Parliamentary Speeches
634 speeches by Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay — Page 3 of 13
Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, what does my colleague think about General Vance's statement that he had nothing to fear because he controlled the judicial process? How did we get to this point, where a person in authority believes he is above the rules, above the law, and safe from punishment because judgments involving military personnel are under the control of the military high command itself?
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Mr. Speaker, I rise today in the House as the Bloc Québécois national defence critic to address the government's response to an extremely delicate issue, namely the unfortunate occurrence of sexual misconduct. As delicate as the subject may be, it remains our duty to take a serious look at the bill before us to put an end to this scourge and ensure greater accountability as well as a healthier env…
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Mr. Speaker, that is a fairly fundamental issue. Honestly, we will be watching this closely. That is why an in-depth study is so important. As a number of people have already pointed out, the government's previous version of the bill, which died on the Order Paper, did not properly address the problem. We will do an in-depth study. That said, I agree with the government's reason for wanting to inc…
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Mr. Speaker, as I mentioned in my speech, the Bloc Québécois will be supporting the bill at this stage so that it can be studied in committee.
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Mr. Speaker, I know my colleague well enough to know that he loves asking this type of rhetorical question. The answer is often in the question. He is gesturing at me, denying it. At least he is smiling. I think he knows that I am close to the mark and that the shoe fits. I would say that it is indeed a real scandal. That being said, I do appreciate the nuance he mentioned about the difference bet…
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Mr. Speaker, I have only one reservation, which is that we are not going to blindly trust anyone or any bill that is voluminous by nature, that has legal implications and for which the devil is in the details, as with any document of this nature. That is why I am simply saying that we need to do our job properly. When the government presents us with a bill, we, as an opposition party, cannot simpl…
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Mr. Speaker, I completely agree with my colleague. Impunity must be replaced with accountability. The bill puts forward a plan to do just that. The bill broadens access to what I believe are called victim's liaison officers to include individuals acting on behalf of victims. In other words, it is not just alleged victims who will have access to this service; their representatives will too. Expandi…
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Mr. Speaker, the civilian court problem is very real, as our colleague mentioned. Obviously, the bill does not directly address that issue. The issue remains to be addressed. I think it would be better to ask the Minister of Justice about that matter. That said, it is definitely a consideration. I understand that sending these cases to the civilian court system could result in longer processing ti…
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Mr. Speaker, the reason for transferring power to politicians is precisely to get it out of the military's hands. This should help avoid situations like the one where Mr. Vance said he controlled the judicial process. Now, we will have to look very closely at whether it is better to—
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Mr. Speaker, once again, there are new tariffs affecting our forestry industry. Washington announced an additional 10% tariff on our softwood lumber, which was already subject to tariffs of 35%. This is not all. Donald Trump also announced tariffs of 25% on our wood products, like cabinets. Meanwhile, the assistance announced by Ottawa in August is still not available. It is one defeat after anoth…
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Mr. Speaker, Trump keeps handing the Prime Minister one defeat after another. Today, there are new tariffs on lumber. Yesterday, we learned that a new deal could allow more American milk to cross the border. Last summer, the Prime Minister decided to sacrifice the digital services tax that web giants were supposed to pay. It is one defeat after another, and Quebec's forests, milk and culture are t…
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Mr. Speaker, my colleague from Saskatoon West seems very committed to individual rights, but he also seems aware of the need to tackle genuine hate speech. Does he find it acceptable that the Criminal Code includes a religious exemption allowing hate speech as long as it is based on a sacred text?
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Madam Speaker, since we are talking about hate speech, I would like to ask my colleague whether he agrees with this religious exemption. Does he agree that certain elements of the Criminal Code can be recognized as hate speech, but that, as long as such speech is religiously motivated, it can be exempted, risk free? Does my colleague think that makes sense?
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Mr. Speaker, unfortunately, I need to point out that it took a wake-up call, like so many other situations. The same thing happened with the previous American administration with regard to Roxham Road. It took the White House saying that the situation was no longer working and that enough was enough. All of a sudden, the government, which has rediscovered the concept of Canadian sovereignty—so des…
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Mr. Speaker, I too want to congratulate our colleague on his first speech and his very first election. I welcome him to the House. We have come to expect magic formulas from the Liberal government, even if the magic amounts to nothing more than window dressing and smokescreens instead of real results. I am curious, I truly wonder how the border can be strengthened and how new means and capacities …
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Mr. Speaker, we are talking about a bill that seeks to expand the powers of the authorities in place, including border services. However, there are not enough officers. There are not enough officers. There are not enough officers. According to the customs union, they are not short 200 officers, but 3,000. What do we do about that?
