SoVote

Mrs. Cheryl Gallant (Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke, CPC)

May/8/23 7:34:18 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, the member opposite keeps on invoking article 5 of the Washington treaty, but refuses to pay the dues. How is it that 49 people supposedly getting a CSIS briefing in 2022 absolves the Prime Minister of refusing to have CSIS act on a report, which he knew of, that a member of the House had been intimidated and the family back home had been threatened? How is that family in a restaurant the member talked about afraid of talking because of what might happen in the old country? The Prime Minister is using willful ignorance to justify his executive deniability. We did try to pass a bill, the foreign lobbyist registration act, that would have taken care of this, but the member voted against it.

127 words

Context: House Hansard - 192 - May/9/23

Mrs. Cheryl Gallant (Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke, CPC)

May/9/23 12:00:23 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I am proud to rise on behalf of the brave women and men serving in the Canadian Armed Forces. I asked the defence minister why 700 soldiers, including the base hospital, at Garrison Petawawa were left without heat or hot water. She did not have an answer. She could not answer, because she never bothered to find out why hot water was not deemed essential. Her job is to be accountable to Parliament. When something goes wrong in a department, the minister is responsible. That does not mean she was the one turning off the hot water. It just means it is her responsibility, her sworn duty, to come to this House and give an account of what went wrong. Being responsible and accountable when we make mistakes is how we avoid making the same mistakes again. However, instead of being responsible, the minister retreated to her safe space and just started listing off spending announcements as evidence of the Liberal commitment to the Canadian Armed Forces. It is a crass and vulgar way to go through life thinking commitment can be measured in dollars and cents. Imagine someone telling their loved ones that they measure their commitment by how much cash they spend on them. Of course, the irony is that the Liberals do not even spend the cash they have committed to the military. The Liberals cannot procure new equipment. They cannot even process payments for per diems when soldiers are stationed overseas. The minister claims they are committed, but the Prime Minister tells a different story behind closed doors. Privately, the Prime Minister claims there is no political will for Canada to meet its commitment to NATO. Building political will to do the right thing is what real leaders do, but the Prime Minister would rather go surfing. The truth is that there is no support for the military in the Liberal Party base. The Canadian Armed Forces is currently under an unprecedented reconstitution order. Recruitment is cratering under the Prime Minister because Canadians know the truth. Why should they put their lives on the line in defence of Canada when the Prime Minister will not even defend the idea of Canada? How can we have a “national” defence if the Prime Minister believes we live in a post-nation state? The Liberals believe Canada is a racist colonial oppressor state. When radical extremists pull down statues, the Prime Minister sides with the vandals. He strips historic names from buildings while a taxpayer-funded foundation named for his father takes donations from dictatorships. He would rather apologize for the country than celebrate it. This country strips out symbols of our heritage from the Crown and replaces them with a snowflake. What message do we think that sends to potential recruits? The minister left our recruits out in the cold. The Prime Minister treats our military like a phallic joke. Why would people lay down their lives to defend this country when the government does not even seem to like this country? The Liberal Party has become so hostile to democratic accountability and freedom of speech that it passed a resolution requiring government approval to publish unnamed sources. Defending freedom and democracy used to be the best rallying cry to join the Canadian Armed Forces, yet the illiberals seem hell-bent on persuading Canadians that believing in freedom and democracy is an unacceptable view. Nothing symbolizes the “illiberal party” contempt for the military than its leaving our women and men in uniform out in the cold and dressing them up in snowflakes.

600 words

Context: House Hansard - 192 - May/9/23

Mrs. Cheryl Gallant

May/9/23 12:07:32 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the parliamentary secretary spoke for four minutes and still did not answer a simple question: Why were the soldiers left out in the cold by the government? It is no surprise that woke Liberals would adopt a snowflake as a symbol of Canadian sovereignty. What is a surprise is that they think this will help them recruit people willing to fight and, when necessary, kill people who hate Canada and hate what we stand for. Maybe that is their dirty little secret. The Liberals think that if we do not stand for anything, if we roll over to appease hostile regimes and treat their diplomats with kid gloves, we do not really need a military. Considering the way the Prime Minister likes to import American culture wars and American political celebrities, maybe he just sees us as a vassal state. The truth is we can only guess because they say one thing in public and another thing in private.

161 words