44th Parl. 1st Sess.
February 19, 2022 07:00AM
- Feb/19/22 7:33:35 a.m.
- Watch
Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague from Abitibi—Témiscamingue for his speech. I would also like to thank the member for Rimouski-Neigette—Témiscouata—Les Basques, who spoke earlier.
My colleagues did a great job of contextualizing the big difference between the events of 1970 and the 1988 act invoked by this government. This act, which was drafted and passed by Brian Mulroney's Progressive Conservative government and sponsored by Minister Perrin Beatty, sets out very specific conditions. For one thing, the act cannot be used for partisan purposes. It is to be used only if it meets criteria that this government, unfortunately, has not met.
I would like to ask my colleague a question.
Ottawa was under siege for 17 days. For 17 days, the Prime Minister did absolutely nothing. In fact, on February 11, he said the police had all the tools they needed to respond. Three days later, he woke up and said this act had to be invoked.
Can the member help us understand the Liberal prime minister's completely irresponsible behaviour?
186 words
All Topics
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Feb/19/22 8:35:58 a.m.
- Watch
Mr. Speaker, I sincerely thank my hon. colleague from Simcoe North for his remarks. We may have just heard the most constructive and balanced speech we will hear in this debate. I find this very comforting, and it gives me confidence for the future. I offer my sincere congratulations to my hon. colleague.
I would like to hear more from my colleague. Basically, this is about our democracy and the message we are sending to Canadians. I wonder if my colleague could talk about how we should be communicating with Canadians and what message we want to send, particularly through the media. Is the government being selective in that regard? In the current context, is the government using the media, the people and the army for political purposes?
128 words
All Topics
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Feb/19/22 8:49:49 a.m.
- Watch
Mr. Speaker, my hon. colleague talked about how this piece of legislation does not take away freedom of speech or freedom of assembly, but we have come to a point where people from all over the country felt that they did not have a voice. We are at a point where we have used the biggest thing that the government can do to silence the voices of Canadians who are here to be heard.
What are the first, second and third things that the government did to avoid getting to the place we are at now with this piece of legislation?
101 words
All Topics
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Feb/19/22 9:06:41 a.m.
- Watch
Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for Egmont for his speech, which I would describe as quite constructive.
His speech was much more constructive than those of many of his colleagues, who seem to want to spread propaganda. I can also say that one other member has been constructive, and that is the member for Hull—Aylmer. I encourage all Liberal government members to adopt that same attitude.
I would like to ask the member the same question as the one my colleague from Rivière-des-Mille-Îles asked.
Do the government MPs realize the consequences for people whose bank accounts have been frozen?
I get the impression that the government is making all this up as it goes and has no answer to that question. It seems like the government cannot understand the consequences of the measures it has implemented.
Could the member for Egmont enlighten me on that? If not, could he get back to me by Monday night?
165 words
All Topics
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Feb/19/22 9:54:06 a.m.
- Watch
Mr. Speaker, my colleague made some important points. It is important to talk about history so we do not make the same mistakes over and over. It is important to know why the Emergencies Act was created. I think it is important to understand the reasons why it was used previously. I talked about that in my speech, and I will continue to reiterate the facts.
66 words
All Topics
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Feb/19/22 10:01:10 a.m.
- Watch
Madam Speaker, I am rising on a point of order.
I am sure it was an oversight by the person who wrote the speech for the hon. member, but it is the common practice of this House to refer to members by their constituency or by the title they hold and not by their proper names.
56 words
All Topics
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Feb/19/22 10:35:25 a.m.
- Watch
Madam Speaker, I would like to thank my hon. colleague for his speech. I appreciate his candour in voicing his concerns. I also appreciate the fact that he is open to the opinions of others.
I too am not 100% certain that this is the absolute best course of action, but there is one thing I sincerely recognize. I hope my hon. colleague can tell me about it. I do not want to trivialize the decisions we are making, but would my hon. colleague agree that we are somewhat trivializing the situation in terms of the extremist voices we are hearing in our politics, both in Canada and around the world?
