44th Parl. 1st Sess.
November 28, 2023 10:00AM
- Nov/28/23 10:26:13 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, one of the tactics that the Conservatives have been using in order to pressure senators into moving quickly on this bill was developing something that looked like a wanted poster that was distributed by the House leader of the official opposition, the member for Regina—Qu'Appelle. One senator has received a number of threatening phone calls and emails and has been very outspoken about that aggressive tactic used by the member for Regina—Qu'Appelle.
I am wondering if the Leader of the Opposition can comment on whether he regrets his House leader's decision to employ those types of intimidating tactics.
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- Nov/28/23 10:41:25 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, the Conservatives say they are begging senators. That is not what they are doing. They are actually inciting violence toward senators.
I have a news report with me, titled “Canadian Senator Flees Home Amid Safety Concerns Following ‘Wanted Poster’ Incident”.
Some hon. members: Oh, oh!
Mr. Mark Gerretsen: Can they at least stop heckling me while I talk about something so incredibly serious, Madam Speaker? It is outrageous.
Some hon. members: Oh, oh!
Mr. Mark Gerretsen: Now they are laughing, Madam Speaker.
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- Nov/28/23 10:42:19 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, here is what the article says:
In a disturbing turn of events, Canadian Senator Bernadette Clement was reportedly forced to leave her home due to fears for her safety. The incident came about after a provocative post, akin to a ‘wanted poster,’ was shared online by former Conservative Party leader [the member for Regina—Qu'Appelle]. The post included Senator Clement’s picture and office phone number, triggering a deluge of abusive calls, including racist comments, and even a threatening phone call from an unidentified man.
Does the member agree that this was a good tactic by the Conservative Party of Canada?
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Madam Speaker, I rise today to speak to the opposition motion of the Conservative Party.
I must admit that I was really surprised when the Conservatives put forward this particular motion. There are always a few opposition day motions put on the Notice Paper, and then the opposition will decide at the last minute which one they want to proceed with. When I reviewed the options, I have to be honest that this is the absolute last one I thought they would bring forward, given the context of what has been going with this particular bill. The motion calls on the Senate to immediately pass Bill C-234, but I thought they would not come anywhere near this issue because of what we have seen from Conservative members over the last couple of days and, indeed, week.
I really wish I could share a poster with members, but I respect the rules of the House. I realize that I am not allowed to use a prop, so I will not go so far as to show it, but I would like to describe it as I look at it. This is a poster made by the Conservative Party of Canada, which its members have been sharing in social media forums. It is meant to look like a wanted poster. The edges around the sides look at though they are burnt out. There are two pictures of two individuals on it with grainy pixelation. They have the individuals' names, in this case, the two senators, and then at the top it says “Call and ask these [Prime Minister's name] senators why they shut down debate on giving farmers a carbon tax carveout.”
The reason I find this so disrespectful is that, notwithstanding the fact that more developed out of that poster, which I will talk about momentarily, out of one side of their mouths, Conservatives are trying to somehow justify attacking senators to get results. On the other hand, we do not have to think that far back in the institutional memory of this place to remember when one of their own colleagues, Rona Ambrose, brought forward a bill intended to make sure that judges received sexual harassment training in this country. One would think that it would have been an easy bill to support, but their Conservative senators held that bill up in the Senate to the point it ended up being removed as a result of Parliament being dissolved.
I find it incredibly rich that we have this motion here today demanding that we get answers and that the Senate do something that the Conservatives want. Where was their outrage when it came to that really important piece of legislation that one of their own members, Rona Ambrose, tabled? She was a former minister and a former leader of the Conservative Party of Canada. Their senators would not even let that bill pass through.
As well, I would like to inform the House that I will be sharing my time with the member for Whitby.
I will go back to this particular call-out from the Conservatives in the form of a wanted poster, which is trying to generate phone calls and emails to these particular senators. Well, their plan worked. Now one of these senators, at least, is expressing extreme concern over the fact that she has been harassed and intimidated along with her staff. She has had to leave her home. I will read what she said about the matter. She said:
There has been much online chatter about my adjourning Bill C-234 last Thursday. I'm the deputy facilitator of the Independent Senators Group. I adjourn debate on numerous items every time the Senate sits—it's is my job and this adjournment is no different than any other.
She goes on to say:
I wasn't going to post about this because, as I said, there is no story here. However, in response to a...Twitter post that asked for calls to my office, a young female staff member received a phone call from a man threatening to show up at my house. This type of behaviour is unacceptable. It was fueled by social media posts, like that one, encouraging anger, and by the misinformation that has been circulating over the past week. I know the senators who posted this to [Twitter], and I recognize that it would not have been their intention to cause a stranger to show up at my house and put my safety at risk. More thought needs to be given to the dangerous effects of the angry public messaging targeted at others.
Conservative members and their senators targeted two female senators, which also affected one of their female staff members, as I indicated. I think it is also extremely perplexing that this is happening during the particular time period we are in right now, the 16 days of activism against violence against women. That is taking place this year between November 25 and December 10, yet we are getting this kind of action from Conservatives. It is absolutely despicable the way that they are engaging in activity that is certainly resulting in threatening and harassing forms of activity towards two senators. By the way, those two senators have never sat in a Liberal caucus. I have been here since 2015—
Some hon. members: Oh, oh!
