44th Parl. 1st Sess.
February 19, 2022 07:00AM
- Feb/19/22 10:53:18 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I am very pleased to speak in this historic debate on the declaration of an emergency.
I want to begin by saying that two long years with the COVID pandemic and now omicron have been difficult. They have shaped our lives over the last two years. It has taken a toll on work and how we talk to people and how we meet people. It has been very challenging. I want to say that up front, and I want to thank Canadians and thank Nova Scotians for their work and their contributions.
March 13, 2020, is the day we returned home from Parliament when the world seemed to have changed overnight. Let us be honest: Over three million Canadians lost their jobs in a very short period of time, and we knew as a government that we had to respond quickly. First and foremost, this was a pandemic, a health issue, and we wanted to, and would, work closely with the experts in public health. As a government, we would cut red tape and create programs in record time. We would work together across party lines and we would help Canadians. That was the objective from day one.
Our government made promises that we would be there for Canadians, that we would have their backs. We did, and we will continue to do so until this is over. Programs for helping Canadians, such as the CERB and the wage and the rent subsidies, have been successful. When it came to getting tests, PPE, gowns and gloves, we were quick to produce those. We even asked our own business owners to help us produce those products, which they did, and I want to thank them for that. When it came to the vaccines, we were quick to procure those, and we had them in the arms of people much more quickly than anticipated. When the provinces needed help for health care and education, we were again very quick to respond, investing $19 billion for a safe restart agreement and creating the safe return to class fund. The federal government contributed eight out of every 10 dollars that were invested in the pandemic.
Canadians helped us a lot as well. They followed the health guidelines. They came together to help each other. They took their vaccines when they were able to. We have the highest rate of vaccination in the world. I thank Canadians.
I know it has been two long years, and everyone is tired of COVID and the sacrifices they have made. People's lives were put on hold, and we all want to see COVID in the rear-view mirror. We know COVID has had a negative and significant impact on our health, including our economic health, our social health and our mental health. It has been very tough.
That is why it is important that we start looking at the restrictions, but let us keep in mind that most of those restrictions were put in place by provincial governments. Why? It was for good reason. The restrictions were dictated by the capacity on the ground, including the challenge in hospital beds, health care workers and frontline staff. I could go on. We noticed that we needed to continue to invest in supporting provinces in health care, and in other areas as well, but I am optimistic that we will soon see changes as we move forward and as we see more capacity in the hospitals with time.
We have already seen the easing of some restrictions. With respect to the travel restrictions, next month non-essential travel will be allowed for people who wish to do so. We will see the removal of quarantines while people are waiting for their test results. We will continue to be guided by data and circumstances on the ground. I refuse to let all that hard work go to waste. We just cannot drop the ball at the five-yard line.
The protests of the last three weeks have been very difficult. We witnessed the blockade associated with the convoy. I am a great believer in the right to protest and in respecting our rights under the charter, but this is not a peaceful protest. It is an occupation. It is controlled by individuals who want to overthrown an elected government.
Peaceful protest is not associated with symbols of hate and violence or the bullying and harassment of frontline workers. It is not about holding our city and infrastructure hostage and showing disrespect for our monuments or memorials. I watched the video of an individual dancing on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. It was very, very difficult to watch the disrespect. We were quick to put up fences to protect the monument from occupiers, but then I had to watch, like many Canadians, a mob of people tear down the fencing.
I want to share a tweet from the Royal Canadian Legion: “The National War Memorial is a site of collective remembrance & must be treated with respect. The removal of protective barricades & the reported inaction by those charged with safeguarding this memorial is deeply disturbing. Those who sacrificed for our freedoms deserve better.”
These actions do not reflect Canadian values. I reject the notion that this represents the will of the Canadian people. The more we learn about this occupation, the more disturbing elements we find.
Foreign actors are influencing and fuelling events on the ground, with 55% of the donors being American and 6% from other countries. Canadians represent 39% of the donors. Another very important fact is that 1,100 Americans who donated to the insurrection in the U.S. on January 6 also donated to the Canadian convoy occupation in Canada. This is not about truckers.