Is it not time to set some limits before things get out of hand?
126 words
All Topics
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Feb/19/22 10:36:32 a.m.
- Watch
Madam Speaker, I would never trivialize hate speech. I want to make sure that my hon. colleague knows that.
My colleague stated that he too was not 100% certain that we were making the right decision. That is what he just said.
However, when it is time to make a decision as important as invoking the Emergencies Act, it is vital to be 100% sure that it is the right decision.
72 words
All Topics
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Feb/19/22 10:39:54 a.m.
- Watch
Madam Speaker, at the risk of repeating myself, I would never minimize hate speech. That is just not the kind of person I am.
I am worried about the future. I do not know whether, say, 10 years from now, the Reform Party will rise from the ashes like a phoenix and take over the Government of Canada. I do not know if that will happen in 10 years.
I also do not know whether, 10 years from now, when they look at what is happening now and what the government did in 2022 with the Emergencies Act, they will use it against an environmental movement blocking a street. I do not want that.
That is why MPs absolutely have to prevent the invocation of this act.
127 words
All Topics
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Feb/19/22 11:21:32 a.m.
- Watch
Order. I must interrupt the member.
It seems that there was an interpretation issue, but it has now been fixed.
The hon. member for Joliette may continue his speech.
29 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Feb/19/22 12:51:07 p.m.
- Watch
Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for her speech.
First, if I may, I would like to recognize the presence, courage, bravery and judgment of members of the various security forces who are on the ground in front of Parliament right now. My husband is a retired police officer and I can assure the House that it takes a lot of judgment and—
64 words
All Topics
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Feb/19/22 12:54:41 p.m.
- Watch
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for her question and her intervention.
On this side of the House, I am not familiar with anyone who has taken pictures with people waving swastikas and other things like that. That simply has not happened.
We have to realize that, as I mentioned in my speech, there are people who have views and who have said and done things that are absolutely deplorable. We denounce them. That is not everyone who is involved.
I have walked the streets here, talking to people who are teachers and who have had enough with children having such mental health problems that they cannot handle them anymore. There are people who have lost their jobs. They are everyday people—
123 words
All Topics
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Feb/19/22 2:12:55 p.m.
- Watch
I am sorry to interrupt the member. She is close to me, and I want to be able to hear her full comments. I want to make sure members respect each other's right to speak in the House of Commons.
There is lots of time to ask questions and make comments during that part of the debate. I want to make sure that, when a member is presenting a speech, I can hear them as well. Let us try to keep it down.
84 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Feb/19/22 3:04:51 p.m.
- Watch
Mr. Speaker, as a preamble I would like to say I am not sure I agree with taking events from the past and comparing them directly, because every one is different and each context is different. I would not compare a natural disaster to a conscious, coordinated movement, which is what we have seen. There has been coordination between what happened in Coutts and what has happened here.
I enjoyed the member's speech. It was rigorous and analytical. My question for him is this. Abstracting from the so-called reason for the “freedom convoy”, which was trucker mandates and not really the reason, is he not concerned that there is a longer-term movement in parts of the country? For example, the same organizers were involved in the United We Roll convoy. Also, I read somewhere that the Facebook page for Canada Unity was registered in 2019.
150 words
All Topics
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Feb/19/22 3:34:55 p.m.
- Watch
Mr. Speaker, I really enjoyed my hon. colleague's speech. I appreciate my colleague in general, because I know he is sincere, honest and passionate.
However, we have different opinions on the issue at hand today.
Does he believe that all the legislative tools available to the various levels of government were used before the Emergencies Act was invoked today? If so, can he tell me which ones were used?
70 words
All Topics
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Feb/19/22 6:32:28 p.m.
- Watch
It seems that it was loud enough to bother the members who were trying to listen to the speech, so I request that members keep as quiet as possible and respect when other people are speaking.
The hon. member for Cumberland—Colchester.
