Oral Questions
Madam Speaker, it has been reported that the Chinese communist regime is operating at least three illegal police stations in Canada, threatening Chinese Canadians and even coercing some to return to China. As we learn more, what is the government doing about these illegal Chinese communist-sponsored police stations, which constitute an assault on Canadian sovereignty?
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of Bill C-281, the international human rights act. Let me take this opportunity to commend my friend and colleague, the member for Northumberland—Peterborough South, for championing this important piece of legislation, which will strengthen Canada's position to advance international human rights. The bill will do so in several concrete ways. It strengthens the…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I wish to present two petitions today. With the first petition the petitioners are expressing concern with the recent Supreme Court decision of Bissonnette, in which the court struck down consecutive parole ineligibility periods, a law passed by the previous Harper Conservative government to ensure that the worst of the worst killers never see the light of day. They note that the gove…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, the second petition I wish to present is one in which petitioners are calling on the Parliament of Canada to enshrine in the Criminal Code the protection of conscience rights for physicians and other medical professionals who are being subjected to coercion and intimidation to participate in medical assistance in dying. Such a law would be consistent with protecting the fundamental ri…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, as the member for Rimouski-Neigette—Témiscouata—Les Basques noted, inflation is not new. Canadians have been living with inflation and a cost of living crisis for the better part of the past year. Only now is the government taking some short-term measures that I would submit constitute nothing more than band-aid solutions. At the same time, while the government is handing out a few …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, the parliamentary secretary is simply wrong. I have always opposed the carbon tax. The Conservative Party has always opposed a carbon tax, and we will scrap it if elected.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, it comes from the earnings of Canadians, who will be taking home less in January, again, thanks to the Liberal and NDP planned payroll tax hikes and the tripling of the carbon tax. They could not have come up with a worse policy at a time of this cost-of-living crisis in the face of 40-year high inflation. By the way, as the—
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I appreciate working collaboratively with the member for Kitchener Centre on some issues of common ground. The root of the problem of which the member speaks goes back to the half a trillion dollars that the government pumped out over the past two years, money that went into the mortgage and finance systems, which was borrowed out to investors who bought up properties and bid up pri…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, the member for London—Fanshawe has said that these payroll tax hikes are not tax hikes, yet her leader, the member for Papineau, has said that they are. The Government of Canada website states that they are. This is the reality for everyday Canadians. These payroll tax hikes will mean that the average person will take less of his or her paycheque home. In the new year, people will b…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I rise to speak to Bill C-31, which is legislation styled as an act respecting cost of living relief measures. I emphasize “styled” as an act respecting cost of living relief measures, because the measures put forward in the bill can at best be described as half-measures and band-aid solutions that fail to address the root causes of the cost of living crisis faced by everyday Canadi…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I would note that nine out of 10 provinces already have dental plans and supports for children, so in that respect this is a duplicative measure. The hon. member talked about the reality of what is happening in Canada. The reality is that we have 40-year high inflation, and it is being fuelled by the government's out-of-control spending. The member is quite right that Canada is not …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, the hon. member for Mirabel is quite right that the premiers have called on the federal government to increase health transfers to the provinces. The Prime Minister has refused to even sit down with the premiers and has come up with this bill instead of addressing the needs of the provinces. We do have deficiencies in our health care system that need to be addressed. Those deficienc…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, I would request a recorded vote.
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Madam Speaker, last November, I copied the ministers of health and foreign affairs on a letter that I wrote to the president of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, which falls under the purview of the Minister of Health, regarding the CIHR's blatant mislabelling of Taiwan as a province of China. I wrote this letter after a Taiwanese scholar doing research in Canada brought to my attention …
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Madam Speaker, it is encouraging to hear that the CIHR is finally acting and finally working to address this mislabelling issue, but, quite frankly, it has been far too long. The parliamentary secretary cited the ISO. That was CIHR's excuse. Universities and other institutions corrected their mislabelling notwithstanding the ISO, and now evidently the CIHR is correcting the mislabelling notwithsta…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I request a recorded vote.