I also want to share with the House a joint statement by Canada's unions:
Canada’s unions have fought for generations for the right to protest. This is a cornerstone of our democratic system. But what we have witnessed on the streets of Canada’s capital over the past thirteen days is something different altogether. This is not a protest, it is an occupation by an angry mob trying to disguise itself as a peaceful protest.
The statement goes on to say:
It is time for all levels of government to work together to help the people affected and put an end to this occupation of our nation’s capital.
Invoking the Emergencies Act was necessary. For four weeks illegal disruption harmed our economy and endangered public safety. The people in Ottawa suffered for 23 days and counting. We needed to supplement provinces and territories with the authorities to address this challenge.
However, before launching into what the Emergencies Act will do, I want to talk about what it will not do. It will not take away the right to protest. It will not limit rights under the charter. It does not limit freedom of speech. There is no military involvement. It is reinforcing the principles and values of our institutions. It keeps Canada free. It is not the War Measures Act. It is much different.
The threats to the security of Canada are real. This group wanted to overthrow our leaders, our democratic government. Foreign money is influencing what is happening on the ground. Tracked and blocked foreign money is creating negative impacts on our economy and democracy.
The Emergencies Act will give the provinces and territories authority. It creates new authorities to regulate crowds, prohibit blockades and keep essential corridors open. Finally, it will mobilize essential services like tow trucks, which we did not have access to for a long time.
There are all kinds of declarations and clear oversight in this act. It tables in Parliament within seven days. We have the debate that we are having tonight, which is so important. We have a parliamentary committee that will provide oversight while emergencies are in effect. It will last 30 days or less. It can be revoked. What I find very interesting is it triggers an automatic inquiry. This will allow us to look back at all decisions.
I want to share some of the key things the acting chief of police, Steve Bell, and the mayor said. They said the Emergencies Act was very important for them to do their job. All three levels of authorities were needed to deliver what we are doing today. We know we have to now solve this as quickly as possible and this will allow us to do so.
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- Feb/19/22 11:04:59 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, will this member speak on behalf of the Prime Minister and condemn what is happening in the B.C. Interior? There were 20 masked men armed with machetes and axes who attacked a group of pipeline workers causing millions of dollars in damage. Is he prepared, on behalf of the Liberal government, to condemn that type of activity?
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- Feb/19/22 11:05:30 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I want to thank my colleague for that question, but we are focused on the issue today, which is the Emergencies Act. I want to remind my colleague that it is the Conservative Party, and I was listening earlier to the member for Louis-Saint-Laurent, who said that the interim leader is now saying that the truckers should leave. That is not what she said for the first two and a half weeks. She even wrote to the opposition leader of the day to tell him that it is the Prime Minister's problem and to go talk to them. A number of Conservatives were taking pictures and supporting this group. That is unacceptable. He should focus on what is at hand today.
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- Feb/19/22 11:06:21 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, earlier the member for Lac-Saint-Louis told us that the opposition does not get it, and that the government did not control the police services, as if there was no middle ground between controlling the police services and taking action, as if the only option left was to use the emergency measures.
How is it that the Ottawa chief of police asked for 1,800 RCMP officers? How is it that the Government of Quebec, which manages public security, decided to go elsewhere? How is it that nobody understands anything except the Liberals?
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- Feb/19/22 11:06:59 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for the question. I always find it interesting to have discussions with him.
I would like to remind him that the Bloc Québécois needs to take a look in the mirror. It often claims to know the truth, but let us not forget that 72% of Quebeckers are in favour of us applying the Emergencies Act. That is a sign that this party must keep in mind.
It is time to take action, and that is what the government is doing. We would like to have the support of the Bloc Québécois.
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- Feb/19/22 11:07:41 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I have asked this question of others in this House, but I wanted to convey to him the comments I have received from many constituents who have noted the stark contrast between the way in which the Ottawa police responded to the convoy and the occupation, and the way in which indigenous people in northwest B.C. and across Canada are treated by police when they are protesting.
