44th Parl. 1st Sess.
February 14, 2023 10:00AM
- Feb/14/23 10:01:58 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I have a supplementary opinion to the second report mentioned with respect to Ukraine.
The Conservatives are pleased to fully endorse the main committee's report. Our supplementary opinion identifies three areas where we wish to go further in supporting international peace and security. These areas are as follows: contributing to global energy security and food security, combatting foreign interference and recognizing the failure of the Gazprom turbine policy.
The Conservatives believe that Canada should be expediting key energy projects to support global fuel and food security and countering dependence on Russia by fellow democracies. Not nearly enough is being done to combat foreign state-backed interference by the Russian state, but also by other actors. While the main report acknowledges that ending the Gazprom turbine waiver was a good step, we believe that granting the turbine waiver in the first place was a grave mistake and a betrayal of the Ukrainian cause. Canada must be resolute in its support for Ukraine, including through the consistent application of sanctions.
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- Feb/14/23 3:00:14 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, after eight years, government services are broken. Liberals have significantly grown the size of the public service while still giving billions of dollars to outside consultants, yet nothing seems to work.
The Prime Minister has admitted that he personally recruited Dominic Barton and provided him with preferential access, access that his company, McKinsey, used to do over $100 million in business with the government.
How can the Liberals explain the fact that the public service is larger, and the services that Canadians receive are declining, yet Liberals are still able to find so much money for their well-connected friends?
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- Feb/14/23 3:01:25 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, hiring more people at McKinsey is not a jobs plan.
The House leader should listen to his Prime Minister because the Prime Minister said of Dominic Barton, “we recruited him”. Now, Dominic Barton admitted in testimony that Andrew Pickersgill, the head of McKinsey's Canadian operations, supplied analysts to the Prime Minister's growth council. McKinsey then used that access to set up sales meetings. The Prime Minister recruited McKinsey's leaders and gave them privileged access to government that allowed them to get over $100 million in contracts.
Will the House leader stop this charade and admit what the Prime Minister has already admitted, which is that it was these Liberal politicians who brought in McKinsey?
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- Feb/14/23 6:43:32 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, four and a half years ago, I put forward a motion in this House calling on the Government of Canada to list the IRGC, the Iranian government's weapon of terror against its own people and people throughout the world, as a terrorist organization within the Criminal Code. That motion passed this House. All Conservatives and every present member of the Liberal caucus, including the Prime Minister, voted in favour of that motion.
The government voted four and a half years ago, nearly five years ago, to list the IRGC as a terrorist organization. At the time, in 2018, the case was already clear that this organization existed for the purpose of terrorizing its own population and those throughout the region and around the world, and of asserting its control over those people by any possible means.
Since 2018, we have had the shooting down of flight PS752 and the killing of dozens of Canadians and many more people with connections to Canada. We have had the emergence of the Woman Life Freedom movement and the arbitrary execution of protesters by the Iranian regime. For most of that period, the Canadian government did not even impose sanctions against that regime. It merely trumpeted the continuation of restrictions that were put in place by Conservatives.
Since the issue of the violence being inflicted by the Iranian regime has gotten more public attention, since the opposition has been pushing the government aggressively under the leadership of the member for Carleton in the last six months, the government has imposed some additional sanctions. It is too little, too late, though, and the government persists in refusing to list the IRGC as a terrorist organization. It is particularly ironic, because the Deputy Prime Minister has called it a terrorist organization.
We have a member of the government saying she recognizes the IRGC is a terrorist organization, but then refusing to list it as a terrorist organization in the Criminal Code. It does not make any sense. She said, in that press conference, that they recognize that the IRGC is a terrorist organization, so they were going to list it in the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, but not in the Criminal Code.
I keep asking this question. I have been asking this question persistently for the last five years. If the government voted for this and if the government is now saying this is a terrorist organization, why can it not use the Criminal Code to list it as a terrorist organization?
This is important, because listing the IRGC as a terrorist organization would decisively shut down the operations of that organization in Canada. The government has responded, and will no doubt respond again, that it has listed specific individuals within these organizations. However, when we list specific individuals within the organization, then other people who are part of that same organization, or new people who end up taking on the same positions others previously held, are still able to operate. We would still have the IRGC active here in Canada, intimidating and threatening Canadians.
I spoke to someone. A member of their family was killed when flight PS752 was shot down by the IRGC, and this individual has faced threats here on Canadian soil from the IRGC. We have evidence of violence being planned against Canadians by the IRGC, yet the government refuses to list it.
Why, after voting for this, and after five years, has the government still refused to list the IRGC as a terrorist organization?
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- Feb/14/23 6:50:40 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, there are no surprises in that non-answer, unfortunately.
The parliamentary secretary, ironically, cites a number of instances of groups that were listed by the previous Conservative government, and then expects to be congratulated, I suppose, for the fact that the government has allowed these terrorist organizations listed by Conservatives to remain on the list, but has not listed additional organizations.
A while back the House passed a motion on the listing of the Proud Boys as a terrorist organization, and the government got that done within two months, yet it has been five years, and the parliamentary secretary will not list the IRGC as a terrorist organization.
She cites various individuals. Again, as I already pointed out, when individuals are sanctioned and not the organization, the organization is allowed to continue to operate here in Canada. The parliamentary secretary will not answer the basic question. Why is the government intent on allowing the IRGC to continue their operations in Canada?
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