SoVote

Context: House Hansard - 255 - Nov/24/23

Nov/24/23 10:55:11 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I want to take advantage of the presence in the House of the member for Sarnia—Lambton to draw a parallel between two bills that have required a lot of effort from several parties over the years in the House. During this Parliament, the member for Sarnia—Lambton introduced a bill on protecting pension plans. The Bloc Québécois enthusiastically supported the bill. Our colleague very elegantly and gracefully acknowledged the work that had been done in the past by other members of Parliament, and this paved the way for a bill that was proudly supported by several parties and was adopted unanimously. Something similar is happening with this bill to prohibit strikebreakers. The Bloc Québécois has introduced 11 bills over the years. The NDP has also introduced some. We in the House have a golden opportunity to once again demonstrate unity and respect for workers' rights, because allowing employers to hire scabs is an affront to the fundamental rights of workers in Quebec and Canada. The question I would like to ask my colleague from Winnipeg North is this: Why was the government so set on including a provision in the bill that says the legislation does not come into force until a year and a half after it receives royal assent? That does not make much sense to me. All it does is prolong an injustice that should have been remedied a long time ago. Rather than being subject to an 18-month delay, the bill should apply retroactively going back several years.

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Strikebreakers

Context: House Hansard - 255 - Nov/24/23

Mr. Martin Champoux (Drummond, BQ)

Nov/24/23 11:16:56 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, if there is one thing humans cannot do, it is erase pages from history. If we could, we would rewrite major parts of our history, like the horrors experienced by the Ukrainian people under the yoke of the U.S.S.R. in the winter of 1932-33, when dictator Stalin deliberately cut off food supplies to the entire country in order to wipe out the population through famine. It was an atrocity, a genocide in the true meaning of the word, that came to be known as the Holodomor. Millions of Ukrainians perished, including entire families and villages. Survivors carried the scars of the horrors they had lived through, and those who were able to passed on the knowledge of the Holodomor to their descendants, so that future generations would ensure that such an atrocity never happened again. However, it is happening again right now in Ukraine. Now more than ever, Ukraine's allies must stand in solidarity and support the Ukrainian people in their fight against the dictator Putin. We do not have the right to let history repeat itself. We do not need another Holodomor to commemorate. Slava Ukraini.

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Context: House Hansard - 255 - Nov/24/23

Mr. Martin Champoux (Drummond, BQ)

Nov/24/23 11:40:40 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, less than a month ago, Québecor announced it was cutting 547 jobs, a third of its staff, but the fact that our television is in crisis does not seem to bother the Minister of Canadian Heritage. There is nothing in the economic statement, not one red cent, for our television and radio. The media crisis is a crisis of democracy. Access to information is under threat, especially in the regions. What is really under threat is the advancement of our culture and our sense of belonging. The minister, who sees perfectly well what is going on, is doing nothing. Why?

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Context: House Hansard - 255 - Nov/24/23

Mr. Martin Champoux (Drummond, BQ)

Nov/24/23 11:42:28 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the work started a long time ago. We should be seeing results by now. This morning, I sent the Minister of Finance and the Minister of Canadian Heritage a bunch of reactions from people in the cultural sector. They are all livid. They are furious that the economic statement had nothing in it for them. Even the Fédération nationale des communications et de la culture, which is well known to the minister, joined us in criticizing the fact that the economic statement had completely sidelined the electronic media. The Bloc Québécois was asking for a $50‑million emergency fund to help out the media while the Minister of Canadian Heritage wraps up negotiations with the web giants. For the federal government, $50 million is nothing, but for our media, it would be huge. Ottawa's reasons for refusing to create an emergency fund are political, not financial. Why did the minister choose to turn her back on our news media, especially our electronic media?

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