Could the member comment on whether he shares our concern on that contrast and whether he would support an independent public inquiry that would look into the way in which policing has been done over the past number of weeks in this situation?
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- Feb/19/22 11:08:32 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, first, I would like to say that I think there are a lot of people in Ottawa and across the country who are very disappointed with the way things unfolded with the police here locally. It took way too much time. We could have provided more tools earlier, I suspect.
The good thing about this Emergencies Act is that an automatic inquiry is embedded in it. That will allow us to reflect on what has transpired and how we can continue to do the work that needs to be done as parliamentarians.
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- Feb/19/22 11:09:21 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I noted that my hon. friend from Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook talked about foreign interference as though we were just talking about the flow of money in donations to the so-called “freedom convoy”. I wonder if he has turned his attention to foreign interference in the form of disinformation, largely emanating from Russian websites, social media activity, as well as that emanating from the U.S. Republican Party.
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- Feb/19/22 11:09:50 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, there are good people on both sides, the Conservatives and Trump, that is for sure. There was a flooding of 911 calls, most of them coming from the United States. As I said in my speech, 1,100 people who contributed to the insurrection in the U.S. contributed to this convoy. That tells us there has been a lot of involvement by a lot of right-wing people in this country and in the States.
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- Feb/19/22 11:10:28 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, there seem to be two conflicting views. One is that the convoy was all about vaccine mandates and personal freedoms. On the other hand, when listening to the leaders, it sounded like an insurrection, that they were coming with the intent of overthrowing the democratically elected government. The supporters of the protest, including the Conservatives, have either been naively blind to the fact that they were gamed by the true leaders of this, or they are wilfully blind to the evidence that those leaders presented. What are your thoughts on that?
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- Feb/19/22 11:11:13 p.m.
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I am not going to tell you what my thoughts are, but I will let the parliamentary secretary do that.
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- Feb/19/22 11:11:20 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I am so proud of Canadians. We have over 80% double-vaccinated, which is very important. Some who have been vaccinated are very tired. I understand that people would like to get their lives back, but an organization that has as its main objective to overthrow the government, is unacceptable.
In my opinion, the Conservatives, looking at the interim leader's comments before she was interim leader, she told her leader to take pictures with these people and “Let this look like it's a Trudeau issue”. That is unacceptable. That is a political game. That is all—
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- Feb/19/22 11:12:16 p.m.
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The parliamentary secretary cannot use the last name or first name of the Prime Minister.
I have another question. The hon. member for St. Albert—Edmonton.
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- Feb/19/22 11:12:27 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, this legislation, the Emergencies Act, has been on the books for 34 years and it has never been invoked. The hon. member gave a 20-minute speech but not once did he talk about the legal threshold that must be satisfied, namely that the emergency is a situation that seriously threatens the ability of the Government of Canada to preserve the sovereignty, security and territorial integrity of Canada.
Does he honestly believe that the situation in Ottawa met that threshold?
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- Feb/19/22 11:13:10 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, that is an easy question to answer. If the main objective is to overthrow a democratic government, that in itself indicates that sovereignty is in question. If people in Ottawa were afraid to leave their homes that is another very strong indicator. If the economy, our Canadian economy, is in trouble as well, that is a good indicator as well.
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- Feb/19/22 11:13:41 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, earlier, the Parliamentary Secretary referred to a poll.
Does he not get the impression that 72% of people were actually simply in favour of ending the protests because they have been going on for too long? Perhaps people got that impression because the government failed to take action for three weeks. I think that is what is happening.
I would like to hear what he has to say about that.
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- Feb/19/22 11:14:05 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his question.
I understand Quebeckers' hesitation given what they experienced in 1970. However, there is no doubt in my mind. As my colleague mentioned earlier, the people living in Gatineau and the Outaouais were also victims of this situation, just like the people of Ottawa. There is no doubt that this law is there for the governments that want to use it and that need it for a limited amount of time. If Quebec does not see it that way right now, that is fine.