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Mr. Speaker, finally! Finally, that is the word. Ottawa has finally understood the need to look at border security. In recent years, Ottawa has consistently turned a deaf ear to calls from all sides, including our own. Now, Ottawa seems to be starting to wake up. How unfortunate that it took a barrage of hostile comments and tariff threats from the newly appointed President Donald Trump for Ottawa…
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Mr. Speaker, my colleague is using a figure of speech known as a “rhetorical question”. If such a committee existed, my colleague, who is the immigration critic, would probably know more about it than I do and know where it is now. I therefore take it that the answer was implied in the question. Nonetheless, I will take this opportunity to say that it took a long time and a lot of turning in circl…
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Mr. Speaker, yes, it was a government commitment. That said, I do not believe that the 130 pages of this bill, right down to the smallest detail, were actually specific Liberal commitments during the election campaign. The devil is often in the details. We are quite willing to co-operate, but things need to unfold differently than they did last June, when there was a super closure motion, fast-tra…
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Mr. Speaker, I am happy to hear that our colleague is as keen as we are to ensure the government takes a serious and thorough approach to the committee process. We do not want it to pull a fast one, as they say. We have to be able to examine every line of these 130 pages, down to the last comma, with experts and affected groups. Now, could my colleague elaborate on his concerns about rights and fr…
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Mr. Speaker, I am going to pick up where my colleague's response left off, when she mentioned the need to listen to the experts. I liked her speech. As I understand it, however, the New Democrats are going to vote against the bill. We are going to vote for it, but with the aim of dissecting it in committee. We will listen to the experts and the affected groups. Then, if necessary, we will vote aga…
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With regard to products containing polysilicon that are imported into Canada: (a) how many of these products are linked to Xinjiang; (b) what percentage of all imported products containing polysilicon do the products in (a) account for; and (c) how many were previously denied entry to the United States because they were not compliant with the United States' Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act?
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With regard to goods imported into Canada with ties to Xinjiang: (a) what goods are entering the Canadian market after being refused entry into the United States, and in what quantities; (b) how many of these goods did not comply with the United States’ Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act; and (c) what goods and materials entering Canada have ties to Xinjiang, and in what quantities?
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Mr. Speaker, I have a simple question for my colleague. In his opinion, why did it take the government so long to even lift a finger? As my colleague from Lac-Saint-Jean said earlier, this could have been done through an order or a decision by the government, rather than through the long process of passing a bill. All it needed to do was take immediate action at the border. Why did it take Preside…
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Mr. Speaker, I do not know whether my colleague, who is much more legally-minded than I am, will appreciate the parallel I am about to draw. He will have to let me know. I find this bill strangely reminiscent of the use of the Emergencies Act, which we voted on here. After letting a situation deteriorate, after doing nothing, the government is going to the other extreme. The government's reaction …
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the same question that I asked another member earlier. Why did it take Donald Trump pulling out the big guns for the government to finally start doing something? People had been sounding the alarm in the House and elsewhere. Why is the government taking action now, especially when it could be done much faster than with this bill, as my colleague from Lac-Saint-Jean…
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Mr. Speaker, on a point of order. Can we stop wasting time?
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Mr. Speaker, I do not know if my colleague was here earlier when my colleague from Rivière-du-Nord made his speech. We are glad that something is finally happening, because it has been a long time coming. It took Donald Trump bringing out the big guns to get things moving. However, we are also concerned about the presumably disproportionate and freedom‑killing response contained in this bill. I as…
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Madam Speaker, the first thing to clarify is that, from the outset, we do not belong to the same nation, so our national interest and national values will not be the same. There are obviously a lot of projects that are in the national interest of Quebec, and we have never been afraid of doing them. With Hydro-Québec, we built the big dams, and we were able to do it responsibly. In Quebec, there ar…
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Madam Speaker, it may still be too early to judge what will happen. The content of the agreement remains to be seen. I am very much looking forward to seeing what conditions were discussed, though. I am very much looking forward to seeing if they were discount conditions. I am very curious about that. However, I would like to reassure my colleague that we will be there to keep an eye on things. We…
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Madam Speaker, I have already talked about the Liberals' fearmongering. They campaigned on it, claiming they were the best at standing up to Trump. Now they are aping him by attempting to govern by order and to enshrine the practice in our institutions. They also campaigned on the claim that their sole qualification and sole value lay in the fact that they were not Pierre Poilievre's Conservatives…
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Madam Speaker, if you permit, let us talk about fear. I will quote from the Refus global manifesto, published in 1948: “The reign of fear in all its forms is over.” However, to be quite clear, made-in-Canada fear has always been the only tool of the Ottawa bigwigs and the regime. Today, the bogeyman has a new name: Donald Trump. I am not trying to downplay the genuine tariff threat, but there is a…
