandate is temporary, but that new interprovincial vaccine mandates for truckers are on the way. The Canadian Chamber of Commerce, the CFIB, manufacturers and exporters have all called the existing vaccine mandate harmful and bad policy …
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Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister should talk to the transport minister, because the transport minister knows that 14,000 fewer loads entered Canada in the first week of this cross-border mandate. The minister knows that the price of a load has increased 300% to 400% since the beginning of this mandate, and the minister knows that the Canadian business community, as well as trucking organizations, h…
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With regard to considerations or analysis made by Global Affairs Canada (GAC) to move the Embassy of Canada to Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, since January 1, 2016: (a) what specific actions were taken by GAC in relation to any considerations or analysis made related to the location of the embassy; (b) what was the specific timeline for each action in (a); (c) what was the final decision regar…
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With regard to relations between Canada and the United States, broken down by minister: (a) how many meetings has each minister had with their American counterpart since being sworn in on October 26, 2021; and (b) what are the details of all such meetings, including the (i) date, (ii) type (in person, Zoom, etc.), (iii) agenda items, (iv) titles of American counterparts participating, (v) results …
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Madam Chair, I want to thank the hon. member for South Surrey—White Rock for her views on the debate. With that, I am pleased to rise in the House to speak to a matter that I know Canadians are watching. It is not only those who have Ukrainian roots, but all those who believe in moral clarity and a principled approach to our country's foreign policy and our place in the world, and Canadians like m…
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Madam Chair, I know that the member for Etobicoke Centre is an advocate for the community and I know that table would be better off for having his advocacy there because I know that he does not agree with the actions that the government has taken. I know that he believes that the government can do more. I do want to address one of the things that the member said, which is Canada's not arming Ukrai…
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Madam Chair, I would like to speak about it a bit more. There are a number of issues that have changed on the ground since the time the hon. member visited and the last time that we truly had a debate in this House about the situation in Ukraine. There are a lot of things that we can still do and there are a lot of things that the Ukrainians have asked for that Canada has not provided. There is an…
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Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to present this petition in support of Bill S-223, which seeks to combat forced organ harvesting and trafficking. It would make it a criminal offence for a person to go abroad and receive an organ taken without the consent of the person giving the organ. This bill has passed the Senate unanimously three times and was brought forward by multiple parties over 13 years. I…
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Mr. Speaker, he was the first politician who ever got my attention, and not because we almost share a name, although the confusion has always been beneficial for me. Former Toronto mayor and businessman Mel Lastman will always be remembered as a larger-than-life politician whose love for his family, community and city was infectious. With little in the way of education, he started, like so many of…
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Madam Speaker, the government's mismanagement of this pandemic has hit a new low, and closing the border is not working and neither is testing. From February to June, this government misplaced 30% of COVID tests from people entering this country; almost 400,000 tests were lost. There are now new testing requirements. This government is not protecting Canadians. Twenty months into the pandemic, and…
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Madam Speaker, 46,000 people from April to June this year landed at U.S. border airports and immediately crossed into Canada by land, all to circumvent the ineffective air travel restrictions the Liberals put in place. Yesterday's AG report said that no recommendations were ever given to the government to enforce different rules for air and land. These arbitrary rules on Canadian travels have been…
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Mr. Speaker, if that is not true, then I look forward to him supporting the motion.
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Mr. Speaker, I will start by asking the member opposite to read the motion. I know my colleague just read it into the record again. He knows very well that he was talking about buildings. There was a period of 62 days after the last election before we recalled everybody to this place and he might have forgotten that promise was actually in the Liberal Party platform. It is on page 13 if the member…
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Mr. Speaker, our platform during the last election talked about reimplementing the housing first plan to deal with this. I think there are a lot of different measures we want to see from the government, such as more investment in mental health, a strategy on addiction and wraparound services on recovery. There are some core issues that I think affect some of that population. There could be a lot m…
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Mr. Speaker, this is part of a solution that needs to encompass all types of housing, including rental housing, including those who do not have housing and including those in social housing. I know that the hon. members on this side from my party had spoken about it. I look forward to engaging in a constructive conversation with the hon. member on solutions for the increased supply of rental housi…
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Mr. Speaker, I am honoured to rise in the House to speak today to an issue that people in the great riding of Thornhill and across the country see as a priority. Also, I will be splitting my time with my hon. colleague, the member for Mégantic—L'Érable. We have a housing crisis. Our country is facing a severe housing shortage, contributing to unprecedented increases in housing prices in almost eve…
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Mr. Speaker, we are guaranteed freedom of expression in our Constitution except, apparently, according to the Toronto District School Board, when it comes to calling out anti-Semitism. School board trustee Alexandra Lulka was unfairly singled out for her criticism of anti-Semitic resources distributed back in May. They promoted terrorism. Even a review concluded that the pamphlets were anti-Semiti…
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Mr. Chair, does the minister think the federal government should take further action to promote increased use of antigen tests, just like the U.S.?