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- Nov/28/23 3:28:45 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, for Conservatives to do this is absolutely appalling. We do not have senators sitting in our caucus. I have been here since 2015—
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- Nov/28/23 3:30:33 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I am actually more than willing to talk about what the House leader for the Conservatives just held up. That was a tweet that I put out, which had pictures of everybody who voted against Ukraine. That was the end of it; that is all I did. I did not then go on—
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- Nov/28/23 3:31:01 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, the difference between that and this is that they started to granulate the pictures to make them look like a “wanted” ad with imaging around it. They actually have a call-in action here. They put the names, telephone numbers and email addresses of each particular member. That is the difference, and it is a huge difference.
I know that Conservatives are really upset right now about the turmoil they have been experiencing over the last week and a half, but it is a reality of the decisions that they have been making. I will remind the House that earlier today, I asked the Leader of the Opposition, when he stood up to speak to this, whether he condoned or condemned the actions of his House leader, who had tweeted that picture. I did not call him out by name, but now that we appear to be doing that, I will; the House leader, the member for Regina—Qu'Appelle, is the one who tweeted out the “wanted” picture. I asked the leader if he was okay with that, and he did not condemn it for one second—
Some hon. members: Oh, oh!
Mr. Mark Gerretsen: Madam Speaker, now his members are clapping at that. It is good to know that his members not only encourage this activity but also actually clap and applaud.
Some hon. members: Oh, oh!
Mr. Mark Gerretsen: I am holding the back of it—
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- Nov/28/23 3:32:58 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I am speaking to the motion. The motion is calling on the House to do something and is calling on the Senate to do something, when Conservatives are actually also calling on the Senate to do something but by using intimidating tactics. That is what we have seen, and I think I have demonstrated it well. We have heard from the other side as to how much they are willing to embrace it.
At the end of the day, it is really important to reflect on the fact that while Conservatives will use issue after issue to try to pivot themselves out of the corner they have boxed themselves into over the last week and a half, the reality is that Canadians are starting to wake up to the politics of the Conservatives. Canadians are starting to realize exactly what the Conservatives are up to, what they are willing to do and the lengths they will go to, which include making “wanted” posters of senators and distributing them online, through social media forums in order to elicit and generate a reaction, which clearly has occurred. Perhaps it is not the reaction they were thinking of, but it is not a stretch in today's political environment to assume that it is extremely possible for that to occur, which is exactly what happened.
The motion is about a bill that is currently at the Senate. We are waiting for it to be voted on there. It is a bill that, once again, deals with an issue on carbon pricing that Conservatives have completely blown out of proportion. Ninety-seven per cent of farmers are already exempt from the carbon pricing system; we heard that earlier today. It continues to be the case, despite the fact that Conservatives want to create a false narrative for the Canadian population.
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- Nov/28/23 3:35:32 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I am unaware of or unfamiliar with exactly what is going on in the member's riding. I understand and appreciate what he has just said. The reality is that 97% of farmers are exempt from the price on pollution. I am not sure whether what he is referring to falls into the 3% or not.
Conservatives need to stop overreacting to the issue and trying to generate more attention out of it. The reality is that they are blowing this up into something it is not.
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- Nov/28/23 3:37:03 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, toward the end of her intervention, the member commented on fossil fuel subsidies and government investment. I would like to remind the member that, over the time of the current Liberal government, we have seen those go down significantly. They are on track to be completely removed, I believe it is by the end of this year or next year.
The problem is that there are still certain investments that have to occur in the oil and gas sector, such as cleaning up orphaned oil wells, for example. Unfortunately, the programs were not in place 30 or 40 years, or more, ago, when these wells were created, to ensure that there was a fund to deal with them afterwards. We cannot just totally turn our back on that now. I see, every once in a while, the conflation of government investment with doing the right thing, in my opinion, which is to deal with the orphaned wells, because we allowed people to get away with leaving them like that, but it is a reality of the situation. In terms of investing and providing fossil fuel subsidies that direct investments to those companies, that is certainly almost completely eliminated at this point, and it will be within the next year or so.
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- Nov/28/23 3:39:12 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I know that all too well, because I had a private member's bill that had passed the House of Commons and gone over to the Senate. It was just before the election, and those Conservative senators stalled it to the point where my bill as well ended up dying on the Order Paper as a result.
Conservatives will meet tomorrow morning at their caucus meeting with senators, and I do not even know what that is like. I have been here since 2015, and I have never sat in a caucus room with senators. The concept is foreign to me. When Conservatives start pointing the finger at us like we are somehow able to control what happens in the Senate because we control the senators is ludicrous. They literally sit in the same caucus room once a week with Conservative senators.
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- Nov/28/23 4:03:30 p.m.
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Unless it's during your election. Then it's cool.
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- Nov/28/23 5:27:43 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I rise on a point of order. Given the lengthy intervention by the Conservative House leader, if you would give us the opportunity to reflect on it and provide some contributing comments, it would be greatly appreciated.
I believe if you seek it, you will find unanimous consent to see the clock at 5:30 p.m. so we can start Private Members' Business.
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