Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, shooting at synagogues is already illegal. Just like the Prime Minister, the justice minister is all talk and no action. Now an Iranian dissident is missing, and police fear that he has been murdered. Meanwhile, some Canadians actually recognized an Iranian official at the gym. The Conservatives are asking the Liberals to table a plan within a week to re-evaluate Canada's terrorism th…
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Mr. Speaker, last week, three synagogues were shot at in Toronto. The war abroad is spilling onto our streets, while hundreds of Iranian agents are operating in Canada. The Conservatives are calling on the Liberals to table a plan within a week to enforce the deportation of Iranian officials, to disrupt Iranian efforts to launder money and to re-evaluate Canada's terrorism threat level. Will the L…
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Mr. Speaker, as a member of the Jewish community, from one of the largest Jewish communities in the country, I do not believe that Bill C-9 will do anything to accomplish the protection of the Jewish community, but I would like to ask the minister a professional, legal question. The Liberals flaunt the new obstruction and intimidation offence, but it is already criminal to obstruct someone from en…
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Mr. Speaker, I am Jewish and I represent one of the largest Jewish communities in Canada. I am disgusted by the Liberal government and how it pretends that the Jewish community wants Bill C-9 passed, which is nonsense. The Liberals are saying that while adding fuel to the fire of Jew hatred in Canada. When the Prime Minister says on the campaign trail that he knows there is genocide in Gaza, he fu…
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Madam Speaker, I do not know what the secretary of state is talking about. I was at the press conference at Shaarei Shomayim three days ago, next to the public safety minister, who was not able to say anything. With respect to concrete solutions, if the secretary of state had listened to my speech, I proposed three concrete solutions at the very least. Number one is to get the RCMP involved. We ha…
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Madam Speaker, I actually want to specify that, specifically with respect to the Jewish community, since the election of the Liberal government 10 years ago, hate crimes against the Jewish community have more than quadrupled. Shame on them for that. With respect to the specific question that the member is asking, I would like to clarify for the benefit of the House that this is not politics; this …
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Madam Speaker, I have just articulated a sensible legal argument in response to the legislation. Anybody who does not agree with the member is, apparently, far right. Normal people, middle-of-the-line centrists, are now far right according to the Liberal Party. I am proud of my time in the Ford government. I wear my time in the Ford government and the provincial legislature as a badge of honour.
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Madam Speaker, the “guillotine” or the “hammer” is generally how these motions are referred to when the government shuts down debate. It is shutting down speech, ironically, on a bill that deals with speech and the issue of free speech. The Liberals are saying there has been enough debate on Bill C-9. Yes, there has been a lot of talk between politicians on it, but the Liberals are refusing to hea…
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Mr. Speaker, last week three different synagogues were shot at in the Toronto area. There was always conflict abroad, but it never spilled onto Canada's streets like it has under this Liberal government. The Liberals politicize the Middle East; add to that their soft-on-crime agenda, and it is no longer safe for Canada's Jewish community. They can, please, save the tweets, the empty platitudes and…
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Mr. Speaker, this is the same recycled housing approach that the Liberals have had for the last decade, but I have a very serious and concrete question for the member. We already have the ministry of housing. We already have Canada Lands. We already have CMHC. Why do the Liberals require a fourth bureaucracy to not build homes?