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- Feb/19/22 11:14:54 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I thank anyone who is watching this now, at 11:15 p.m. We have been on this debate since 7 a.m., and I can say that, from participating in the debate and listening in since seven o'clock, I have heard a whole bunch of stories. Some were facts. Some were not facts. We have heard a lot of things.
The fact today is that it is my mother's birthday. To my mom, I would like to say “happy 81st birthday”. I am sure that she loves that I have shared her age with everybody, but this is why I am here. I am here because of my family. I am here because of the families and the people across Canada. I will speak about the reasonable people I also represent.
I looked earlier at Twitter. My husband told me weeks ago to get off Twitter, because it never lets me sleep. To any of the members, to anybody out there, get off Twitter. If they want nightmares, just read Twitter.
I found one tweet today. It is from Aaron Wudrick. If anyone has been watching the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, he is a person I follow when we are talking about what is happening in the economy. Today, he talked about what is happening in the House of Commons. He said:
When I say I'm sympathetic to the goal of ending mandates, I get called an apologist for Nazis and insurrectionists. When I say that in spite of that sympathy I support the rule of law, I get called a globalist totalitarian libtard.
I apologize for any inappropriate language, but the fact is that no one is finding a side on this debate to land where they cannot look at the other person and say that they have a good point. Many of my colleagues today have made good points. Some of them I absolutely disagree with, but I believe that they have the right to their opinions, whether it is right or wrong. That is the fact.
I have been down here throughout this period of time and the biggest thing that I have found, even in trying to prepare my speech today, is that we cannot say anything right and we cannot say anything wrong without someone jumping on us. Every single parliamentarian here, every single politician or any leaders, every time we say something there is going to be somebody who will smack us down.
It was interesting, because prior to the protesters coming here on January 31, five days before, I did an interview with our local radio station. This would probably have been January 23. It was a month ago when we started talking about what this might look like. I said that I supported the trucker convoy and I supported the right to protest. However, we cannot question the fact that there are characters and actors out there who are not going to behave. We all know that. I do not think that anyone has seen a protest that has a large group of people where there has not been one small infraction.
We have talked about what these infractions look like. Being from Elgin—Middlesex—London, I can tell you that the last two years have been very difficult. It has been difficult for everybody, regardless of where they are living. We have seen this type of stuff happening in my riding since 2020. I think about things that happened in 2021, when the Prime Minister had gravel thrown at him by one of the protesters. We all agreed that it was wrong. That individual was apprehended and taken in.
This same protester was on our streets just a few days ago. I know him personally. What do I say about this protester? If he was listening today, which I do not think he is because I think he is in holdup, I would say to him that he has to step back and he has to listen. He has to be part of the conversation.
That is what I would like to say to the protesters who are going past that next step. If they want change, they will have to be part of the change. It is not always about getting exactly what they want.
That is the exact same thing that I have to say to the government. This is about finding a place of balance. We have listened to people. I have been called a racist, a misogynist and all of these wonderful names. When I called one of the members of the NDP out for that, she doubled down. That is not democracy. That is not the way we should be talking to other people. We are sitting here talking about what these “vile people” are saying outside, yet the same members of Parliament who are complaining about them are saying the exact same things inside this chamber today. They are calling us racists. They are calling us Nazis.
We will not get anywhere until we stop bullying one another and calling each other names. That is the bottom line to this.
No one planned to find a plan. I heard one of the guys, one of the members for whom I have great respect, and watched him open his arms and say that we thought the motion to say that they had a plan was going to fix everything.
It was not going to fix everything, but it was going to give a plan. It was going to give hope. The fact is that I saw an entire bench of members of Parliament of the government get whipped, instead of representing their people and saying, “My neighbour Johnny called me, and Johnny is tired. His son is tired and has missed two years of school. My sister is a mother, a single parent. She teaches kindergarten and has her own children.” We are forgetting about those people when we are in these discussions. We are forgetting that people are tired and that people do want hope.
