SoVote

Context: House Hansard - 211 - Jun/12/23

Ms. Jenny Kwan (Vancouver East, NDP)

Jun/12/23 2:47:17 p.m.
Watch

Mr. Speaker, international students who have been defrauded by crooked consultants should not be punished with deportation and inadmissibility based on misrepresentation. They have invested everything they have for a better future. They work hard and study hard, and they do so under very difficult conditions. They are under enormous strain, and their lives are in limbo. The Liberals can eliminate this uncertainty by allowing them to stay in Canada and build the lives they dream of. Will the minister do the right thing, the compassionate thing, and grant these international students a pathway to permanent residency?

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Context: House Hansard - 211 - Jun/12/23

Ms. Jenny Kwan (Vancouver East, NDP)

Jun/12/23 6:01:52 p.m.
Watch

Madam Speaker, as the member indicated, one of the issues that I certainly have a lot of problems with, in terms of the government's inaction, is Afghans who served Canada, who helped Canada to fulfill its missions, now have been left behind. Particularly, their family members and their loved ones have been left behind. The government put in an arbitrary quota for the number of Afghans who can be brought to Canada, to safety. Would the member support the NDP's call for the government to lift the cap?

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Context: House Hansard - 211 - Jun/12/23

Ms. Jenny Kwan (Vancouver East, NDP)

Jun/12/23 6:11:26 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, the issue around Afghans and bringing them to safety is something that is top of mind for many of us. In fact, just outside of West Block, there is an individual whose family members are being left behind. He was someone who served Canada, but is still not able to bring his loved ones here. The government put a cap on the number of Afghans, who had helped serve Canada to complete our missions. As a result, many people have not been able to bring their loved ones to safety. Would the member support the call that the government should lift that arbitrary cap that it put in place?

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Context: House Hansard - 211 - Jun/12/23

Ms. Jenny Kwan (Vancouver East, NDP)

Jun/12/23 7:51:42 p.m.
Watch
Re: Bill S-245

Mr. Speaker, I listened intently to the member's speech, and I find it a bit rich for the member to say that hybrid is problematic because of the issues around interpretation. I noted last week that, when we were doing votes in the House, many of the Conservative members were out in the lobby, just steps away from the chamber. Instead of coming in to do the vote, they were doing it through hybrid. Worse still, they were not using the proper headsets, hindering the ability of the interpreters to do interpretation. Even though the Speaker repeatedly told them to either give a thumbs up or thumbs down for their votes, they refused to listen and talked anyway without the proper headsets. Now they are saying that it is not working. The member talked about resources. I sit on the immigration committee. If we want to talk about wasting resources, do members know what the Conservatives did? They wasted 30 hours debating Bill S-245, on lost Canadians. so we could not get on with business. Talk about wasting resources. On the question of hybrid, I have to say this. One would think, the way the Conservatives are talking, that the only mechanism is to use Zoom to do our business, and that is not—

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Context: House Hansard - 211 - Jun/12/23

Ms. Jenny Kwan

Jun/12/23 7:53:41 p.m.
Watch

Mr. Speaker, on the question of hybrid, the way in which the member was speaking was almost as though the only option is for members of Parliament to not show up in the chamber here to do the work. That is not the case. Hybrid is meant to allow for people to have an option. For example, I got COVID and had to be quarantined. What did I do? I used hybrid because it was important work that had to be done, both in the House and at committee. That is the whole purpose here, to facilitate the process so that people can use that option. Why are the Conservatives opposed to allowing people to use different options to fully participate in the House?

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