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Mr. Speaker, Toronto-area home builders reported the worst January on record since 1981. Last month, only 269 new homes were sold in the city of Toronto. The slump in new-home sales has lasted longer than the downturn of the 1990s. Because of these Liberals, the dream of home ownership is gone for many Canadians. We already know that the Liberal housing plan is dead on arrival. That is because, ac…
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Mr. Speaker, the hon. member's speech was thoughtful. I certainly agree on the fact that choices and the free economy, not government, are what builds homes. However, what I do not really understand about the bill is why we need a fourth bureaucracy. We already have the ministry of housing, which can do what the new agency would seek to do. We have CMHC. We have the Canada Lands Company, headquart…
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Madam Speaker, I ask colleagues to look at what, essentially, this bill is doing. It would create a fourth housing bureaucracy. We already have a ministry of housing, the CMHC and the Canada Lands Company, which is based in the great riding of York Centre. Now the Liberal government is saying that we need another layer, a fourth layer of bureaucracy, to build homes in Canada, which is the primary …
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Mr. Speaker, because of the Liberals, the dream of home ownership is fading for young Canadians. According to CMHC, new housing starts will drop every year for the next three years. Nearly half of Canadians say they have to move out of the community they grew up in, because they cannot afford a home. Instead of incentivizing new construction, the Liberals are building a fourth housing bureaucracy …
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Mr. Speaker, the only thing the Liberals are building is a fourth housing agency, more desk jobs for Liberal insiders and more Liberal waste. CMHC is telling the Liberals that their housing plan is dead on arrival. New housing starts will fall every year for the next three years. Builders are laying off workers. BILD is warning that 100,000 construction jobs are now at risk. Instead of building a …
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Mr. Speaker, my North York riding is home to thousands of Canadian Kurds. I and my Conservative colleagues are gravely concerned about recent reports of attacks by Syrian forces against civilians in Aleppo. The attacks target the Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh neighbourhoods, which are home to half a million Syrians, mainly Kurds but also Christians, Yazidis and Druze. Innocent civilians, including …
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Mr. Speaker, it is almost a year since the election. The Prime Minister should be judged not by his words but by his actions. He did not get a trade deal. He doubled the deficit. No new pipelines have been approved. Interprovincial trade barriers remain. We have the highest rate of food inflation in the G7 with 2.2 million Canadians at food banks. We need to start building pipelines and sell Canad…
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Mr. Speaker, new research from Rosenberg says Canada's economy is on life support. Per capita GDP is falling. Construction is flat, and the economy may shrink by half a per cent. Food inflation is out of control, and billions of dollars are fleeing south. Because of these Liberals, Canada is now on a recession watch. Conservatives are ready to work with the government to repeal anti-development la…
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Mr. Speaker, it is conformity of thought. It is like my friend from Bowmanville—Oshawa North. There is either Liberal think or no think. Like I said, in the Soviet Union, the only religion allowed was communism, which is why the holding of a religious text would have been punishable by labour camp. The Bais Chaya Mushka school for girls in my riding has been shot at three times. When we first came…
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Mr. Speaker, I do not mind their heckles. I welcome their heckles. The Liberals did not have the courage to show up at the justice committee today. They cancelled the committee that was to consider the bill clause by clause. They are afraid because they know the bill is going nowhere and that it is a terrible bill. Therefore, we should be travelling across the country, from coast to coast to coast…
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Mr. Speaker, I represent one of the largest Jewish communities in the country, and I will not take any lessons from the Liberals on safeguarding the Jewish community. I am also tired of the other side accusing the Conservatives of slowing this down. I would like to ask the member a very clear question. Last Tuesday, the justice committee was ready to sit and listen with respect to bail or to Bill …
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Mr. Speaker, what are the Liberals doing? To those at home who still do not understand what is happening vis-à-vis this bill, let me provide them with a quick summary. It is going to be a professional summary. The first thing the Liberals are doing is lowering the threshold for the definition of hatred. The Supreme Court has articulated the test for hatred in a case called Keegstra, 35 years ago. …
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Mr. Speaker, the Liberal government has no regard for taxpayer money. The budget that was just passed proposed a $78-billion deficit, so they should not lecture me about taxpayer dollars. What these Liberals are now trying to do is shield this bill from clear sight by all Canadians who now understand that this is beyond Liberal platitudes. This is not about hate. This is not about defending the Je…
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Mr. Speaker, for my friend from the Bloc, the defence is this: if, in good faith, the person expressed or attempted to establish by an argument an opinion on a religious subject or an opinion based on a belief in a religious text; The section itself arises out of section 2 of the charter. It is not only an extension of it; it is effectively part and parcel of it. I have not seen a situation where …
