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Decentralized Democracy

House Hansard - 35

44th Parl. 1st Sess.
February 20, 2022 07:00AM
  • Feb/20/22 7:15:12 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it is unbelievable that the member opposite is defending the foreign-funded groups illegally occupying our city, illegally blocking our critical economic infrastructure and openly floating the rule of law. These foreign-funded groups have made a mockery of our law and have held our men and women in uniform in contempt. Does the member not agree with the interim Ottawa police chief, who said that this Emergencies Act provided the police with the resources they needed to handle the situation? Senator—
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  • Feb/20/22 7:16:07 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, perhaps I was not entirely clear with the member. We are a party of law and order. Some hon. members: Oh, oh! Mr. Larry Brock: Mr. Speaker, listen to the laughter. There is such disrespect for this particular member. I am trying to answer a question, and I have to be bothered by heckling and laughter. It speaks volumes to their character. In any event, I have made it abundantly clear that we disagreed with some of the tactics used by the organizers of this protest. As a lawyer, I follow and hold sacrosanct our charter rights of protest and assembly. This was a failed leadership exercise by the Prime Minister and, by extension, the former chief of Ottawa Police Service, who has now resigned. He had all the tools necessary under the Criminal Code, provincial statutes, municipal bylaws and court injunctions. Failed—
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  • Feb/20/22 8:15:06 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I am curious to know what the Bloc Québécois's position is, after polling shows that 72% of Quebeckers support the government's measures. Furthermore, this is not only a problem in Ottawa. As the member for Windsor West just explained, the threat to our borders and key infrastructure is not over. The Ottawa police chief explained this weekend how important the emergency measures were in dealing with the situation in our nation's capital. I am voting in favour of these measures because I want to provide adequate tools to our police forces, whose job is very difficult. When the member speaks to police officers in her community and to members of the Sûreté du Québec, how will she explain that she does not want them to have the same tools to ensure their safety during illegal blockades?
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  • Feb/20/22 8:18:50 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague, the member for Repentigny, the riding next to mine, for her excellent speech. Even before the Emergencies Act was invoked, she had already spoken about the fact that a whole series of situations had been resolved, including those at the Surrey border crossing and the Ambassador Bridge. Is the Emergencies Act just being used, to some extent, to hide the government's inaction with respect to the situation in Ottawa?
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  • Feb/20/22 8:28:39 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, let us hear from local law enforcement. In this case, it is Ottawa's chief of police, Steve Bell. He said, “Without the authorities provided to us through these pieces of legislation, we wouldn't be able to be doing the work we are today.” Does the Conservative Party disagree with the Ottawa chief of police?
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  • Feb/20/22 8:29:11 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I think it is important to realize that these protests and these demonstrations have not been limited to Ottawa. There have been similar protests and demonstrations all across the country, and every other municipal police force seems to have been able to deal with it in a satisfactory manner. The other police forces seem to know how to do crowd control, how to divert traffic and that sort of thing. I think it would be beneficial for the Ottawa police department to learn these best practices from other police departments and learn to do it how everyone else has.
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  • Feb/20/22 8:31:03 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it is lovely to finally have a chance to speak, having been here since 7 a.m., and I will be here until midnight. I am trying to make up my mind on how I am going to vote. With a sincere effort to remain respectful, I must tell the member that it does not help when the crisis in Ottawa is minimized to a problem of bouncy castles. It was an occupation. It caused millions and millions of dollars of damage to this city and its residents. Honking horns all night actually qualifies, under the Geneva Convention, as torture. One is not allowed to do that to prisoners. The people of Ottawa have been imprisoned by occupiers. They may not have known what they were doing. This is quite likely for many of them, especially the ones who seemed so surprised they were ultimately going to get arrested. Non-violent civil disobedience has a long tradition, which I will not go through, that includes knowing one is going to be arrested because one is breaking the law and has done this on principle. Could we not at least agree what occurred here in Ottawa was, from the moment those large 18-wheelers started occupying whole streets so the people of Ottawa could not go about their day-to-day lives, a crisis? It was badly handled and I will not disagree with that. If we look at the place where we were last week, how would we have solved that without the powers in the Emergencies Act, particularly to compel tow truck drivers? One of his colleagues on those benches directed me to section 129 of the Criminal Code, which I know is obstruction of a police officer, but it does not fit the circumstance.