43 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Feb/19/22 6:49:19 p.m.
- Watch
Commending the police is one thing, but I would also like to commend the interpreters, who will have to work for three or four days because of this totally pointless debate. They are doing an outstanding job. They will be spending the weekend here, and it is very important to salute them.
I would also like to commend the journalists who are outside in the middle of the crowd with their microphones. They are being insulted and shoved around. It is not easy for them. They have done a terrific job.
To begin my speech, even though I have been speaking for five minutes already, I would like to quote British writer Ernest Benn, who said something rather interesting that applies to the crisis we are in right now. He said: “Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it wrongly and applying unsuitable remedies.” I suspect that Ernest Benn did not like politicians very much.
If we apply that to the current crisis, if we say that politics is the art of looking for trouble, we might say that the government started it by allowing the truckers to come here in the first place.
Take Quebec City. They knew the truckers were coming, so they took necessary steps, such as setting up barricades around the National Assembly and telling the truckers where they could park. The mayor of Quebec City even told them he wanted to hear what they had to say and they had the right to be there because their actions were legitimate in a democracy. They were told they had the right to speak, but they were asked to do so without paralyzing the assembly and keeping people from sleeping.
Did Quebec have an emergency measures act at the time? The answer is no. Quebec handled the situation very well.
Again, it is the art of looking for trouble and finding it. How did the Prime Minister manage to find trouble? By letting them set up shop. If Ottawa had done like Quebec City from the start, it would never have come to this.
I also said it is the art of diagnosing trouble wrongly. The Prime Minister's strategy for the last three weeks has been to stay at the cottage and hope things will sort themselves out and the truckers will eventually leave. Well, they did not leave.
Lastly, politics is the art of applying unsuitable remedies, which in this case is the nuclear option of the Emergencies Act. I believe that Mr. Benn was right about that, because national emergency measures were not needed at the Ambassador Bridge. They were not needed in Coutts. They were not needed in Sarnia. They were not needed in Fort Erie, Vancouver, or Emerson, to name them all.
If I park my car in the middle of the road in Longueuil and leave the engine running for an hour or two, eventually a police officer is going to come along and tell me I am violating a bylaw. If I tell the officer that I feel like staying there anyway, another officer will surely show up to issue a fine three or four hours later. If I still say that I am going to stay there, they will tow my car two days later. There are laws for that. National emergency measures are not needed to move some trucks. That is what we saw here.
I listened carefully to Prime Minister Trudeau when he gave his speech to present this legislation—
592 words
All Topics
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Feb/19/22 8:12:57 p.m.
- Watch
Mr. Speaker, I liked almost all of the member's speech. She sits on the defence committee with me, and I want her to comment on the violence of language. She and I have heard testimony recently about campaigns of misinformation and disinformation perpetrated by state actors and non-state actors. In my judgment, there is a direct correlation between the violence of language and that element of intimidation. I would be interested in her thoughts connecting those two ideas.
80 words
All Topics
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Feb/19/22 10:18:25 p.m.
- Watch
Madam Speaker, first of all, I want to thank my colleague for his speech, which clearly explained the balance between freedoms and social order. However, he criticizes the government for not having acted quickly enough.
Could my colleague tell me what he would say to those who believe that the actions of the last few days constitute a crackdown and a denial of the right to protest?
67 words
All Topics
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Feb/19/22 11:27:21 p.m.
- Watch
Madam Speaker, it is exactly what she has asked. One of the biggest questions I had today was about how I was going to write my speech without just pointing my finger in blame. It is really easy to blame people in this situation.
We know things should have been done 23 days ago. We know that the intel was there over 30 days ago. I spoke to a person that I have great respect for today. The police are doing a job, not because it is violent out there and there is criminal activity. They are doing a job because we are in a political crisis right now. That is the job they are doing. We have angry Canadians out there, and we are in a political crisis because of the leadership.
What would I do? I would start being a leader. That is what I expect from the government.
151 words
All Topics
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
