Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I would say that in Rivière-du-Nord, as in the rest of Quebec and probably across Canada, everyone is happy to have social measures that help people. However, no one is happy when that is done in such circumstances, where there is no respect for anyone in this House. When we stand up and ask the government to respect us, we are told that we like picking fights. That is all this govern…
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Mr. Speaker, the answer is that we do not want discussions. There is nothing to negotiate in the Constitution. It has been signed for 150 years. It is important to remember that. Everyone should reread it and it should be respected. Health is a provincial jurisdiction. The government needs to transfer the money to Quebec, the provinces and the territories, and stop meddling in areas that are none …
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Madam Speaker, at the NDP's instigation, the Liberals have often overstepped jurisdictional bounds. Now it looks like excess tax revenue will once again be used to overstep those bounds, including in areas such as housing. I would like to hear my colleague's thoughts on that. Would it not be better for the federal government to fulfill its own responsibilities in its own jurisdictions and send the…
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Madam Speaker, with all due respect, I do not think that it is necessary to listen to the recordings because we all heard the member repeat the word three times. The question is whether or not, in your opinion, the word “disgusting” is acceptable in the House. If it is unacceptable, then you must take immediate action. Every time you give the member the opportunity to explain herself, she says, ri…
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his speech. I would like his opinion on a certain budget matter. Nothing in this budget addresses the situation facing our seniors by trying to correct what was done before. In fact, the government created two classes of seniors: Those aged 65 to 75 and those 75 and over. Bill C‑319, however, was studied, unanimously passed in committee and sent back to the …
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Mr. Speaker, this feels a bit like Groundhog Day. I have sat in the House since 2015, and there is a recurring debate between the Liberal and NDP vision of opposing mandatory minimum sentences and the Conservative vision of applying this policy to as many offences as possible. I think we need to reflect on the issue, which is no small matter, but we also need to find ways to be effective, to adopt…
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Madam Speaker, my colleague from Montcalm's speech was extremely interesting. I have been listening to all this and observing the federal government's spending spree in provincial areas of jurisdiction over the past few weeks, which is obviously terrible. I wonder if the real problem we are having with this bill and with the way the NDP-Liberal government is behaving by investing in provincial are…
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Madam Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the member for Saint-Jean. Like many other matters that are brought before the House, what our Conservative colleagues are proposing today is something that I think is very important. It will certainly have serious consequences. We know that inclusion on the list of terrorist organizations means that Iranian citizens and members of the Islamic Revoluti…
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Madam Speaker, I think my colleague is right about violence against women in Iran. We all know that. We see it all the time. My other colleague was also right earlier about violence against young people, even children. We know that these organizations are recruiting children to commit violent acts that would be completely prohibited and generally disapproved of if they happened in Canada. We have …
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Madam Speaker, why has Canada dragged its feet for six years? I do not know. I suspect that I will never know. That being said, we have taken issue many times with the Liberal government's pattern of complacency and we continue to do so. The Liberal government is complacent in carrying out its own responsibilities but overly active in interfering in provincial jurisdictions. It defies understandin…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, doing nothing twice as fast still amounts to doing nothing. The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and the Federal Court are telling the government that the number of vacancies is preventing our justice system from working properly. The Chief Justice of Canada wrote, and I quote, “Access to justice and the health of our democratic institutions are at risk”. It is not just anyone who i…
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Mr. Speaker, a year ago, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court criticized the government on its judicial appointment process. He said, and I quote, “The government's inertia regarding vacancies and the absence of satisfactory explanations for these delays are disconcerting.” Since then, the Liberals have been dragging their feet. There were 85 vacancies; now there are 68. In February, the Federal…
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Madam Chair, according to the Liberal member who spoke before my colleague, Canada is having trouble keeping its promises because the weapons and equipment are not always available, the soldiers are not always available, the money is not always available and so on. Would my colleague not agree that the problem is really that the government made too many commitments and should have been more realis…
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Madam Chair, my colleague and the other Liberals who rose before her, be they ministers or not, have been saying for some time how important it is that Canada help Ukraine in this conflict. We are on board with that. We agree with it. However, we also all know that, to date, Canada has delivered on only about 42% of its commitments. I asked a question earlier and I did not really get an answer. Th…
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Mr. Speaker, it is disappointing. The Liberals want secularism to be odourless, colourless and tasteless. They want Quebeckers to adopt a secularism that means nothing and is inconsequential. However, the separation of church and state does mean something. It means that every single person's beliefs and non-beliefs will never interfere in their interactions with the state. That is the purpose of B…
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Mr. Speaker, I think that the issue before us is an important one, and I recognize the work that my colleague, the Minister of Justice, has done on this file. That being said, with all due respect, I have to say that we already deliberated on this issue several years ago and that we determined that March 17 would be the date on which this would come into force. Quebec has worked on this and it is …
Read full speech →Statements By Members
Mr. Speaker, a veritable institution of Saint-Jérôme has passed away. Robert “Bob” Vermette left his mark on generations of athletes back home. He was a scorekeeper, a timekeeper and unconditional fan of all those who played and learned with him. He did not have any favourites. To him, they were all champions. For more than half a century, whether in hockey or baseball, Bob Vermette was a model of…
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Mr. Speaker, French is hanging by a thread in Canada. We saw it again in committee. The Liberal parliamentary secretary, the Conservatives and the NDP all voted against bilingualism for the miscarriage of justice review commission. The Liberal member's pretext was that he was defending unilingual francophones. Give me a break. Francophones always lose when bilingualism takes a back seat. He added …