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  • Feb/20/22 8:43:42 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I actually want to thank the member opposite, because a lot of what I have heard this morning has been very divisive in the name of non-divisiveness. While I may disagree with much of what was said, I actually appreciate that the tone did not go for that divisiveness. What I wanted to speak about, though, is the trucking piece. I worry about minimizing what we have seen here in Ottawa. I was speaking to a constituent whose father was travelling back and forth delivering produce and was stuck at the U.S. border. He was vaccinated, but he was stuck because of the protest. He was unable to get more gas and food for himself because of what was happening while he was on the other side of the border . Does the member not agree that the majority of truckers were not supporting what we saw in Ottawa, and in fact that what was happening in Ottawa was a massive disruption to the lives of people who live in this region?
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  • Feb/20/22 8:58:33 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, this was a failure of the government because it starts at the top. We have heard the government members on the other side blame every single party for this, but it starts with the tone and escalation of not treating Canadians as Canadians and pitting them against each other. We talked about the failure of the police here in Ottawa to take care of the situation. I said that throughout my whole speech. However, it was also the government's tone in not recognizing what was happening, not listening to Canadians and not ensuring that we start healing this nation instead of dividing it.
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  • Feb/20/22 8:59:21 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I will ask my Conservative colleague whether he agrees with me on two things—not that he has to. Especially since yesterday, I have noticed that the government has been constantly giving us the same two arguments. First, that a poll of 300 people shows that Quebeckers approve, and second, that the City of Ottawa has said that the use of the Emergencies Act was necessary. In the member’s opinion, why is the scope of the Emergencies Act being downplayed? What reason will we hear tomorrow in the House for why we should support invoking the Emergencies Act?
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  • Feb/20/22 10:16:36 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, I really struggle to understand how we can lay blame so indiscriminately on the federal government, when this protest started with a convoy that came across the country. We all knew it was coming, but did the Ottawa police know just how quickly it would set in and become entrenched? When we look back on this, all levels and orders of government will be able to see where they could have acted more quickly or taken the threat more seriously, but hindsight is always 20/20. To get real, as the member said, we need to look at where we are now and look forward to how we are going to deal with this national crisis. I agree that it is a severe crisis and we need to use every tool in the tool box to get it under control, because the confidence of Canadians in the rule of law—
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  • Feb/20/22 10:49:59 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, as we know, the Ottawa police asked for 1,800 extra police officers, but the federal government sent only a handful. Can the member explain that?
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  • Feb/20/22 10:50:17 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, I cannot explain it. I am as befuddled as he is. The Prime Minister says that he needed the Emergencies Act legislation because he did not have the tools, and yet with regard to the simple tools that are providing resources to the Ottawa police, those resources were never delivered by the Prime Minister, as the member has suggested. There was a better way of resolving—
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  • Feb/20/22 10:53:09 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, I will be splitting my time with the hon. member for Etobicoke—Lakeshore. We have reached a critical point, a fork in the road, in the history of Canadian democracy, and that needs to be acknowledged. There is no Canadian exceptionalism. If there is not any American exceptionalism, and we know that is one of the founding myths of the United States in terms of its democracy, it is also true that it is a founding myth of this country. However, that myth has been exposed. There is nothing inevitable about Canadian democracy. There is nothing guaranteed about it. The past few weeks have shown that. At the outset, before going into my remarks, let me thank law enforcement, here on the Hill, the Parliamentary Protective Service, for all the work they have done to ensure our security, also law enforcement, all law enforcement but especially in Ottawa those who have travelled from London. They have been here and they have been in Windsor in recent weeks. I deeply thank them for their service. The Emergencies Act is an extraordinary measure, it is true. Introduced in 1988, it has never been used. I heard my colleague opposite's remarks. I have great respect for him. We served on the finance committee together for a time. I have to take issue with many of his remarks, especially when he said that the Emergencies Act confers onto the government martial law powers. That is an extraordinary way to look at it. It is also the wrong way to look at it. As we know, and as the government has made clear, the Emergencies Act is subject to the charter, it is time limited, and it is geographically focused. On top of that and, interestingly, I have not heard very much from the Conservative Party on this, the act itself was introduced by a Progressive Conservative government in 1988 under Prime Minister Mulroney and under defence minister Perrin Beatty. The debates on that act are very interesting. People could go back in the Hansard and look at them. Time and again it was emphasized by that Conservative government that the charter is sacrosanct. There was an attempt at that time to ensure that the infringements of civil liberties that had taken place under the War Measures Act in World War I, in World War II and in the October crisis of 1970 would not be repeated. When I hear my colleagues talk about the Emergencies Act in the