44th Parl. 1st Sess.
February 6, 2024 10:00AM
- Feb/6/24 2:31:13 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, after months of feigned outrage and apologies on behalf of everyone else, a new report from The Globe and Mail shows that the Prime Minister's Office invited a Nazi to his diplomatic reception in Toronto. The Prime Minister blamed the Speaker, saying that he acted alone. The Prime Minister is saying he had no idea about any of it. He called for the Speaker to take responsibility. He watched him resign, and yesterday he tried to blame the Ukrainian Canadian Congress.
After all of the embarrassment all over the world, why is the Prime Minister above the rules he applies to everyone else?
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- Feb/6/24 2:31:49 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, what we are talking about is a name that came from a community organization. Obviously, the Prime Minister had no knowledge of this, but we know what is happening over here. We are voting today at third reading on the Canada-Ukraine free trade arrangements. Mr. Zelenskyy stood here and asked us to pass this. The Conservatives' opposition to this bill is a moral failing of historic proportions in response to an effort to support our friends in Ukraine and repel the Russian invaders.
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- Feb/6/24 2:32:28 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, what an embarrassment it must be for the House leader to have to clean up the Prime Minister's mess every day. The invitation had the Prime Minister's name on it. It came from him, and for months he said only the Speaker invited Hunka. That turned out to not be true. The Prime Minister's own House leader said that the invitation merited a Speaker's resignation. The Speaker resigned because of him, and all of the Liberals watched him do it.
Will the Prime Minister be subject to the rules he imposes on everyone else?
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- Feb/6/24 2:33:03 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, this is another small conflagration to mask the Conservatives' larger historical moral failing of not supporting the people, the armed forces and the President of Ukraine, who stood in this very chamber not months ago and asked us to support the Canada-Ukraine free trade arrangements. Then, the Conservatives voted against Operation Unifier and support for our troops, which once again supports Ukraine.
What is next? Why will they not stop trying to hide their moral failings?
Some hon. members: Oh, oh!
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- Feb/6/24 2:33:38 p.m.
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There are several experienced members of the House who know that their time to speak will be recognized by the Chair when they are supposed to speak. Otherwise, I ask members to please allow questions to be asked and answers to be given so the Speaker can hear them, along with anybody else who is participating here.
The hon. member for Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia—Headingley has the floor.
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- Feb/6/24 2:34:05 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, that was a shameful answer from the member. It is another day with another international embarrassment.
After months of denials and throwing the former Speaker under the bus, we have learned that it was the Prime Minister who invited a Nazi to a reception with President Zelenskyy. He forced the Speaker to resign and to take the fall so he could avoid responsibility and cling to power.
After eight years of the Prime Minister, he is not worth the cost to Canada's reputation. Why did the Prime Minister invite a Nazi to a reception with the Ukrainian President?
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- Feb/6/24 2:34:44 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, a community event was held with the President of Ukraine to which over 1,000 people were invited. In fact, some Conservatives were invited to that, but we are not talking about any of that today because the Conservatives care about this. They are pretending to care about this. This is fake outrage.
Why are they doing this? It is because today we are voting on trade arrangements with one of our closest allies, the people in the country of Ukraine, who are repelling, as we speak, Russian invaders and dying. This is a moral failing of historic proportions.
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- Feb/6/24 2:35:22 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister keeps misleading the House.
On September 27, the Prime Minister said in this House that he had no idea that a former Nazi was going to be involved in the events surrounding President Zelenskyy's visit. We now know that the Prime Minister personally invited the Nazi to his private reception in Toronto. He said that the Speaker of the House should resign for inviting a Nazi into the House of Commons. After eight years, it is safe to say his relationship with the truth is pretty questionable.
Will the Prime Minister apply the same standard to himself and resign?
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- Feb/6/24 2:36:00 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, apparently the Conservatives want to talk about their moral failings in French, too.
I will come right out and say it: Why are we talking about this in the House today? We are talking about it because they are about to vote against an historic agreement between Canada and Ukraine at a time when the two countries want to support each other in terms of trade and we want to strengthen Ukraine so it can drive the Russians out of its homeland.
This is a moral failing that the Conservatives are trying to mask by raising this issue today. I would invite them to draw back from this moral failing and vote in favour of the bill.