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to Bill C-252, legislation that seeks to amend the Food and Drugs Act, and more specifically seeks to impose an advertising ban on unhealthy food and beverage products to youth under the age of 13. This bill is substantively similar to Bill S-228 from the 42nd Parliament, which I similarly opposed. The objective of the bill is a laudable one. After all, obesity is…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I rise to present a petition on behalf of Canadians. The petitioners wish to express concern with the Supreme Court of Canada's recent decision to strike down a Harper Conservative law that allowed judges to exercise their discretion to apply consecutive parole ineligibility periods for mass murderers. As a consequence, some of Canada's worst killers will be eligible for parole after …
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to rise in strong support of M-42. The motion before us simply seeks to declare that every November will be Hindu heritage month. I want to at the outset take this opportunity to acknowledge the member for Nepean. He is someone I have gotten to know over the past seven years that we have served together in this place, and he is someone I consider a friend. I want to ac…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, Canadians expect that criminals convicted of sexual assault, kidnapping and human trafficking serve their sentence from behind bars, but not these soft-on-crime Liberals, with their do no crime Bill C-5, which incredibly allows criminals convicted of these and other serious offences to serve their sentence from home. Could the Liberals explain how letting loose into the community the …
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, I rise to speak for what I trust will be the last time on Bill S-206, legislation to support juror mental health. The idea of this bill came about as a result of a study at the justice committee on juror support, the first of its kind. It was initiated by the member for Cowichan—Malahat—Langford. I am very proud to say that the member has been a seconder of this bill and a champion …
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, I would request a recorded division.
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, Canadians have had enough of the Liberals' unscientific vaccine mandates, so too reportedly have the vast majority of backbench Liberal MPs, including medical doctors. One of these medical doctors, the Liberal member for Thunder Bay—Rainy River has even gone on the public record calling for their immediate end. When will the Liberals finally listen to experts within their own caucus, …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I do not know how we are going to make anyone safe by eliminating mandatory jail time for serious firearms and drug-related offences. With respect to conditional sentencing, which was the main purpose of her testimony, she noted that it is going to have a very negative impact on women because those predators are going to be serving time in the victims' communities. On top of that, i…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, respectfully, my position regarding this bill is that it needs to be scrapped. It needs to be defeated and the government needs to go back to the drawing board. On the issue of systemic racism and the impacts the criminal justice system has on marginalized Canadians, yes, it is an issue that needs to be addressed. One of the things that was noted at committee is that many of the vic…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, with respect to my colleague, that is not what I said. What I said is that when it comes to addressing those who are struggling with addictions, we need to look at alternatives. We need to support treatment and rehabilitation efforts. Incarceration should be a last resort, and indeed there is a directive issued by the Public Prosecution Service of Canada not to prosecute in case of …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I rise to speak on the Liberals' do-no-time, soft-on-crime bill, Bill C-5. This do-no-time, soft-on-crime Liberal bill eliminates mandatory jail time for serious firearms-related offences and serious drug offences, and significantly expands conditional sentencing orders, otherwise known as house arrests, for an array of violent and other serious offences. Yesterday in the House, the…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Mr. Speaker, it would be retroactive in the sense that former jurors would be able to disclose all aspects of their jury service with a medical professional even if the trial concluded years ago. One thing I do want to add is that some of the former jurors who did appear before our committee, Mark Farrant and Tina Daenzer, who are here in Ottawa, have done incredible work to support jurors through…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Mr. Speaker, the member for North Island—Powell River is absolutely right. Jury service is a mandatory form of civic duty. As Mark Farrant notes, it is the last form of mandatory civic duty since the abolition of conscription. The former jurors that we heard from I think reflect most former jurors across Canada. They are proud of their jury service. They also believe that they should not suffer fr…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Mr. Speaker, one of the key recommendations was to see that former jurors who are suffering from mental health issues can access as many counselling sessions as required. Another important component was to see that former jurors have information packages so they have a better idea of what jury service entails, because a big stressor is that of the unknown. Many jurors, until they are summoned, hav…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
moved that the bill be read the third time and passed. Madam Speaker, it is an honour to rise to speak to Bill S-206 at third reading stage. It is an act to amend the Criminal Code relating to section 649, otherwise known as the jury secrecy rule. This bill, which I was proud to sponsor in the House of Commons, is a straightforward piece of legislation that would carve out a narrow exception to th…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
I request that it be adopted on division. (Motion agreed to)
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
moved that the bill be concurred in.