way that they do, as martial law or as war measures, there is nothing to that. If we are going to disagree, that is fine, but let us at least agree on a shared set of facts in order to have a meaningful discussion. For the purposes of the act, I would remind my colleagues, if they have not read the act itself and it sounds as if they have not on the opposite side, unfortunately, that under the act: A national emergency is an urgent and critical situation of a temporary nature that (a) seriously endangers the lives, health or safety of Canadians and is of such proportions or nature as to exceed the capacity or authority of a province to deal with it. Let us break that down to see if that first condition has been met, the “health or safety of Canadians.” For the residents of Ottawa, life has been completely upended in the past few weeks, seniors unable to go get groceries, families unable to take their kids to school and people unable to get to work, among other deep challenges. This is a crisis. Challenge does not even begin to describe what the people of Ottawa have faced. On top of that, “the capacity or authority of a province to deal with it.” We heard yesterday, very clearly, from Ottawa's interim police chief, Steve Bell, who made it very clear that the Emergencies Act has been instrumental in the success that police have made over the past couple of days in terms of dealing with the challenge of the convoy and everything it represents, and pushing it back. On top of that, we have the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police who have come out very strongly and agreed with the government's position on invoking the Emergencies Act. The Mayor of Ottawa made clear, time and again, that his government lacked the resources to deal with the crisis. The Premier of Ontario has made the same comment. The Premier of Ontario, a Conservative premier, has been very clear that he agrees with the invocation of the Emergencies Act. Under the act, I believe that section 3 paragraph (a), in terms of the definition of what an emergency constitutes, has been met. Section 3 paragraph (b) talks about an emergency being when there is a serious threat to “the ability of the Government of Canada to preserve the sovereignty, security and territorial integrity” of the country. We have seen several border point crossings blockaded over many days. Borders are about many things. These vital crossings ensure economic security for our country. They ensure jobs for people. When they were blockaded, people could not get to work. They were temporarily laid off. More than that, I think we have to understand borders in terms of sovereignty and security. A country that is unable to control its borders because of a blockade has a threat to its sovereignty in place and a threat to its security in place and a threat to its people's security in place, so for that reason, I believe the condition in paragraph (b) has been met. The government has elaborated that in the acts there are various ways an emergency is understood. What we have in front of us is a public order emergency. In the act, that is defined as “activities within or relating to Canada directed toward or in support of the threat or use of acts of serious violence against persons or property for the purpose of achieving a political, religious or ideological objective within Canada or a foreign state”. It is that latter part that is crucial: “achieving a political, religious or ideological objective”. The convoy's organizers had as one of their principal motives the overthrow of a democratically elected government. This was their ideological objective. For that reason I think the government's position that this meets the definition of a public order emergency is exactly right. I want to put my view on the record on why I think the invocation of the Emergencies Act is quite correct. Let me now deal with some broader issues in the abstract. First of all, regarding freedom and democracy in the charter, I absolutely agree that these are sacrosanct values that underpin our democracy. The charter is, in many ways, the founding document of Canada, even though it was only introduced in 1982. Many observers have made the quite correct argument that Canada only really became an independent country in 1982, because that is when the charter was put in place. This document, as we know, ensures freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, freedom of peaceful assembly and freedom of association. Without those freedoms, Canadians are not free. They ensure our ability as legislators to discuss and debate the issues of the day. They ensure the ability of our constituents to stand up and either agree or disagree. They ensure the ability of the press to carry out its work. How tragic and sad it has been to see that journalists have been treated in the way they have been. Maybe I will get to that if I have time a little later. Crucial to the charter, and the part that so many forget to pay attention to, is that section 1 makes clear there are limits to these freedoms. In section 1, there is a guarantee of “rights and freedoms set out in it subject only to such reasonable limits prescribed by law as can be demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society.” I hear, for example, my colleagues opposite, especially in the Conservative Party, talk about how the government has upended the freedom of Canadians. When I hear convoy participants—and I will not call them “protesters”, because what they did is not a protest; it is more of an occupation—say that the government has violated the charter, it becomes difficult to take seriously that they have taken section 1 seriously. Section 1 makes clear these limits. During a pandemic the government is quite right to introduce vaccine mandates, which, fair enough, could get in the way of some freedom, but there are limits on that. Peaceful assembly is not what we saw, and there is a reasonable limit in terms of—
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  • Feb/20/22 11:05:30 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, I got shivers listening to the member's speech because special legislation, in other words, the Emergencies Act, cannot be invoked every time there is an illegal protest. There are already rules in place in every province for these kinds of events. Consider, for example, the Maple Spring that happened in Quebec 10 years ago. According to my colleague, under the act, Ottawa could have come to Quebec City and shut it down. That is completely inconceivable. Does my colleague agree?