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Mr. Speaker, I hear my friend, the Bloc member, and I enjoy working with him at committee. I would like to understand if he has any knowledge of what is actually happening at the justice committee. He just referred to the Bloc having an agreement in the past tense. The meeting was cancelled last Tuesday and tonight's meeting has been cancelled. We have major pieces of legislation between us, but i…
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Mr. Speaker, over 35,000 families fled the GTA last year because they could not afford a home. CTV News followed a Toronto woman who could not buy a house with a $200,000 income. The Liberals pretend that the impact of the industrial carbon tax on a new house is imaginary, but clearly the industrial carbon tax increases the cost of cement, the cost of steel and the cost of all materials that go in…
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Mr. Speaker, “Who cares?” answered the Prime Minister, when asked about contact with the U.S. President on a trade deal. Everyday Canadians care, everyday Canadians who are going broke or who are losing their jobs because of this trade uncertainty. In my city of Toronto, investment, commerce and real estate have been frozen. Only 25 new condos were sold last month in a city of three million. Other…
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Mr. Speaker, I have been listening to the member with respect to housing and the housing plan the Liberals put forward, so I have a few very specific questions for him. First, why did the Prime Minister have to create a whole new office, the Build Canada Homes agency, instead of running this program from the Ministry of Housing? Second, the total budget for this program is apparently $13 billion, …
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moved for leave to introduce Bill C-257, An Act to amend the Criminal Code (promotion of terrorist activity or group). Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to introduce a bill that would amend the Criminal Code. The bill would create a new criminal offence against the wilful promotion of terrorism, a terrorist group or terrorist activity, with a maximum penalty of five years imprisonment. Canada already crim…
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Mr. Speaker, intifada is violent resistance. It must be criminal to call for intifada on Canada's streets. It must be criminal to celebrate Hamas monsters by glorifying their death. That is why we need a bill to amend the Criminal Code, to criminalize the promotion of terrorist groups or terrorist activity. Canada already criminalizes participation and aiding of terrorism, but there is no offence …
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Mr. Speaker, the reality is that the Liberals are trying to address problems they created, but they never address the actual problem. Instead, all they do with their proposed programs is create more bureaucracy. We can think about what they have done to date. They proposed to build more homes, but instead of doing that out of the Ministry of Housing, they created a new agency, Build Canada Homes. …
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Mr. Speaker, last year, we imported oil from Russia. We are importing oil from Kazakhstan and Venezuela. We have some of the highest proven oil reserves in the world. We should be the wealthiest country in the world instead of relying on other countries for energy.
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Mr. Speaker, I do not know what the member is saying. In 2008 and 2009, we had a global financial crisis that the former Conservative government handled with flying colours. That is what happened in 2008 and 2009. Just 10 years ago, Canada had the wealthiest middle class. This is according to The New York Times. Ten years ago the Liberals came into power, and now we have two million people at food…
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Mr. Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the hon. member for Long Range Mountains. Everyone is depressed. Why? It is because everyone is broke. We are more broke than we think. Do others remember the old Scotiabank commercial, “You're richer than you think”? We are Canadians in the 11th year of a Liberal government who are more broke than we think. Two days ago, the government tabled a 400-page…
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Mr. Speaker, I am proud of my political career. I am proud of my career in the provincial legislature of Ontario. I am proud for standing up for millions of Canadians who did not have a voice, and I am proud of the Leader of the Opposition for welcoming me into this party and Parliament and also of the people of York Centre for bringing me back to represent them.
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Madam Speaker, I had my first legal gig as a young law student at the community legal clinic at the law school in London. I dealt with a lot of young offenders. This is what I really want to stress: We have to delineate, or separate, those who got into the system because of a good-faith error, such as those who broke a vending machine or those who stole their parents' car on the day of their prom.…
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Madam Speaker, I am mindful of the member's concern. We need to remember why we are here. We are here because the Liberal government finally woke up to the fact that bail needs to be fixed. One of the challenges we have is the surety regime. I am here to say that we can look at how other jurisdictions address this, but if a surety is going to be meaningless, if there is no risk of forfeiting that …
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Madam Speaker, this week, I heard the OPP commissioner, Thomas Carrique, agree with me that there are at least four, five or six serious concerns, which I have articulated today, with this bill. I respect the member opposite. I commit to working with him in good faith in trying to fix this bill at committee.
