44th Parl. 1st Sess.
November 25, 2021 10:00AM
- Nov/25/21 10:21:34 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, it is nice to see you in the chair again.
Since my colleague is talking about safety on the Hill, I was wondering if he could comment about his role in steering an allegation of sexual misconduct against former MP Raj Saini to mediation as opposed to a formal complaint, and then trying to ensure that process did not see the light of day.
I was wondering if he would take this opportunity to apologize to the victim, who has suffered greatly from this, and commit to ensuring his party is not a deep, dark hole of continued sexual misconduct. If we are really talking about safety on the Hill, he needs to deal with that.
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- Nov/25/21 11:40:53 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, today we are debating a motion put forward by the Liberals that would take away several vital components of the functioning of Canada's democracy. With this motion, the Liberals are suggesting that members in this place should not be attending this place, and that to me is very unreasonable. I am going to lay out why.
First of all, the Prime Minister called an election in the middle of the fourth wave of the pandemic. Every person in this place, I would hope, knocked on thousands of doors and talked to thousands of people during the middle of the fourth wave of the pandemic. I maybe could have bought the argument that in-person interactions cannot be managed safely if he had not gone to this unnecessary election, but come on.
In fact, during the unnecessary election, on August 27 the Prime Minister held a campaign stop in a restaurant in Mississauga, where capacity was exceeded. On September 14, he held a campaign rally in Brampton featuring former prime minister Chrétien, with over 400 people in a banquet hall. The argument that somehow we should not be attending this place is bunk.
For the people watching this today, it is a little ridiculous to say that members of Parliament should not be showing up to work, when they have been asked to make every accommodation to get to work, as many across the country do not have the ability to work virtually.
The reason the Prime Minister wants to pass this motion to not be here in person is very simple. He does not want to be here to be accountable. That is it.
During the last several months, in the lead-up to the unnecessary election, which saw us knock on tens of thousands of doors across the country during the middle of the fourth wave of the pandemic, the ministers of the governing party would sit in their offices or in their homes and read talking points off a computer screen. That is not accountability. They do not want to be here because they do not want people like me, who are very good at their jobs, holding them to account. They do not want to answer the questions of my colleagues.
That is the antithesis of democracy. We have this place for this reason. Again, we just went through a federal election, where the Prime Minister held campaign rallies. He does not want us to be here because he does not want to be held to account. We have seen this before. In previous parliaments, the Liberals suggested we should not show up for work on Fridays. They tried to cancel question period on Fridays. They tried to do all sorts of things.
The other reason the Liberals put this motion forward is our parliamentary committees. In a minority Parliament, our parliamentary committees are an excellent tool to hold the government to account. People who are watching this today may have watched my NDP colleague from Vancouver Kingsway and I being stymied as the Liberals shut down our committee because there were not any resources to be virtual. They want this motion to pass because they do not want to be held to account.
Liberals are using this argument of safety as well, that they are trying to keep everyone safe. If they were trying to keep people safe in this place, they would be looking internally as to why there are unresolved allegations of sexual harassment with former Liberal staffers that keep getting swept under the rug. Their argument is bunk.
Now I want to make an argument in favour of being here that every member in this House should support, and I want to make a particular appeal to members of the governing party. We gather in this place so that we understand each other's differences and that we understand the needs of the people who are in our vast and diverse country. There are members of other parties who are asking why we should not do this if Manitoba is doing it.
Our country is very diverse. From being on the ground, I know from the residents of Skeena—Bulkley Valley that their member of Parliament should probably be talking to the member for Avalon. Why? It is because, if we are going to be united as a nation in this place, we need to talk to one another.
The governing Liberal Party is not particularly good at this. In my time here, I have known that the Liberal desire is to beat me and my constituents rather than work with us for the betterment of our country. I also know that that is the spirit of this. It is a lot easier for the governing party's whips to keep its caucus members managed and under control if they are not here, not talking to us and not opening their minds to what is in the best interest of this country or to looking for commonalities.
In my time in this place, my viewpoints on issues have been changed by people who come from other parts of this country. When they say that something is not in the best interest of their part of the country, or when I say the same thing to them on behalf of my constituents, we try to work to forward towards consensus. That could not happen if we are not interacting with each other. Every Canadian who has been on Zoom for the last 18 months knows that we cannot get the same interaction, those whites-of-the-eyeball interactions, if we are sitting at a computer screen with our pajamas on in our dens.
I send an appeal to my colleagues in the NDP, who it seems are going to support this motion. This would prevent them from being an active voice for their constituents on parliamentary committees. Members from the NDP have sat on committees with all of us when we have tried to get motions passed, and all of a sudden there are conveniently no resources because one of the Liberal chairs said so. Members of the NDP have tried to get questions answered on behalf of their constituents, and the ministers would not show up or would not do press conferences.
