44th Parl. 1st Sess.
October 6, 2022 10:00AM
- Oct/6/22 11:20:49 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, this morning, some very disturbing news has been reported, in particular, that misogynistic tags were being used on the Leader of the Opposition's YouTube channel to attract certain individuals to his channel, in particular those who would sympathize with these misogynistic terms.
I wonder if the Leader of the Opposition would like to explain to the House and to Canadians his position on this and perhaps what he will do to ensure this does not continue.
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- Oct/6/22 1:32:27 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I know the member in her speech referenced the political will of Conservatives and Liberals. I would encourage her to have a little more optimism and not to assume that there is no political will on this side of the House with regard to this motion. I certainly am very much interested in it. I do agree with her, in that I believe it is a well-crafted motion and that it hits on a number of things. There might a couple of words or terms in here I do not agree with, but I certainly agree with what the NDP has put forward.
I know the motion speaks specifically about the grocery sector, but I am curious if she can highlight any other sectors that she believes should also be looked at other than oil, which I think is a very obvious one. Are there other sectors the NDP believes we should be looking at?
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- Oct/6/22 3:42:41 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I am not sure if the NDP member has been following the debate that has been going on in the House today, but I have said on at least one occasion, along with other Liberals I believe, that I really like this motion. To draw the conclusion that perhaps Liberals are just going to be against it is disingenuous, at least to the process of what goes on in here.
I think this is a good motion and I like the wording of it. There are a couple of words that perhaps I would have phrased slightly differently, but, nonetheless, I appreciate the intent. The motion focuses primarily on grocery stores. I am wondering if the member can inform the House of other sectors and industries, other than oil, which is the obvious one that we know of, that might also be practising this and if there should be further investigation into those as well.
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- Oct/6/22 3:57:55 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I will ask my question, picking up on the last comment the member made. He talked about dental care in particular. I am not sure if he caught it, but during question period the Prime Minister basically asked the Leader of the Opposition why he would not support dental care and help put smiles on children's faces. The very odd response was that they will not be smiling if their parents cannot buy them a bit of pumpkin pie, as if to suggest that parents would rather give their kids pumpkin pie than provide dental care. Is it just me, or are the Conservatives completely out of touch with what the most vulnerable in our society need?
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- Oct/6/22 4:03:21 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I will start by saying that I am sharing my time with the deputy House leader to the government.
I have had an opportunity to read this motion and I think there is a lot of good in it. Quite frankly, I am inclined to support it and most likely will, to be completely honest.
It reminds me that just a few days ago, during a question and answer on a different issue, the member for Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie asked me specifically about this issue in the context of another bill that we were discussing. I can recall replying to him that I thought it was a very important issue to discuss. I did not realize that this exchange would lead to the NDP, just a couple of days later, introducing a motion to that effect, but I am absolutely delighted to see it. I think it will give an opportunity, if passed, for the necessary studies to be done.
I think there is quite a bit of anecdotal evidence out there to suggest that there are large corporations profiting off of inflation and the fear of inflation, and it is something we need to address. I look forward to, hopefully, this passing with the support of the House and to the opportunity to ensure that these practices are dealt with in a swift fashion.
I want to compliment the NDP on bringing forward a very reasonable motion, quite frankly, unlike my colleagues from across the way, the Conservatives. They bring in motions that are pretty much predicated on slogans like “triple, triple, triple” whatever.
By the way, I do not understand this “triple, triple, triple” thing. It does not make any sense to me. When I hear them say “triple, triple, triple”, all I think of is that there have been three times in the last eight years that the population has rejected them. Maybe they are referencing “triple, triple, triple” because they have been rejected at the polls three times in a row. I am not sure. That is all I can really put together based on it, because otherwise it does not make sense. It does not even deliver well. In any event, that is what I assumed.
The Conservatives have policies that are completely out there, as opposed to coming forward with stuff like what we are seeing today, which is very reasonable, in my opinion. We obviously know their position on cryptocurrency. That is becoming very well known in the House. The Leader of the Opposition is a big fan of cryptocurrency.
As a matter of fact, and I am not sure if the public knows this, there is a private member's bill in the name of the member for Calgary Nose Hill on cryptocurrency. We were actually supposed to debate that private member's bill during the first sitting of the House, when we resumed in September, but guess what. The Conservatives punted it forward. Do members know when it was punted forward to? It was today. We were actually supposed to discuss that bill today at 5:30 p.m., but guess what the Conservatives did. They punted it forward.
The Conservatives seem to be very scared about the issue of cryptocurrency. If they are not, why will they not let the member for Calgary Nose Hill bring forward her bill? Free the bill. Free her bill. Allow it to come to the floor.