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Madam Speaker, I do not propose to politicize this issue. I just want to speak about the shortcomings of the bill and ask the secretary of state specifically why there is an absence of any stiffer sentences for young offenders. Why is the bill silent on parole? Why is the bill silent on cash bail, something that police associations across the country are talking about? Most importantly, I am very …
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Madam Speaker, finally, after years of us pleading with the Liberal government, the Liberals are trying to do something about bail and sentencing in Canada. If the Liberals admit there is a problem, we know there is a problem. The problem is crime and chaos on our streets. Violent criminals, gang violence, guns and auto thefts are terrorizing Canadians. Like many Torontonians, I get up in the morn…
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Mr. Speaker, the Liberal member does not understand how bad it is out there. More than a quarter of Canadians cannot afford to eat, and now the Prime Minister is telling a roomful of students they will have to sacrifice even more. Young people have sacrificed enough; they have already sacrificed home ownership, and yesterday CTV reported that young Canadians cannot even land a minimum-wage job. Wi…
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Mr. Speaker, this year the Liberal government will spend $1 billion on interest every week, and while the Prime Minister is planning a record-breaking deficit, his accounting gimmick may put Canada's credit at risk. Last week the Prime Minister told students they will have to sacrifice even more. Canadians should not be made to sacrifice. After a decade of Liberal failure, they have sacrificed eno…
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Mr. Speaker, something I took very much to heart from the hon. member's comments is the Liberal government's failure with regard to the justice system, specifically on bail and sentencing reform. At the justice committee, we did a bit of math. We noticed that, in the last 557 days, the only two pieces of justice legislation the government brought forward have been the online harms act and Bill C-9…
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Mr. Speaker, she should tell that to the 15% of young people in Toronto who cannot find a job. With $54 billion of net investment fleeing Canada, the Prime Minister is leaving Canada's automotive workers destitute. With job losses at GM and Stellantis, we now learn that auto tariffs are here to stay. Christmas is just around the corner, but thousands of Ontario's auto workers are on the chopping b…
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Mr. Speaker, just before the Prime Minister left Brookfield, he made sure that Brookfield's headquarters left for the United States. The Prime Minister loves creating jobs in the United States. That is why youth unemployment rose in September to 14.7%. In Ontario alone, 17,000 young people lost their jobs. In fact, the youth employment rate is sitting at a level not seen since 1999, with a brief e…
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Mr. Speaker, we will remember the babies sliced, the women raped and the fathers beheaded. It has been two years since October 7. We keep saying “never again”, but it happened again. I do not want the Liberals doing the Jewish community any favours. They rewarded the worst possible act of terror with a terrorist state, for votes. They are morally bankrupt. However, it gets worse. Today, at the Uni…
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Mr. Speaker, since Friday, I have been in regular communication with various Jewish community groups, and essentially all of them have expressed one reservation or another about some of the contents of this bill, which I articulated earlier. The private prosecution concern is top of mind. One of the leading organizations, in fact, is generally concerned with respect to the removal of the AG's cons…
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Mr. Speaker, I have very serious concerns about the legislation in its current form. We see a serious assault on free speech by virtue of the dilution of the definition of “hatred” and by allowing private prosecutions for hate charges to proceed without Attorney General consent. I am very concerned about essentially non-criminal statutes with prescribed offences being coupled with an allegation of…
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Mr. Speaker, the Liberals rewarded terror. Hamas started the awful war. It sliced babies, raped women and killed 1,200 people. It kidnapped over 250 people, and still holds 48 hostages. Listen to Hamas; it says that state recognition is a fruit of October 7, and they vow to repeat it again and again. The Liberals reward the barbarism by recognizing Hamastan without preconditions, not even a return…
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Madam Speaker, to follow up on the concern articulated by the shadow minister, it was open for the government to lean on the subsequent definition in Whatcott, where the Supreme Court defined “hatred”. I cannot help but notice that the words “extreme manifestations” are missing from the proposed definition in Bill C-9. To add to that, I have a further concern that I hope the Attorney General can a…
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