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- Feb/6/24 2:36:49 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, there has been a breakdown in law and order in this country. Over the last eight years, auto thefts are up 34% and violent crimes 39%. Canada has become a foreign interference playground for the PRC, Iran and Russia. Behind all of this is organized crime, money laundering and terrorist financing. In fact, in a U.S. indictment unsealed last week, Iran hired two Hell's Angels' members in British Columbia as assassins.
When is the government going to get serious about crime in this country and start protecting Canadian citizens?
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- Feb/6/24 2:37:28 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I have a lot of respect for the member for Wellington—Halton Hills, but I would ask him to reflect seriously on the vote he is going to cast on the fall economic statement.
The fall economic statement deals directly with the money laundering that is fuelling organized crime. We know that auto theft and so many other crimes right now are being committed and orchestrated by organized criminals. We have the ability to get tough on their financing structures and break down those organizations.
The member hopefully has the rectitude to address that issue, vote against his leader's instructions and vote in favour of the fall economic statement.
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- Feb/6/24 2:38:08 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, Bill C-59 will do little to combat the problem of organized crime and money laundering in this country, which by the government's own estimate is $133 billion a year, equal to 5% of GDP. The government has ignored numerous reports and protected lawyers from money laundering and terrorist financing law and failed to crack down on Canada's big banks and their funnelling of money laundering and terrorist financing through our financial system.
When is the government going to subject lawyers to federal law and start cracking down on our big banks and the gobs of money laundering going through our financial system?
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- Feb/6/24 2:38:47 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I again would ask the member to use reason, for which he is known in this chamber, and to think about the vote he is being asked to cast and the votes he has already cast.
What am I talking about? We know that police forces around this country are asking for resources. We dedicated resources of $121 million last week to combat guns and gangs, yet the member, under the guidance of his leader, was instructed to vote in an all-night voting session against that funding. That is not becoming of that member or of that caucus.
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- Feb/6/24 2:39:24 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, all three federalist parties voted against a bilingualism requirement for miscarriage of justice review commissioners. The Liberal parliamentary secretary and the NDP justified dropping the bilingualism requirement by saying it would stand in the way of hiring unilingual French-speaking commissioners. Frankly, unilingual francophones have never benefited from bilingualism taking a backseat, believe me.
Are these parties really saying that it is impossible to find nine competent bilingual jurists out of 40 million Canadians?
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- Feb/6/24 2:40:06 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, judges in Canada are extremely important. Their role is extraordinarily important. The need to be bilingual is a very important priority and not just for judges in Quebec, but for judges across Canada. When we took office in 2015, we revised the process for appointing judges. This includes the fact that bilingualism is a priority for us when it comes to assessing applications.
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- Feb/6/24 2:40:41 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the parliamentary secretary is not following his minister's instructions.
Another excuse for giving up on bilingualism is that apparently it is too expensive. Yesterday, Radio‑Canada reported that it obtained a copy of a letter from the Privy Council announcing that it would take years and it would be very expensive to translate the documents produced for the Rouleau commission. It seems that the production of a simple index would cost too much too.
This raises three questions for us. How much is bilingualism worth? How much is Canada prepared to pay for bilingualism? Most of all, have we ever heard anyone here complain about the cost of translation from French to English?
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- Feb/6/24 2:41:20 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague for the question. I acknowledge the frustration of francophones in the country on this.
As my colleague knows full well, the commission produced a final report of 2,000 pages in both official languages. The challenge of this situation should also be noted, specifically that the commission received 200,000 documents.
That does not mean this situation is acceptable. There is a lesson to be learned here and we will do better in future.
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- Feb/6/24 2:42:00 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, what we are seeing is a marked tendency to extinguish the francophone presence in Canada. It is happening in the justice system, as my colleague demonstrated. It is also happening with appointments, such as that of Governor General Mary Simon, and in major events, such as the all-star hockey game and the Grey Cup.
I am appealing to my colleagues in the national parties. If they choose to do nothing to stop the extinction of francophones, if they tolerate it or come up with excuses to abandon the French language, what choice are Quebeckers left with?
Our only choice is independence.
Some hon. members: Oh, oh!
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- Feb/6/24 2:42:53 p.m.
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Order, please.
The hon. Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Official Languages.
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- Feb/6/24 2:43:01 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it is obvious that, on this Tuesday in the House of Commons, the Bloc Québécois is trying to pick a fight over language.
I want everyone to know that I am a redeemed francophone. When I first landed at Campus Saint-Jean in Alberta in 1998, I could not speak French, but I learned French and now I am the Minister of Official Languages. I am proof that bilingualism is working in Canada.
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