44th Parl. 1st Sess.
May 17, 2022 10:00AM
- May/17/22 10:13:40 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I have a few petitions to present to the House.
The first is about National Defence's excessive use of a temporary road on the Plains of Abraham that negatively impacts the quality of life of individuals, of the people of Quebec City who live near the site. It degrades the heritage site. The temporary road has been in use since 2013 and is still open.
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- May/17/22 10:56:51 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, it is pretty sad to see the Bloc members so angry because they sit in the corner and nobody listens to them any more.
The fact is, we got the largest investment in public health care since Tommy Douglas and, oh boy, does that upset a group that does not want any investments at the federal level, so now they are going to claim that us taking the Liberals on is somehow puppetry.
We are seeing that the Bloc members are not even puppets. They are just an audience, and as an audience, they are not even participating properly and doing their work. They came here to defend Quebec, but we do not see them defending Quebec. It was the New Democrats who stood up to defend the extra seats in the House. They just stood to say, “Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.”
An hon. member: Oh, oh!
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- May/17/22 12:21:15 p.m.
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I understand, Madam Speaker.
The government's plan includes Canada's hydrogen strategy. The government plans to invest a ton of money to produce hydrogen from natural gas, which is what the oil and gas sector is calling for.
The only natural resources industry that captures carbon naturally is the forestry industry. In my region, Saguenay—Lac‑Saint‑Jean, this industry contributes more to the government than the government invests in all of Quebec.
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- May/17/22 12:37:19 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, this is the first time today that I have had an opportunity to contribute to this debate, which is crucial for the Green Party of Canada.
I totally agree with the hon. member for Mirabel and with the points he raised. I would like to say that only the Quebec government has remained true to the IPCC's principles and concerns. The Quebec government is the only government to have said no to fossil fuel energy and GNL Quebec. I will continue in English.
It is only Quebec that has signed the Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance globally. I am proud to be a Canadian, but the only part of this country that is trying to protect my future is in Quebec City.
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- May/17/22 12:38:07 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, no one is perfect, but I am obviously very proud of the efforts made by Quebec and Quebeckers.
I am even more proud that you, too, are a member from Quebec, Madam Speaker. When we achieve sovereignty, you will be with us in Quebec's National Assembly.
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- May/17/22 2:30:29 p.m.
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- Re: Bill C-5
Mr. Speaker, we are seeing more and more shootings by street gangs. There were three in Laval last week.
The Quebec association of police chiefs does not support Bill C‑5, and for good reasons. In addition, the Montreal police service reports that there has been an incident involving a firearm every two days since the beginning of 2022.
Does this mean that the Prime Minister follows expert advice only when it suits him?
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- May/17/22 2:39:03 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, we recently saw a number of Liberal MPs protesting against Quebec's language laws and calling them discriminatory.
However, the real discrimination is at the federal level, and francophones are the victims. Francophones are systematically under-represented in the federal public service, where anglophones hold 81% of the positions. At the very highest levels, everything is done in English. Interestingly, there are no Liberal MPs out in the streets condemning that.
Why?
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- May/17/22 2:40:21 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, this government appointed a unilingual anglophone as Lieutenant Governor of New Brunswick, the only bilingual province in Canada.
A New Brunswick court has ruled that this appointment is unconstitutional, but—surprise, surprise—the federal government has announced that it will be appealing the decision. The Liberals want to spend public money to preserve their right to make unilingual English appointments in Canada's only bilingual province.
Instead of castigating Quebec, will the Liberal government stop its war against French?
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- May/17/22 2:57:42 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, we have given police forces the tools to combat gang violence. We will continue to invest in our police forces.
I have had several very constructive conversations with my counterparts in Quebec, more specifically, Minister Guilbault, Mayor Plante and Mayor Marchand. We will continue working closely with Quebec. It is very important.
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- May/17/22 3:06:05 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, addressing the labour shortages is a top priority for our government, and that is why we are putting additional resources toward processing cases, including work permits, to ensure that people have access to the workers they need. I would advise the hon. member that the average processing time for work permits in the province of Quebec today is 33 days, which is among the very best available in Canada.
We are going to continue to do everything we can to get businesses the workers they need. Our economy depends on it, and it is is going to help kick-start our economic recovery from the COVID-19 recession.
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- May/17/22 3:08:54 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the environment is a very important issue for my constituents in Longueuil—Charles-LeMoyne.
Yesterday we announced a major investment in the biomethanization facilities in Varennes, which serve the city of Longueuil, among others.
Could the minister tell us more about this project and what it would do for the Quebec economy and for our environment?