Every Canadian, even if they vote Liberal, should be concerned that the Prime Minister of Canada and the governing party are trying to make it so people cannot be here. It is actually crazy. We should be showing up for work. Let us think about this.
We are actually saying that somehow this does not matter, but it matters. Every day my eyes are opened up to what is happening across this country by people who represent other parts of it. I do not have to agree with everything. That is supposedly what this place is for.
Now, some of my colleagues have also raised the fact that if somebody is sick, could they not represent their constituents? I have been sick before, and I have still managed to represent my constituents. That is part of work. Every Canadian across this country, at some point in time, is going to get ill and be away from their job. It does not mean that they are not going to go back to their job, or that they are somehow not doing their job.
I would say that my colleagues, particularly with the examples they are using of one of my colleagues who is fully vaccinated but contracted COVID-19, are saying that somehow he does not want to be in this place or show up for work. That is not what he wants. We all want to be able to come here and hold the government to account.
I get it. I get that the government wants to be draconian. I get that the Prime Minister does not want to show up for work. Frankly, I think they are scared to be held to account. They are scared to be held to account on inflation, on the rising costs of everything, on out-of-work Canadians, on our changing economy, on the lack of ability of the government to do anything that resembles positive foreign affairs or on anything.
They are scared to be held to account even on the billions and billions of dollars the government has spent without the scrutiny of this place during the pandemic, which has already, with just the minimal amount of review we have been able do, shown great scandal. Let us remember the WE Charity scandal and the Kielburgers. They do not want that to happen, and that is why they do not want us to come here.
From what I am hearing, the NDP is going to support this. This is crazy. It really is. There is value in the dignity of coming here, into this space, to stand up for our constituents. It is why our constituents pay our salaries. To have a motion that says that we should not come here to try to learn from each other and our constituents is bananas. I ask every member in this place to stand against this so that we can get back to work and stand up for the best interests of Canadians.
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- Nov/25/21 11:51:43 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, I would remind my colleague that if he is standing in this place he is complying with the House of Commons rules for COVID-19 which were put in place to keep us safe. That is number one.
Number two, I highly doubt that my colleague across the way, even in his role as a member of Parliament in the back benches, has ever asked a question to hold the government to account. I doubt it is in there. Therefore, I actually do question whether he is doing his job.
I will not let the member take away my ability to stand up for my constituents and to hold the government to account. Shame on him, for suggesting that somehow we should not be in this place and supporting the government. The role of every member of Parliament who does not have a government appointment is to hold the government to account, including him, so he should be here. Even if he is not going to have the courage to stand up and hold the government to account, he should sure hope I will, on behalf of his constituents and every Canadian.
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- Nov/25/21 11:53:57 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, I will take this opportunity to remind Canadians that vaccines are safe and effective. I am fully vaccinated, and I encourage any Canadian who is not vaccinated to avail themselves of that opportunity. Every member who is in this place is compliant with COVID-19 rules that are set out by the House of Commons by virtue of their presence here. Every member of the Conservative Party is in compliance with that.
No member in this place should be taking medical advice from the Liberal Party of Canada. What we should be doing, and what my Bloc colleagues should be doing, is making sure that we get back to work on behalf of all our constituents, and hold the government to account because it has a lot of explaining to do for a lot of things, like inflation, like mismanagement of funds. Parliament has a job to do, and that is to scrutinize the government. Let us get back to work.
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- Nov/25/21 11:55:55 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, I would love to discuss that with my new colleague from Port Moody—Coquitlam. However, she is about to vote for a motion that would prevent us from interacting here, so she has kind of burned herself.
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- Nov/25/21 2:33:42 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, something very puzzling just happened. President Biden just doubled the tariffs on Canadian softwood lumber in spite of two things: the World Trade Organization, which came out in favour of Canada, and the Prime Minister of Canada just meeting with President Biden days ago. This will undoubtedly hurt Canadian forestry workers, who are already struggling during this difficult time.
Has the Prime Minister considered the uncertainty that this constant failure to manage Canadian-American relations will have on other industries, such as auto manufacturing and agriculture?
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- Nov/25/21 2:35:02 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, if a doubling of tariffs is what defence looks like from the government, I would hate to find out what its definition of success is. It is just crazy. The tariffs have been doubled. It has been six years. I think they have gone through five foreign ministers and four international trade ministers in the last six years. They have not been able to get anything done, and it was doubled. This is going to hurt Canadian forestry workers. We cannot have these platitudes anymore.
This is rotation number six in the minister's office. What is going to be different this time, and when are we going to get justice for Canadian forestry workers?
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