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Mr. Chair, did the minister speak to the U.S. at all or anyone in the travel industry?
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Mr. Chair, does the minister plan on harmonizing with the U.S. on antigen tests?
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Mr. Chair, we did not get much in the way of finance, so I will ask the Minister of Tourism a question. The U.S. has tightened travel restriction rules for foreign nationals, including Canadians, further complicating travel and holidays for Canadians going there. That means they need a different type of test and they follow a different type of testing time frame. Does this concern the minister at …
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Mr. Chair, I am going to cede my time to the member for—
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Mr. Chair, take-home tests have been used throughout COVID. It is the same test whether one takes it at home or at a facility. Why is the government slowing the pace of 100% testing when the solutions are right in front of it?
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Mr. Chair, we are starting to understand more about this from the industry and the media that are getting used to the Liberals not knowing what they are doing on this file. Can the minister confirm to the House that if take-home tests were used for fully vaccinated arrivals and not from the 10 countries, we might be over the 70% today?
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Mr. Chair, in typical fashion, Canadians will know that the government hastily held a press conference on November 30 to announce mandatory arrivals testing. I will start with a simple question. When will 100% of arrivals be tested in Canada?
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Mr. Chair, the independent Canadian travel advisers have come to the government. They have been quite vocal. They are not included in any of the programs that the government has put forward for Canadians. Will he commit to correcting that tonight, yes or no?
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Mr. Chair, he has an opportunity to correct this at committee. Will he correct this tonight, yes or no?
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Mr. Chair, will he commit to correcting this tonight at committee?
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Mr. Chair, is the minister aware that they have not been captured under any of the government's programs over the last 20 months?
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Mr. Chair, I will try to talk about the independent Canadian travel advisers, 12,000 of them. Most of them are women and some are in the LGBT community. Has the Minister of Tourism heard from them at all?
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Mr. Chair, with all due respect, we asked the minister if he was going to harmonize the tests with the U.S. I just did that right now. Is there a plan on harmonizing tests with the U.S.?
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Mr. Chair, is the Minister of Tourism concerned about the ever-changing travel restrictions and the impact they are having on the industry in Canada?
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Mr. Chair, I will just tell the minister that the CBSA identified 46,000 people from April to June of this year who landed in a U.S. border airport and immediately crossed the border into Canada by land. First, is the minister aware that there are two different rules for entry?
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Mr. Chair, is the minister concerned about the continuation of quarantine hotels in attracting tourism or anyone to this country?
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Mr. Chair, the travel restrictions are confusing at best, and the government is adamant about hotel quarantines as an effective measure against COVID-19. Does it concern the minister that there are ever-changing travel restrictions, with the impact they are having on the tourism sector?
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Mr. Chair, I forgot to tell you that I am splitting my time with the member for Kelowna—Lake Country. Can the member commit to heading to harmonization with the U.S. on antigen tests?
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Madam Speaker, I was hoping the minister would not add to the confusion. Canadians are stranded in South Africa. They are desperately trying to get assistance from the government. They are having to jump through hoops just to find an affordable PCR test or a safe flight back home. Their calls for action have gone unanswered by the government, and it is scrambling to provide them clear guidance. Do…
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Madam Speaker, in times of doubt and uncertainty, Canadians can rely on one thing from the government: more confusion. Yesterday, the U.S. announced new travel restrictions for Canadians. On our side, the minister announced new testing measures for all travellers coming here. He did not say who would administer the tests, he did not say where travellers would have to isolate, he did not say when t…
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