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Madam Speaker, I am proud to rise today to speak to this bill introduced by the member for Ottawa South. As everyone knows, this bill would designate the month of April as Arab heritage month. The Bloc Québécois supports the principle of this bill. We are pleased to acknowledge the extraordinary contributions that the Arab community has made to Quebec society.
The majority of Canadians who report Arab origin live in Quebec. They are primarily of North African and Lebanese descent. This has to do with the colonial past of many Arab countries, which were French colonies. Many people in these countries speak French as a first or second language, in addition to Arabic.
Quebec's shared history with the Arab community started with the arrival of Ibrahim Abou Nader, the first immigrant from Mashreq to settle in Canada. Ibrahim Abou Nader was originally from Zahleh, in what is now Lebanon. After a short stay in New York, he decided to travel to Montreal after hearing that they spoke French there, because he was more familiar with French than with English. He married a French woman in 1890, and their daughter, born in 1892, was the first baby of Syrian descent born in Quebec and therefore in Canada.
I would point out that, where the text of the bill refers to Arab Canadians and Arab Canadian communities, it paints a picture of populations of Arab origin in Quebec and Canada that does not reflect reality because it suggests that the Arab diaspora makes up a uniform community all across Canada.
Indeed, many people, Westerners in particular, tend to think that all Arabs are Muslim, that all Muslims are Arab and that all Arabs speak that language. However Arabs practice different religions. Consider the Lebanese community, which is really big in Quebec and whose members are more likely to be Catholic. Consider the fact that most of the world's Muslims are not from Arab countries but from countries such as Indonesia, India and Pakistan. Consider that many people of diverse Arab backgrounds speak French, which helps explain why they choose to settle in Quebec and why this bill needs to take Quebec's uniqueness into account.
Of course, Quebec and Canada's respective national realities have had an impact on how successive waves of immigrants have been welcomed over the years. While Canadian immigration laws and policies have been applied throughout Canada and have influenced the pace of Arab immigration in what could be called the golden age of immigration, Quebec's explicit desire to strengthen its ties with Maghreb countries and to promote francophone immigration, expressed since the Quiet Revolution, has necessarily had an effect on the trajectory of Arab immigration to Quebec that sets it apart from the rest of Canada.
More importantly, the linguistic and cultural factor is enough to preclude equating the journey of Quebeckers of Arab origin with that of Canadians of Arab origin. In fact, they do not integrate into the same society. Immigrant populations that settle in Canada outside Quebec are integrating into Canadian society, in other words, into the English Canadian majority. Immigrant populations that settle in Quebec integrate into Quebec society, in other words, into the francophone majority. Accordingly, the back-and-forth movement and the important relationships between Arab migrants on both sides of the North American border explain why a certain number of pioneers pass through an American city before settling in Canada, especially in Quebec.
Given the historical factors that explain why many Arabic populations already share francophone culture, it is only natural that the integration pathway differs depending on whether it is experienced in Quebec or in Canada.
It is perfectly possible and desirable to recognize the cultural heritage of people of Arabic origin in Quebec and Canada. That is why the Bloc Québécois intends to support the principle of this bill. It is not necessary to lump in Quebeckers with Canadians as though they were part of one and the same community, the Arab Canadians, as the bill seems to wrongly suggest.
Abitibi—Témiscamingue, more specifically Val-d'Or, is another region affected by the most recent wave of immigration. It reflects the Quebec situation on immigration on a smaller scale. There are a lot of francophone nationals from different continents. As we see, newcomers of Arabic origin are more likely to settle in major centres and less so in the regions. Despite the omnipresence of francophones, Val‑D'Or has had a multitude of cultural communities from its earliest days.
The arrival and the number of cultural communities changed with the times. We can even list different waves of immigration in Val-d'Or, which contributed to its cultural richness, so unique to Quebec. However, there are very few people of Arab origin in Abitibi‑Témiscamingue. According to 2016 statistics, there were 330 people in Abitibi‑Témiscamingue whose main mother tongue was Arabic.
Since 2010, Muslims who settled in this riding have been able to rely on the Val-d'Or Muslim cultural association. It has created an environment conducive to the practice of their faith by providing a mosque, an imam, courses on the Koran and the Fiqh, seminars and more. Another one of the association's missions is to pass on to and preserve the culture in the minds of new generations by providing an environment suitable for teaching the Muslim faith and the Arabic language. This fosters the development of youth with a Muslim identity while facilitating the process of integration into current society. The association also offers families the opportunity to meet and bond with other community members, which helps them integrate and feel a little less distant from their family and country of origin.
Finally, this association enables Muslims who have settled here to celebrate holidays and special occasions collectively in a suitable place. This strengthens their community's ties with those around them and makes it easier for them integrate into society, through cultural sharing activities organized by the association. Thanks to this association, there is a project under way to build an Islamic centre in Val-d'Or. I would like to underscore the important work being done by this association and to thank its members.