The Conservative leadership, run by the member for Carleton, the Carleton crypto king, is purposefully preventing this bill from moving forward in the House. Let us have a discussion on cryptocurrency. Allow the member for Calgary Nose Hill to bring her bill before the House. The Conservatives need to stop holding it back, because, quite frankly, it is unfair to Canadians to not let us have the opportunity to discuss this very important matter.
That is the contrast I am trying to show here with the reasonable motion we see today to look into a very important matter. The NDP clearly accepts the global reasoning that has been supported by economists throughout the globe as to why we have inflation. No, it is not the Prime Minister of Canada who caused inflation. It is a global issue. The NDP knows that and I am fairly certain the Bloc knows that too.
The Conservatives are set on trying to convince the Canadian population that it is actually the Prime Minister who caused global inflation. If he had the ability to do that, I would be really impressed, quite frankly, especially considering that the Conservatives routinely accuse the Prime Minister of being incapable of doing just about anything. Now suddenly they are willing to give him credit for being able to control global inflation.
Nonetheless, those are the kinds of issues the NDP is trying to look at in a realistic way, rather than saying that we do not want to spend money giving GST rebates because that is going to cause inflation. Members might note that this is one of the original arguments that came from the Conservatives before they flip-flopped on it. They have now decided that it is maybe not in their best interests to vote against that, so maybe they should support it. Rather than taking the approach of the Conservatives and saying we are not interested in inflation because we know where it comes from, the New Democrats are actually trying to get to the root cause of it, and I think their main complaint here has a lot of merit to it.
We have seen a lot happen today. It has been a pretty revealing day for the Leader of the Opposition. We have learned this morning that he was actively using misogynistic tags on YouTube to get users to go to his YouTube page. For people who do not understand how this works, there is a particular hashtag, #mgtow, which is “men going their own way”, from a group that is specifically based around anti-feminism and misogyny. There are primarily and pretty much only men in this group. What the Leader of the Opposition was doing was using that hashtag—
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- Oct/6/22 4:11:34 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, the member is trying to bring me back to relevance and immediately starts to argue the point with me. I would say to him, based on his last comment, that no, the Leader of the Opposition has not been clear. He can look at the tape from earlier today, at just after 10 o'clock when he made his speech. I asked him a question, point blank. In a very polite way, I said I would like to give him an opportunity to explain to Canadians what exactly he was doing with his YouTube channel and how he is actively working to prevent that now. I asked him to do that and he would not do it.
I can see all the points of order, and I wonder why—
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- Oct/6/22 4:12:23 p.m.
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Is he asking for a unanimous consent motion or is he asking for me to say something?
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- Oct/6/22 4:13:52 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I guess this is an issue the Conservatives do not want to talk about. I do not blame them. They are getting up time after time, interrupting me with points of order and trying to prevent me from continuing because they do not want to talk about this issue. We can see that.
Some hon. members: Oh, oh!
Mr. Mark Gerretsen: Madam Speaker, they are heckling me. They will not stop, and I realize that at the end of the day, the Leader of the Opposition will have to answer for it one way or another. I would encourage him to come forward to this House and explain to Canadians his position on using misogynistic and hurtful hashtags in order to generate views on YouTube.
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- Oct/6/22 4:15:00 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, this is the third speech in a row that this has happened. Obviously the first opportunity to ask a question goes to the the Conservatives, but not one of them has stood up to ask me a question. I appreciate that. I understand if they are afraid to do that.
I will answer the question from the member of the Bloc, and he makes a very good point. Not only can that monopoly develop through collaboration, but, looking at game theory, that collaboration can also happen through the practice of different companies making certain moves without actually having a verbal discussion about it. These are the things that we need to look into. This motion particularly calls on finding out if it is happening and, if so, how that increase has occurred, specifically as it relates to prices going up based on the monopoly.
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- Oct/6/22 4:16:36 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, the member is absolutely correct. The spread between the haves and the have-nots has only gotten larger and larger. The reality of the situation is that not only is it not good that CEOs are being paid 191 times more because of the difference between those who are making incredible sums of money and those who are making very little bits of money, but it is also generally not good for our economy as a whole when we do not have a strong middle class. We need a strong middle class because they are the ones who actually drive the economy.
The member's question was about why the government will not move forward on it. In this motion the NDP calls for that, and I just told her that I am going to support the motion. Therefore, I do support the call that is in the motion.
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- Oct/6/22 4:18:19 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, the member says that we are not presenting anything more. Let us look at all the legislation we have brought forward to ease the financial pressures on those who actually need it the most. We can look at $10-a-day child care, the GST rebate and the countless number of initiatives out there that this federal government has brought forward. For this member to say it is just $500, where does that even come from?
I realize that the member has not voted in favour of any of it. However, there is a real opportunity here. The Conservatives identified their error with the GST rebate bill, and they did vote in favour of it. Now they have another opportunity to recognize their error with respect to this motion and flip-flop on it as well. I hope they will come forward to vote with the NDP and, at least, me when we come to vote for—
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