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Madam Speaker, yes, what is happening right now is scandalous. The official opposition, whose role is to oppose, the very same opposition that criticized all forms of real or imagined coalition with the government in the last Parliament, now finds itself in a what is effectively a Liberal-Conservative coalition. We will not have the opportunity to examine this bill properly, because this coalition…
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Mr. Speaker, I want to begin by thanking the Liberals and the Conservatives, who have so eloquently demonstrated, through Bill C-5, why Quebec needs to become its own country, even though even though we already had plenty of arguments to support that. We are witnessing another blatant multi-party attempt at nation-building and using crises to further centralize power, which is second nature to Ott…
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Mr. Speaker, we hear the government announcing even more spending. Earlier this week, it announced a whopping $9 billion in spending. Now we are looking at a bill that includes incentives, tax cuts and some fairly significant tax measures. I would like to ask my colleague if she is as eager as I am to see a budget or, at the very least, an economic statement. Presenting a budget would be the least…
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Madam Speaker, I tend to agree with my colleague in that, although we may have a new Prime Minister, we are still dealing with the same old government. Make no mistake about it. Once the honeymoon is over and reality kicks in, we will see how true it is that we are still dealing with the same old worn-out government. That being said, there is one thing that I do not understand. In his remarks, my …
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Madam Speaker, the provisions of the bill on access to home ownership are not that bad. We more or less agree with them. However, one of the biggest challenges for most households and families is to come up with a down payment. There is nothing about that in the bill. Would my colleague be in favour of the idea of introducing a measure to provide an interest-free loan to allow first-time homebuyer…
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Mr. Speaker, I think that everyone agrees that the old system needed to be replaced. That is not the issue. The concerns that were raised were about the system as it was going to be implemented, along with the lack of preparation. Is the minister in discussions with importers and exporters about their concerns and the irritants and problems that this is causing? Are there any assessments, with fig…
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Mr. Speaker, over 60% of Canada's aerospace manufacturing takes place in Quebec. That needs be reflected in the contracts. Quebec's shipbuilding industry has the expertise to build icebreakers. That needs be reflected in the contracts, all the more so since, I remind members, Quebec got ripped off under the shipbuilding strategy. Another one of Quebec's strengths is artificial intelligence. That t…
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Mr. Speaker, we know that this initiative is a major source of dissatisfaction. I have the data right here: There are calculation errors in duties and taxes, trouble obtaining technical support, serious system performance issues, and 22 service interruptions. Everything I just mentioned happened in the first month of the program's existence. Is that what the minister calls a system that was ready …
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Mr. Speaker, we know that importers have recently been required to deposit a financial guarantee themselves in order to participate in the Release Prior to Payment Program, since they can no longer use the financial guarantee deposited by their customs brokers. The transition period ended on May 20. It is a terrible situation. What is being done about it?
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Mr. Speaker, I think we are entitled to it because we contributed to it. That is precisely the problem: We contributed to it. Of course, what we gave, we need to get back. The same goes for British Columbia. That said, it is ironic because my colleague remembers very well how the Liberals swore for a long time, hand on heart, that the carbon tax was good for everyone. We had the numbers, we had th…
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Mr. Speaker, if Ottawa reinvests in defence, that money must serve Quebec's economy. It needs to be used for our aerospace sector, our shipbuilding industry and our artificial intelligence, among other things. Ottawa needs to hire Quebec suppliers instead of giving our money to the Americans, as it did with the F‑35s. That is why the Bloc Québécois is proposing a bill to implement a local procurem…
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Mr. Speaker, I will address one last subject. My colleague and I studied the CARM system, the CBSA assessment and revenue management system, twice at the Standing Committee on International Trade. Fears were expressed. The system was criticized by some people, including importers and exporters. Today, according to a survey of their members, things are not going well at all. Apparently, the situati…
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Mr. Speaker, I can ask my question again. When will we see the departmental plans?
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Mr. Speaker, given that Quebec has kept its own carbon trading system intact, will products from Quebec be exempt from customs duties if the European Union decides to follow through on its threats?
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Mr. Speaker, the jig is up. Ottawa's mask has fallen to reveal the true face of injustice. While Quebec has been faithfully keeping its commitments and fighting the scourge of climate change for years, Canadian power, blinded by its political interests, has betrayed the most basic principles of fairness. On April 22, in a move unworthy of a just country, the Canadian government issued a colossal $…
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Mr. Speaker, I congratulate the ministers on their appointments to cabinet. I will start with a simple question. Does the minister not find it a little strange that we are here in this committee of the whole, but we still do not have the departmental plans?
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Mr. Speaker, has a date been set for negotiations to resume, or are we not there yet?
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Mr. Speaker, the fact remains that the supply vote will take place next week, if I am not mistaken. We still do not have the departmental plans. It says on the website that we will get them sometime in June. Can the minister tell us when we will get them?
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