I recognize that this is a critical mass. I recognize that with health care measures, we have to make sure they are measures. I am asking the government to show us the metrics, show us the measurements and give us some idea of what the long game looks like, because everybody is tired.
Last Monday, when we asked that question and we were denied it, the fact is that people were just looking for answers and solutions. That is where I am today, and I know that half of the members of Parliament in this place today are looking for the exact same thing. Unfortunately, I am saying only half, because I have listened to some of this crap that is being said to us today. I will be honest: I am ashamed when listening to some of this rhetoric. How can we expect people to be better?
I listened to the member of Parliament for Pickering—Uxbridge wanting to read out a horrible email she got because it was so visceral. I welcome that member to politics, because we always get those. I have had people tell me to grow a thick skin. I do not believe in having to grow a thick skin when in politics. It is about being a good person, for goodness' sake. Therefore, when somebody starts reading something into the record to say how badly they were treated, they are not trying to say “look at me”. They are trying to pour on the gas and tell all the stuff they have been called.
I am concerned about where we are going. I am concerned, because I have been standing up for the rights of people. I am triple-vaccinated. I am proud of it, but I have been standing up for people in my riding, like a young woman I know who is 50 years of age. When she was young, she did have an interaction to a vaccination. She is scared of having another vaccination. I know her very well. She is scared of getting sick and missed Christmas with her family because there was somebody who was sick, and she did not want to make others sick. That is called personal responsibility, and I think that if we granted personal responsibility back to Canadians, they may just do that.
I look at my mom, who is 81 today, and I think of the fact that, when I come home from Ottawa, I have been sitting in an airport around hundreds of people and I have been on an airplane around hundreds of people. I take the first step and I choose not to go see my mom, because she is vulnerable. That is what Canadians do when they are given that sense of responsibility. We are losing that right now. We are losing this. The government has to tell us not to go see our moms. I am pretty sure this 50-year-old knows whether it is right or wrong to go see her mother, but we are being told by the government that this is the case.
I am going to end this with a simple story. I like to walk the streets of Ottawa. I do not mind walking by myself. I will not walk the streets of parts of my riding by myself, but when I am in Ottawa, I feel safe. My first week, when I was here, I dressed up every day, so I just looked like everybody else. Members would never find me all dressed up, but I wanted to look like everybody else because I was scared. I was worried about walking. Last week I started dressing normally and went back to being myself. Yesterday when I stopped and spoke to a guy who was in front of my apartment building, we talked for a few minutes. I finally asked him where he was from. He said he was from a little place outside of London. I said I was from London, and I asked him where. He said he was from Fingal. Fingal is where my brother plows the roads. Fingal is where my son has gone to see his friends.
We have to remember there is a whole bunch of regular people out there. We have to stop pushing them. We have to find solutions, and we have to do it now.
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- Feb/19/22 11:24:47 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, it seems to be the Conservative position that, because they are regular people out there, we have to stop pushing them. Her colleague from Grande Prairie—Mackenzie gave a very emotional speech about regular people and how badly they were feeling, the name-calling that has gone on and the social marginalization, etc. Indeed, some members of this House may well be responsible for that name-calling, etc. One would wish that political discourse was a little more mature than that, but it is what it is.
However, there seems to be a very strange leap in logic from calling people names to supporting sedition, blockades and all of the police activities that have been required in order to just clear our streets.
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- Feb/19/22 11:26:00 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, we have just proven that we can actually have conversations, because I just heard a question from the member without being called any names. I thank that member.
The fact of what he is referring to, when we are looking at this, is that there is nobody here saying that we approve of the blockades. It is just being said we have. When I say there are regular people out there, I have never said that everybody is regular. I am saying the majority of people out there protesting, or that were out there protesting before these new measures came in, were just absolutely normal people.
There are always going to be those people. No matter what kind of protest, there are always going to be those individuals. That is something I am very concerned with.
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