As we saw earlier, the history of Arab populations in Quebec is more than 130 years old, but it is important to note that the majority of these people have immigrated more recently. For example, North African immigration to Montreal began in the late 1950s and intensified in the 1990s. In the wake of decolonization and the rise of Arab nationalism in North Africa, and then the Quiet Revolution in Quebec, the pace of North African immigration to Quebec intensified. The Quebec government wanted to give priority to francophone immigrants as early as the 1960s. In this sense, people from North Africa were an attractive target for immigration. Language, which is key to integration, can be an excellent advantage.
I know that my colleague from Rivière-des-Mille-Îles mentioned this in his speech during the first hour of debate on this bill, but it is important to remember that Quebec reaches its own agreements on student mobility at the university level with various countries. For instance, the co-operation agreement between the Quebec government and the Algerian government in the field of education and training promotes financial support for students, exchanges between higher education institutions, the circulation of scientific and technological information, and so on.
According to the 2016 Canadian census, 368,730 people in Quebec reported being of Arab origin. In other words, a huge proportion of the people of Arab origin living in Canada, nearly half, are Quebeckers. Whether they speak Arabic or not, Arab Canadians can and do maintain ties to their cultural heritage through traditional cuisine, music, dance, news media, travel to their country of origin and correspondence with friends and family members who are still back home.
In general, first-generation immigrants are more likely to stay connected to their cultural heritage than their Canadian-born compatriots. However, even though many Canadians of Arab origin have essentially lost contact with their past, the majority of them are aware of their ethnic origin and proud of it. April will become Arab heritage month to focus on recognizing the contributions that Quebeckers and Canadians of Arab origin make to our society every day.
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Madam Speaker, good evening to you, colleagues and the viewers who are tuning in to this important debate.
After almost 18 years in the House, I know that sometimes there are moments when the House truly comes together. Sometimes there are moments when Parliament can showcase its ability to come together, overcome partisanship and pursue something that I believe all of us here find to be good, fine, worthy of pursuing and timely.
I am very proud of the fact that I was lucky enough to obtain an early opportunity in a random draw to help bring us together in this Parliament through this bill. At a time when there are powerful forces in the House and in Canadian society seeking to pull us apart, and we all know there are many, I hope this bill can serve as a force that pulls us together, because as sure as day follows night, we need that in Canada today.
I would like to thank my Bloc Québécois colleague who gave an excellent overview—in the context of both Quebec and Canada—of the history of North African immigration, student mobility and other elements in Quebec society.
I would like to thank my colleague from the NDP, the member for Windsor West, who talked about how we were hopefully harmonizing our April Arab heritage month here in Canada with the one that was decreed by President Biden in the United States. He went on to explain the involvement of the Arab Canadian population in the auto sector on both sides of the border. He recounted the geographical diaspora and the religious diversity of Arab Canadians, all of which, of course, is true.
I would like to thank the member for Scarborough Centre, who represents a large and proud Arab community. She spoke about trades, professions, restaurants, butchers and grocers, and highlighted the contributions of Syrian refugees, who are so incredibly proud to have reached our shores and become Canadians.
I would like to thank my colleague, the MP for Saskatoon West, who spoke honestly and earnestly about the personalities and warmth of Arab Canadians in his own constituency and his province. Most importantly, he debunked misperceptions about Arab Canadians, saying the bill can “shine a light on the dark spaces”. That is an important quote because the Arab Canadian community is dealing with racism and anti-Arab sentiments and we will have to wrestle this to the ground together. He spoke about the historical truths, the learning, the hospitals and the inventions, like the clock, all of which were devised by Arab human beings.
I would like to thank my colleague, the deputy House leader, for highlighting the breadth of contributions in every sector in Winnipeg and Manitoba. He talked about more educational opportunities to break down barriers and foster understanding at a time when we really need it in this country. We need to come together because, as my mother used to say to her 10 children, this country is wealthy beyond belief. My mother, who grew up in abject poverty, was never talking about money. She was talking about culture, dance types, food, language, music, literature, dress, traditions, depth and richness. All of this is reflected in the bill.
We are trying to recognize this wealth in the Arab Canadian community, celebrate all of it in the Arab Canadian community, nurture the talent and passion of Arab Canadians and, finally, deploy Arab Canadians on behalf of this country and the rest of the world as we help to continue to build the finest, most inclusive, most accepting and most celebrating culture and country in the world. It is high time to move beyond the notion of tolerating anyone. It is now entirely a question of celebrating each other, and that is what the bill is trying to do.
