SoVote

Context: House Hansard - 292 - Mar/20/24

Mrs. Laila Goodridge (Fort McMurray—Cold Lake, CPC)

Mar/20/24 2:11:44 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I rise today to congratulate the Holy Trinity Catholic High School 3A boys basketball team, who took home gold last week at the 2024 Alberta Schools' Athletic Association provincial championships. This is a historic accomplishment for Knights Knation, as they became the first team north of Edmonton to ever bring home a provincial basketball title. The Knights rallied together, overcoming all odds to secure their victory in a game-winning free throw, in overtime, on home turf. I want to thank principal Lou Ann Demers-Noble, vice-principal of athletics Kevin Garbuio, the coaching team, parents, volunteers and, of course, the amazing athletes who brought this all together. Their hard work and teamwork has paid off, and they have made their school and entire community so proud. Go, Knights, go.

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Context: House Hansard - 292 - Mar/20/24

Ms. Heather McPherson (Edmonton Strathcona, NDP)

Mar/20/24 8:16:18 p.m.
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Madam Chair, it is an honour, as always, to stand in this place and represent the people of Edmonton Strathcona. I am from Edmonton Strathcona, and at the very beginning of my political career, I became a member of the Canada-Ukraine parliamentary association. I followed in the footsteps of Linda Duncan, the member of Parliament for Edmonton Strathcona before me, who was also the vice-chair of the parliamentary association, the Canada-Ukraine Friendship Group. Of course, we have a very large Ukrainian population, but as I have said many times before, those of us in Edmonton all feel like we are bit Ukrainian. As one can appreciate, Heather McPherson is not a terribly Ukrainian name, but I know my way around perogies and feel very connected to the community. I am very proud of our caucus. I am very proud of the New Democratic Party for standing in solidarity steadfastly with the people of Ukraine. We know Ukraine and the Ukrainian people, who are fighting against Putin and the brutal invasion by Putin and the Russian Federation, are not just fighting for themselves. They are fighting for us. They are fighting for freedom, for democracy and for the international rules-based order, and we need to do everything we can to support them. That is why a little less than two years ago, I brought forward a unanimous consent motion in this House declaring what Russia is doing in Ukraine as a genocide. We were able to get unanimous consent to support that call. We were one of the very first countries in the world to have its Parliament declare that a genocide was taking place. I am extraordinarily proud of the New Democratic Party and being able to bring that motion forward. I am also very happy that we were able to bring a motion forward just this February, which we were able to get unanimous consent for, that talked about reaffirming Canada's support for sanctions against Russia, providing military and financial assistance to Ukraine and conducting a security guarantee agreement with Ukraine. We are here today for that security agreement. It is wonderful to stand in this place and know that New Democrats all across this country are supportive of the work happening in Ukraine. However, I have to say that I have some concerns about the support we have seen from the Liberals and the Conservatives. As my colleague from London—Fanshawe mentioned beforehand, the Liberals are very good at making promises; they are not very good at keeping them. We have seen time and time again the Liberals promise aid, sanctions and enforcement, promise all of these pieces that have never come to fruition. I went to Ukraine a year ago. I stood in Irpin and saw what the Russian Federation had done. I saw how it had targeted civilian infrastructure. I know that many mines in that country need to be cleared, and we need to support Ukraine so it can rebuild. However, at the same time as we know these needs are so great, this year the Liberal government cut official development assistance by 15% and has indicated that there will be further cuts in the budget we will see in April. This is not going to help the people of Ukraine. It is not going to help people around the world who are suffering because of the food scarcity caused by this war. Then we look at the Conservatives. I am very disappointed in their failures to support Ukraine. They will stand in this place and will tell us they are supportive of Ukraine, but actions mean more than words. It is easy to say things. However, when they vote against things like funding for Operation Unifier and things like the fair trade agreement that the President of Ukraine asked us to move forward with, those actions speak much louder. I do not want to stand in this place and claim it is all Conservatives. I know there are members of the Conservative Party who still believe in working together with all parties across this floor to support Ukraine. I know they are there. I hope they will be able to convince their leader to go from the position he has taken to the position we have held for a long time, all parties within this place, of supporting Ukraine. As I said, I am proud to be a New Democrat. I am proud that we are supporting Ukraine. However, there is more we can do. There is more we can do to help it rebuild and demine and to make sure it wins. We can make sure it gets tools quickly and urgently. We need to stop announcing and we need to start delivering, and New Democrats are here. We stand with Ukraine. We remain standing with Ukraine.

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Context: House Hansard - 292 - Mar/20/24

The Assistant Deputy Chair

Mar/20/24 8:25:34 p.m.
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When we have only five minutes for questions, it would be good to have shorter questions so we could have more questions. The hon. member for Edmonton Strathcona.

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Context: House Hansard - 292 - Mar/20/24

The Chair

Mar/20/24 10:40:28 p.m.
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The member for Miramichi—Grand Lake was asked to apologize for saying something very similar to, I think, what the hon. member for Edmonton Strathcona said. The hon. member should retract that and apologize for it. Then we can go on and ask questions. The hon. member for Etobicoke Centre.

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Context: House Hansard - 292 - Mar/20/24

The Chair

Mar/20/24 10:42:14 p.m.
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I believe the Speaker's ruling had to do with the hon. member for Miramichi—Grand Lake saying that the New Democrats support Hamas. That is very close to what the hon. member said this evening. I would therefore like the hon. member to withdraw his remarks. If he declines to do so, I will go to the next person on the list of those who want to speak. The hon. member for Edmonton Strathcona.

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