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  • Feb/20/22 11:36:57 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, let me be clear that invoking this act is an attack the Prime Minister is using on his political opponents. This is not about public safety, and the Prime Minister has changed his story many times. The blockades at the borders were resolved before this act was involved, and the protest in Ottawa is now over. Why does the government need to use these unprecedented powers? Why does the NDP want to side with the Liberals and be on the wrong side of history when it comes to the vote on Monday night?
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  • Feb/20/22 11:39:21 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for her question, but this is just more inflammatory rhetoric from the NDP. Why would the NDP support this? The party was founded on the principle of civil liberties, and the Canadian Civil Liberties Association is actually suing the government right now. It is unprecedented. I did spend time talking with my own constituents, whom I met up here on the first weekend the protest started in Ottawa. I did not see any of these things. What I saw was patriotic, flag-waving Canadians who had more joy than I have ever seen before. People were hugging in the streets. It was like Canada Day times a thousand, bigger than any Canada Day I have ever seen in this country. I will always be proud to represent Canadians and constituents in my riding who are patriotic and who are free to speak and assemble peacefully.
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  • Feb/20/22 11:55:52 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the member for Steveston—Richmond East. Today we are here to debate the decision by the Prime Minister to invoke the Emergencies Act with the purpose of bringing the unlawful protests in Ottawa to an end. After three weeks of exercising the right to protest, what has happened and what is happening in the streets of Ottawa must come to an end. Over the last week, the “freedom convoy” taking place in our nation’s capital has been on the minds of Canadians from coast to coast to coast. It has morphed into something it was not intended to be. It has been a demonstration organized by folks whose views that I believe at their core do not align with the Canadian values we are so proud of. Respecting the right of freedom of speech and the freedom to protest, I was disheartened by the way events over the last three weeks have unfolded. I have spent the last several weeks reflecting on how far we have come in this pandemic and how, over the past two years, we have all had to learn to live with COVID-19. I will be the first to say that it has been challenging for all. Fortunately, across the country and in my riding of Cape Breton—Canso there have been thousands of dedicated, essential workers who, at a time when the world had come to a standstill, continued their work to ensure we were all able to live as normal a life as possible. All workers in Canada are important and have an essential role in our communities and, if may, I would like to acknowledge as many as I can here, workers who continued to show up despite the challenges of the past two years. I thank the first responders who never stopped answering the calls for help, to the corrections staff for maintaining our jails, to the doctors, nurses and long-term care workers, pharmacists and all health care workers who show up every day. Let us not forget the amazing work of the cleaning, maintenance and kitchen staff in our hospitals and long-term care facilities. Thanks go to the home care workers who continue to go into the homes of those in our community who need that extra support. Also, thanks to the farmers for making sure we have food to eat and manufacturing employees who have been making PPE. I thank the mechanics, plumbers, electricians and carpenters who can get calls at any time of day or night and show up to fix problems in our homes, hospitals and everywhere in between. Thanks to the tow truck drivers who help us on the side of the road when we need it. Thanks to those who make sure our water and waste-water systems continue to function and those who collect our solid waste. Thanks to the public works crews for keeping our roads clear and salted. Thanks to the contractors for fixing and replacing our bridges and buildings, particularly after major weather events. I thank the early childhood educators, teachers and all staff who care for and teach our children. They reached out, even when the schools were closed, to help with virtual learning and to check in on children and families when they knew they needed their support. Thanks to those who work in retail and customer service, from big box stores to local community businesses and grocery stores, and the owners and employees who continued to do everything they could to keep the shelves stocked, always adapting to the endless changes to safety guidelines and to help people access the items they needed when they needed them. I thank the truckers. Let us remember that when we were all staying home, many of them were going to where infections were the highest to bring home the food and supplies we needed. It is also important to note, as has been mentioned here today, that more than 90% of truckers are vaccinated and delivering goods across the continent as I speak. Thanks to the fishers who went out with their crews with so much uncertainty in their markets and thanks to the Canadian Coast Guard that is always there to answer the call and patrol our coasts. I thank the pilots and flight crews who went to other countries to bring our fellow Canadians home, bring us PPE when we needed it and for taking supplies to countries as we worked together to end this global pandemic. Thanks to the Canadian Armed Forces that helped across this country in countless roles, from vaccinations to staffing long-term care facilities. Thanks to those in our financial sector, banks, credit unions and many others, who supported where they could, adapting to new government programs at record speed to help their customers and clients. I thank the local arts and culture sector that has been hit hard and continues to find innovative ways to use their talents to keep us entertained. Mental health is as critically important as physical health and for this we certainly need our culture and arts