I am very proud to have the support of 35 Canadian community groups and organizations. I am very hopeful that with the support of all members of the House, we will be able to achieve this on behalf of our Arab Canadian neighbours.
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Madam Speaker, I think members will find it ironic that we are getting lectures on indignation in that Oscar-winning performance on the other side of the aisle. We should never underestimate our Conservative friends' ability to manufacture outrage and indignation, and talk about loyal opposition and democracy.
We think that Bill C-14, which is the subject of the discussion for the next 25 minutes and not the fabricated outrage of my friend on the other side of the aisle, is about ensuring that every province, including the Speaker's province of Quebec, maintains the electoral representation and the number of seats it had in the House of Commons in 2021. In other words, no province should see a reduction in its representation in the House of Commons.
I was very encouraged, when this bill was first debated, that the Conservative Party showed support for this legislation. Members spoke in favour of the bill as an important gesture recognizing the unique position that the province of Quebec occupies in the Canadian federation, and recognizing that every province should be able to benefit from a grandfather clause, similar to what former prime minister Brian Mulroney did in 1985. We are suggesting in this legislation that the House of Commons and the Senate approve a similar amendment that would allow us to have a 2021 grandfather clause.
That is the subject of this conversation. The Conservatives say they want to support the bill, but they do everything they can to vandalize the legislative process and make sure that Parliament cannot actually proceed to a vote. What we are saying tonight is that it is time for members to stand in their places and vote on this legislation, and we are very confident that the Conservatives, who manufactured this outrage, will in the end stand up and vote for this process. We are making this possible for them tonight.
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Madam Speaker, I agree with my colleague from Thérèse-De Blainville that this bill deserves to be debated. That is precisely what we tried to do last night. However, we saw the official opposition, the Conservatives, move bogus motions to force 30‑minute bells and votes to ensure that there would be no debate, even though they said they wanted to have one.
The best way to continue to debate is to ensure that there are no endless procedural games that prevent Parliament from discussing and debating this important issue, as my colleague from Thérèse-De Blainville indicated.
We look forward to seeing the debate continue, for example at the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs or even when Bill C‑14 comes back, I hope, to the House of Commons at report stage and third reading. We will then have many opportunities to hear our colleagues debate this bill.
I think that our colleague from Thérèse-De Blainville understands full well that this has absolutely nothing to do with Motion No. 11; rather, it is a way to ensure that the provinces in our federation, including her province of Quebec, keep their number of seats. I know that the Bloc Québécois is in favour of maintaining the 78 seats for the Province of Quebec. That is what we are trying to do, in due course.
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Madam Speaker, I hope our colleague was not asking you when you will represent Canadians, because I think not only that you represent very well the people of your great Quebec constituency, but also that you represent all Canadians when you sit in that chair. I cannot imagine my colleague would be casting that aspersion on you because that would be inappropriate.
There is a level of manufactured indignation and fake outrage from the Conservatives about parliamentary procedures that actually allow the House of Commons to pronounce itself on legislation. As the Speaker will remember, I also sat in opposition on the other side of the House. We watched the government House leader at the time, Peter Van Loan, so many times—
An hon. member: He did it over 100 times.
Hon. Dominic LeBlanc: Madam Speaker, yes, it was over 100 times. Can members imagine it? A Conservative House leader, these great professors of democratic principles, did it over 100 times. Peter Van Loan introduced time allocation or closure measures that many times in the House of Commons.
In fact, the chief government whip at the time wrote a manual of how to ensure that a parliamentary standing committee could be driven completely into the ditch. It was sort of a how-to manual of what to do if something went wrong in the committee, and how to ensure the whole thing could be ground directly into the ditch.
These are the authors of those kinds of documents. I think Peter Van Loan moved time allocation and closure so many times that the words are actually carved into the desk to the right of where I sit. If we lift the desk, we might see that he has engraved in that desk all of the words necessary to bring time allocation and closure. That is what the Conservatives did in government.
Now they are in opposition, and they do everything they can to ensure that the government agenda, which is important to Canadians, cannot advance to a legislative vote. They will not allow the House of Commons to pronounce itself on legislation.
When my colleagues ask when we are going to start working for Canadians, the answer is that we have never stopped working for Canadians.
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Madam Speaker, I obviously agree with my colleague from New Westminster—Burnaby when he characterized what is really a very unfortunate series of procedural shenanigans the Conservatives have participated in. Why?
In French, they want to be able to tell their colleagues from Quebec who support Bill C‑14 that they are in favour of maintaining the number of seats in Quebec. However, in the House of Commons, and especially in their English remarks, they are doing everything in their power to prevent a vote on this bill. I think that was the reason in this case.
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