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Mr. Speaker, if that is true, then he will have to talk to his parliamentary secretary about it. As I was saying, French is hanging by a thread in Canada, even in the Prime Minister's Office. Radio-Canada reported that it obtained a copy of a letter from the Privy Council indicating that it would take too long and cost too much to translate the documents produced for the Rouleau commission. Even p…
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Mr. Speaker, all three federalist parties voted against a bilingualism requirement for miscarriage of justice review commissioners. The Liberal parliamentary secretary and the NDP justified dropping the bilingualism requirement by saying it would stand in the way of hiring unilingual French-speaking commissioners. Frankly, unilingual francophones have never benefited from bilingualism taking a bac…
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Mr. Speaker, the parliamentary secretary is not following his minister's instructions. Another excuse for giving up on bilingualism is that apparently it is too expensive. Yesterday, Radio‑Canada reported that it obtained a copy of a letter from the Privy Council announcing that it would take years and it would be very expensive to translate the documents produced for the Rouleau commission. It se…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for her speech. However, I have some questions about what she is telling us. She is talking again about getting rid of taxes, saying, “Axe the Tax”. We see in this budget that $30.3 billion are granted in subsidies to the oil and gas industry in the form of tax credits, meaning that all taxpayers in Quebec and Canada will subsidize the oil and gas industry, which …
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to join my voice to that of my colleagues who have thanked our colleague from LaSalle—Émard—Verdun for his exceptional work in the House of Commons since he arrived eight years ago. We were both elected to the House at the same time, in 2015. At the time, I thought I would be the one appointed minister of justice. Unfortunately, that did not happen. I engaged many times w…
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Mr. Speaker, Quebeckers are royally fed up with the monarchy. That is why the Quebec National Assembly unanimously passed a motion last Friday to request the elimination of the position of Lieutenant Governor. Every elected member of every political party wants to replace this role with a democratic institution. Of course, there would be no such consensus in this House. We know that some Canadian …
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, the Bloc Québécois believes that Bill S-210 is an important bill that reflects our role here in the House rather well. Sometimes we go through disgraceful sittings where we have vote after vote on things that we know will not advance our constituents' interests or values. It often disappoints me for various reasons when people play partisan politics. What goes on in the House is not…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, we are talking about whether to keep the Taliban on the list of terrorist organizations. I think it is important to do so, but are there other things we can do? How can we at least best protect ourselves against democratic backsliding toward extremism, which we deplore and which is so upsetting? I am thinking in particular of certain events that have taken place across Canada in recen…
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Mr. Speaker, I asked myself the same question as my NDP colleague. Why are we debating this motion today? Why not sooner? There seems to be unanimous consent, but I will not repeat the same questions. I have some concerns because when we talk about the Taliban, we know that it is already a listed terrorist organization. There is a great deal of distrust—in Quebec in any case, and I am sure it is t…
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Mr. Speaker, I listened to my colleague's speech, which I found to be entertaining. Just before him, his colleague from Calgary Centre said that he was asking the Bloc Québécois to vote against Bill C-50 because it does not respect Quebec's jurisdictions. We told him that we agree with that. My colleague from Mirabel told the member for Calgary Centre that we were on the same page and asked him if…
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Madam Speaker, first, I would like to thank my colleague from Berthier—Maskinongé, who always asks really good questions. It is not always easy to answer them, but they are always important questions. That being said, I will answer both components of his question. First, the bill defines a repeat offender as someone who has committed “an offence in the commission of which violence was allegedly us…
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Madam Speaker, Bill C‑48 is not the type of bill we are used to seeing in a democracy, at least not here in Canada, and even less so in Quebec. We firmly believe in the presumption of innocence, that a person who is accused of a crime, whatever that crime, should be presumed innocent, and that the Crown must provide proof beyond a reasonable doubt without compelling self-incrimination. There are, …
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, I was listening to my colleague who is introducing this bill and he said that he sides with the victims. That is good. I can assure him that the Bloc Québécois does as well. It always has and always will side with victims. The Bloc also sides with society. We must never lose sight of the fact that our justice system is not just about avenging a victim or punishing a criminal. The pu…
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Mr. Speaker, as my colleague from Avignon—La Mitis—Matane—Matapédia and my colleague from Thérèse-De Blainville have already said, this legislation has been in force in Quebec for quite some time. It has become part of Quebec's social mores. The Bloc Québécois is closely attuned to Quebec's social mores, which is why we applaud this bill. Does my colleague have any idea why the House of Commons ha…
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Mr. Speaker, our children are usually what gives our lives the most meaning. They are the apple of our eye. They make us laugh, cry and dream. They are society's most precious asset. None of us would want to see them hurt or saddened by the words or actions of others for anything in the world. All we want is to protect them from harm. Anything less would be concerning. Guiding and nurturing them s…
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Mr. Speaker, what Radio-Canada has uncovered is very serious. Mexican drug cartels are engaging in human trafficking at Canadian borders. The federal government cannot allow criminal organizations to exploit migrants. That is not all. The RCMP confirmed that the crossings the cartels are using for human trafficking are the same ones they use for weapons and narcotics trafficking. Needless to say, …
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Mr. Speaker, my question was not exaggerated, but the government's complacency sure is. Cartels will not stop at committing crimes at the border. They are directly involved in crime in Quebec. Radio-Canada revealed that South Americans who entered our territory with fake Mexican passports organized a burglary ring in Quebec. According to the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal, they come to …
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Madam Speaker, Bill C‑34 will increase oversight and improve our international reputation. I wonder how much that might help us with our main financial partner, the United States, if we pass Bill C‑34 in its current form. What does my colleague think of that?
