44th Parl. 1st Sess.
February 6, 2024 10:00AM
- 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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- Feb/6/24 2:44:05 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, after eight years of soft-on-crime policies, this Prime Minister has created the auto theft crisis. According to the Liberal government's own news release in New Brunswick, car theft has spiked by 120%.
It is time to stop the crime. Will the Prime Minister reverse his soft-on-crime, catch-and-release policies that have caused the auto theft crisis?
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- Feb/6/24 2:44:34 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, our government obviously takes the increase in auto theft extremely seriously, which is why we have invested in a very significant way in the Border Services Agency and the RCMP to work on organized crime.
When we formed government, we found out that Conservatives had cut 1,000 officers from border services and half of the border services officers who work on criminal intelligence to interdict the export of, for example, stolen vehicles. Good news, we reversed those cuts, we have invested more and we are going to continue to do more to deal with this issue.
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- Feb/6/24 2:45:15 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the results are in after eight years. There were five agents working at one port; five people.
This Liberal government has let organized crime run rampant in Canada. The Prime Minister is not worth the cost or the crime. His reckless policies have caused an explosion in car thefts. He is responsible for the ports. He is responsible for the RCMP and the Criminal Code. These are federal responsibilities.
Car thefts have spiked 190% in Moncton and 93% in Saint John. Will this Prime Minister finally reverse his soft-on-crime, catch-and-release policies?
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- Feb/6/24 2:45:54 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I can assure my colleague from Miramichi that this government will continue to crack down on auto theft and organized crime. They like fancy slogans where they make up things like “catch and-release”. He is from Miramichi, New Brunswick, and he knows that applies to salmon angling and not serious criminals, so just because he repeats the silly phrase does not make it true. Our government will do what is necessary with provincial partners and local police to crack down on this. We have invested in the CBSA and the RCMP and will continue to do more.
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- Feb/6/24 2:46:36 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, after eight years under this Prime Minister and this government, auto theft has doubled in Montreal.
Furthermore, the Canada Border Services Agency is responsible for controlling our borders, including ports. The Port of Montreal, however, has only five Canada Border Services Agency officers on duty to inspect the huge volume of containers transiting through the port on their way to foreign destinations. This morning, our leader proposed to significantly increase that number to 75 officers.
Will the Prime Minister take the Conservative leader's proposals into account during discussions at his summit on Thursday?
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- Feb/6/24 2:47:10 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, what are we going to do at Thursday's discussion?
For one thing, we are going to discuss exactly what we can do to combat auto theft with the chief of the Montreal police service and other partners.
I was also at the port of Montreal two weeks ago with my colleague, the Minister of Transport. The good news is that we saw a lot more than five border services officers working on this troubling situation.
We will continue to increase the number of Canada Border Services Agency staff, which the Conservatives drastically reduced.
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- Feb/6/24 2:47:49 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, yesterday our leader proposed other measures to fix this government's mistakes, like fixing the Criminal Code by bringing back tougher sentences. Three auto thefts would get a minimum of three years in prison. It is pretty simple.
Also, by finding savings elsewhere—yes, we can save money; our leader has found savings—we can purchase 24 scanners that would be installed at the ports to check containers.
Will the government listen to the Leader of the Opposition's proposals and bring them to the summit on Thursday so that we can finally solve the problem of auto theft in Canada?
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- Feb/6/24 2:48:22 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to see my colleague's interest in our summit on Thursday. His leader had downplayed the meeting, describing it as a bunch of bigwigs nattering at a meeting in Ottawa.
Personally, I would never say such a thing about the chiefs of municipal and provincial police forces and provincial ministers who want to partner with the federal government in the fight against auto theft.
On Thursday, we will be discussing concrete ideas to help reduce this major scourge facing Canadians. We will continue to increase investments.
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- Feb/6/24 2:49:05 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, everyone should be treated with dignity and respect, yet Canadians living with a disability have been deplaned on a catering cart or forced to get on their hands and knees to crawl off a plane. Some of these dehumanizing experiences happened under the watch of Air Canada's CEO, and the Liberal government is doing nothing about it. It continues to give CEOs a free ride, even handing them billions of taxpayers' dollars.
Will the Liberals stop protecting rich CEOs and start protecting people with disabilities?
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- Feb/6/24 2:49:43 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, airlines can do better and have to do better. That is why I convened the team from Air Canada, the CEO and others, to come here and meet me and my colleague a couple of weeks ago. That is fundamental. What we have seen in the papers and through media is totally unacceptable, and not only with Air Canada but other companies also. Once again, they have to do better and they will do better.
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- Feb/6/24 2:50:13 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, Palestinian Canadian families are desperate to bring their loved ones to safety in Canada. The rollout of the special immigration measure for Gaza is riddled with problems. People have been rejected without any explanation. Some are rejected then later approved with exactly the same application. Now officials are saying the 1,000 cap has almost been reached, yet many have not received the code from IRCC to move on to the next stage.
What action is the minister taking to clean up this mess, and will he remove the arbitrary cap without further delay to save lives?
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- Feb/6/24 2:50:55 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, that is precisely what this measure is about. It is about saving lives in the face of a humanitarian catastrophe. We have said time and time again that we will be flexible about the 1,000-person cap. Right now, the challenge is actually getting an initial list of people out who are pre-approved to cross Rafah gates. I am extremely disappointed with local authorities that we have not been able to get this through, but that will not prevent us from trying.
It is very difficult to extend these programs when we cannot even get people out. I am frustrated by it. We are in the House and I would use stronger words outside it, but we need to get those people out and into safety.
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