sector. To those in the oil and gas and mining sectors, I thank them for making sure we have oil to heat our homes, gas to put in our vehicles and minerals as the raw materials for so much of our manufacturing. I thank those working in our telecommunications sector, those who help with the purchasing of cell phones in-store, and those installing and repairing towers and lines to keep us online, and everything they do to help keep us connected. I also thank the Nova Scotia Power employees, who ensure that they keep the power on and who repair the lines in some of the worst conditions imaginable. Finally, I thank seniors and seniors groups such as the Reserve Mines Seniors and Pensioners Club and the Pensioners Association, which are there to ensure seniors receive the help when they need it. I realize there are so many more people to thank in so many essential jobs, but I hope this helps people realize how intertwined our society is. One thing this pandemic has taught us, or it has certainly taught me, is that we could not do the job we do and could not live a life with some trace of normalcy without everyone else doing their job. We cannot allow a small minority to cause us to forget our hard work over the last two years and the impact it has made. There have been millions of Canadians who have selflessly gone to work every day knowing they play a role in protecting their communities. In my opinion, that is what it means to be Canadian. We all need to do our part, which is why I ask everyone to please get vaccinated. We are all living, everyone in the House and every Canadian, with COVID fatigue. We are tired of restrictions and the negativity associated with this pandemic. We are all concerned about the impacts on mental health. We all want this to be over, and this is the way to get there, but I will tell members how we do not get there. We do not get there by threats, conspiracy theories and violence toward others. We get there by following public health guidelines, getting vaccinated, listening to the science and doing our part to keep our communities safe and healthy. When I look at what has happened in Ottawa over the past several weeks, I am disappointed and disheartened. When I think of the intimidation tactics that have been used against parliamentarians and their staff, civil servants, hotel staff, those working in places like food banks, and all the citizens of Ottawa, I am disappointed and disheartened. When I see hate, disrespect and misinformation being spread from coast to coast to coast, I get angry, and quite frankly, I am sad about that. We have seen examples of these attacks on our democracy and what they can do. We are past the point of whataboutisms or that it will blow over. It is here. It is outside these doors, and we need to call out this behaviour as we see it. I really believe this is about democracy. We have been looking at this all wrong. It is not about traditional left, right and centre ideologies. We are talking about democracy and obstructionism. We are talking about democracy and intimidation, democracy and the viewpoint that the rule of law should not apply. That starts off small, and we have seen this play out in the United States, but it is growing. We have seen how it grew here in the last three weeks. When there are some people in positions of authority going out and giving a wink-wink, nudge-nudge to people who are protesting unlawfully, it is a significant problem. Again, it happened south of the border, and it cannot happen here. I want to call that behaviour out clearly. It is times like this I think about my dad. My father was in charge of mine rescue, and he would always say that, in times of struggle, crisis reveals character. Let me be very clear that we will not allow these demonstrations on Parliament Hill to intimidate our democratic and legislative process. Despite what has been happening just outside the walls of the chamber, each of us has continued to do the work we were sent here to do. We have been here in Ottawa working hard for our constituents, whether those are my constituents in Cape Breton—Canso or those across the country. For seniors who have been staying at home following public health guidelines, for the folks whose mental health has been impacted by the pandemic, for the businesses, not-for-profits and community organizations that have adapted to the pandemic, for the seasonal industries that have been hit the hardest, and for young people in particular, who have missed out on so much time for sports, school and with their friends, we are here in this House, in Canada’s House of Commons, doing the work for them. That will not stop. On Monday, I will be voting in favour of the Prime Minister’s decision to invoke the Emergencies Act. What we are seeing here in Ottawa, what we saw in Coutts and what we continue to see in Windsor, and even at my constituency office in Nova Scotia, shows that the health and safety of Canadians is at risk. Frankly, I believe our democracy is at risk. Before I finish, I would like to express my great—
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  • Feb/20/22 12:07:00 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, in fact, no, I did not look to the Emergencies Act for that particular issue and the challenge that Canadians faced. However, when we look at this particular challenge, the fact that it is coast to coast to coast and that it is, quite frankly, heavily invested in by American interest groups, we understand that the threat to democracy is imminent, whether it is in Ottawa, Coutts or Windsor. Situations dictate very timely responses. That is what we are doing, and that is what we are going to continue to do.
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  • Feb/20/22 12:07:51 p.m.
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Qujannamiik, Uqaqtittiji. Madam Speaker, this morning, I was relieved to see how the physical entrenchment of the extremists' acts were dismantled in Ottawa, though I was dismayed to see the extremists' ideologies expand to Surrey, British Columbia, as we were shown in the news this morning that protests against important public health measures were going on. Even with the physical entrenchment that was allowed to happen removed because of the Emergencies Act, are there continuing threats to our democracy and to the everyday lives of Canadians?
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