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Mr. Speaker, more than 221,000 SMEs could go bankrupt if the federal government does not extend the deadlines for them to repay CEBA loans without losing subsidies. We are not talking about billion-dollar multinationals here. These are small businesses that contribute to the vitality of each of our regions. In my constituency of Rivière-du-Nord, 213 SMEs have alerted the Canadian Federation of Ind…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, I would like to ask my colleague the following. In his opinion, how many additional housing units will we be able to build if the amendment proposed by the Conservatives is adopted? Will it really improve the situation of families in Quebec and Canada who are struggling with housing problems?
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague with whom I have the pleasure of serving on the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights for her question. Yes, I am confident that the courts will be able to accomplish that task in an effective, fair and reasonable manner. To be honest, I have often said in the House that I believe we have a high-quality court system in Quebec and Canada that is likely t…
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Madam Speaker, I would like to start by thanking my colleagues on the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights for making it possible to pass Bill S‑12 in a reasonable enough time frame that should hopefully allow it to get through the legislative process fast enough for the existing legislation to be amended before the deadline set by the Supreme Court. I think everyone on the committee wor…
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Madam Speaker, I was saying that it took six months for Senator Gold to introduce the bill in the Senate. I do not blame him. It was the government's responsibility, not his. The Senate passed the bill at third reading in two months, which seems more than reasonable to me. Three months went by between June 22 and September 19, because it was the summer. The bill arrived in the House on September 1…
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Madam Speaker, as I said earlier in an exchange with another member, we think Bill C‑57 is a good bill and we plan to support it. My colleague from Avignon—La Mitis—Matane—Matapédia and I have asked a few questions, but we have yet to get any clear answers. Although we agree with the bill, the process by which it is being passed raises some questions, as is the case with many other bills ratifying…
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Mr. Speaker, I see that just about everyone here in the House agrees with the idea that a free trade relationship should be established between Canada and Ukraine. That relationship already exists and, as we all know, this agreement improves or modernizes it. Earlier, my colleague addressed a question to the Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Government in the House, and I did not hear a…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, I am very proud to rise today to once again speak to this bill. I already spoke to it at second reading, and I want to reiterate what I said at that time: The Bloc Québécois intends to support Bill C‑295. This bill warranted review in committee. It should be passed and brought into force as quickly as possible. Negligence toward anyone in our life is wrong. Negligence toward our sen…
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Madam Speaker, I am pleased to rise in the House on behalf of the Bloc Québécois and confirm that we believe that Bill S‑205 is a good bill. We intend to support it, at this stage at least, so that it can be referred to committee and studied both rigorously and seriously. I agree with my colleague opposite regarding some of his reservations about electronic monitoring devices. The Criminal Code al…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present, in both official languages, the 15th report of the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights in relation to Bill S-224, An Act to amend the Criminal Code regarding trafficking in persons. The Committee has studied the bill and has decided to report it back to the House with amendments.
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for her question and I congratulate her on her cabinet appointment. I simply do not understand why my colleague is telling us that this is so important and urgent when her government let it slide for six months. Now, at the eleventh hour, a month before the expiry of the one-year period granted by the Supreme Court, the government is telling us to get a move on.…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his question. I have also worked with him on the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights and have always appreciated his interventions. We do not always share the same point of view, but there is always respect there, and that is very helpful. That said, to answer his question, I have to say that I do not understand either. My answer to these groups is …
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for her question. I totally agree with her that it is illogical and absurd to punish victims of sexual offences for talking about the crime. That is what I meant at the beginning of my speech when I talked about the second part of the bill, which will probably, at least in my opinion, solve this problem. I will therefore obviously support this bill, including the …
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for the question. I too very much enjoy working with him at the Standing Committee on Justice and Human rights. We often have different points of view, but it is always constructive to add them up to create better bills. That being said, I agree with him. The Bloc Québécois will work to ensure that this bill is passed as quickly as possible, but still in a serious…
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