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Madam Speaker, despite empty words of concern, the government has simply washed its hands clean of issues of noncompliance with the so-called safeguards that were brought in by the government. These are matters under the Criminal Code. They fall within the jurisdiction of the government, and the government has a responsibility to ensure that safeguards are adequate and that vulnerable Canadians ar…
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Madam Speaker, I recently posed a question to the Prime Minister regarding abuse and non-compliance under the medical assistance and dying regime. Abuse and non-compliance are not hypotheticals. They are happening, and they are well documented. Vulnerable Canadians are falling through the cracks. Quebec's commission on end-of-life care, as well as the Ontario's chief coroner's office, identified m…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, jury service often comes at a considerable sacrifice. Many jurors go through difficult trials and are exposed to horrific evidence, yet they are unable to talk about what is often the most stressful aspect of jury service, the deliberation process, due to the jury secrecy rule. Yesterday, the justice committee voted unanimously to send Bill S-206, of which I am the House of Commons sp…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, Brian Ilesic and two other victims were murdered in an armed robbery. They were shot point-black in the back of the head. A fourth victim survived with serious brain injuries. Brian's parents, my constituents Mike and Dianne, feel completely betrayed that this cold-blooded killer will be eligible for parole years sooner, along with other mass killers. What assurance can the Minister o…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Madam Speaker, every day in this place we see the Liberals play COVID theatre with their masks, only to remove them as soon as they leave the parliamentary precinct, at bars, restaurants and receptions. This is as they insist on continuing never-ending mandates and restrictions. When will the Liberals stop their hypocritical theatre and end the mandates?
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I say very respectfully to the hon. member that I do not know how much slower the Bloc wants the government to move because it has only been two years. The rest of the world is learning to live with COVID, but the government refuses to live with COVID. Further, when we are talking about measures that are having an impact upon mobility rights, causing this level of disruption and imp…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, what we have is a mess of the government's own making. It is a government that has refused to provide a timeline. It has kept in place these travel restrictions, which are clearly having a negative impact, evidenced by the enormous concern raised by industry leaders. Given that that member sits on the government's side and represents a riding near the Canada-U.S. border, I would put…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of our Conservative opposition motion calling on the Liberals to immediately lift remaining travel restrictions, which leaders in the tourism and hospitality sector and the airline industry say are harming business, damaging Canada's international reputation and resulting in chaos at our airports. Let me say that, while the government certainly needs to lift…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I have to say that the issue this motion relates to is to address a lack of planning on the part of the government from the standpoint of it providing sufficient resources at the airport and, most especially, to address restrictions that are increasing processing times by up to four times what they otherwise would be. That is the root of the problem. That is precisely what we are as…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, would the hon. member concur that the effort by the Chinese Communist regime to block democratic Taiwan is part of a broader campaign of aggression perpetrated by the Chinese Communist regime?
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of the concurrence motion that the House support Taiwan's participation at the World Health Organization and the World Health Assembly. The 75th World Health Assembly is set to convene in less than a week, from May 22 to 28, in Geneva. Without more, there is no legitimate reason for Taiwan's exclusion from this international health forum. It should be noted …
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, it could not be more timely. The WHA is set to convene in less than a week. Once again, the Chinese communist regime is thumbing its nose at global public health. Our allies have been clear and consistent in their support. We have seen resolutions passed in other parliaments, including the European Parliament. Just last Friday, President Biden signed into law legislation to direct t…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, my friend for Cypress Hills—Grasslands is quite right that Taiwan has been excluded from participating as an observer at the ICAO. It is again part of the broader strategy on the part of the Chinese communist regime to isolate and delegitimize Taiwan. It is important that Taiwan participate at the ICAO, the WHA and the WHO from a global health standpoint and a global aviation safety…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, this is an opportunity for the House to speak with one voice. That is the purpose of this debate and the vote that will be triggered as a result.
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, the world is not benefiting from the exclusion of Taiwan. It is straight-up bullying by the Chinese communist regime, and we need to stand up against that.
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, I am encouraged by the parliamentary secretary's words of support for Taiwan's participation at the WHO and the WHA. The Chinese Communist regime, in addition to trying to block Taiwan's meaningful participation in international fora like the WHO and WHA, has also insisted upon the mislabelling of Taiwan in which certain Canadian government institutions are currently actively partic…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to rise to present a petition signed by Canadians in support of Bill S-223, introduced by Senator Ataullahjan and championed by the member for Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan. This bill would make it a Criminal Code offence to go abroad and receive an organ without the consent of the person giving the organ. The bill has passed the Senate three times and it passed the …
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