SoVote

Context: House Hansard - 304 - Apr/29/24

Ms. Leslyn Lewis (Haldimand—Norfolk, CPC)

Apr/29/24 3:37:42 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to present a petition signed by Canadians across the country. The petitioners believe that vulnerable Canadians with mental illnesses should receive suicide prevention counselling over medical assistance in dying. The petitioners are concerned about the lack of consensus among health care experts regarding what constitutes irremediable mental illness and the inadequate supports for the mental health of Canadians. As such, they are calling upon the House of Commons to cancel its plans to expand the eligibility of medical assistance in dying for those with mental illness.

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Mr. Randall Garrison (Esquimalt—Saanich—Sooke, NDP)

Apr/29/24 3:38:33 p.m.
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Re: Bill C-16

Mr. Speaker, I rise to present petition e-4666, signed by some 11,000 Canadians from every province and territory. The petition notes that, despite legal progress made with the passage of Bill C-16 in 2017, transgender and gender-diverse people continue to be denied full equality and denied the safety and acceptance that every Canadian deserves. The signatories call on the Government of Canada to implement the 29 recommendations of the “White Paper on the Status of Trans and Gender Diverse People” tabled in the House last June. Action to implement the recommendations in the white paper would allow trans and gender-diverse people to live free from violence and hate and to have access to gender-affirming health care, access to housing and, most of all, freedom to live as their true and authentic selves. I want to thank the author of this petition, Fae Johnstone, trans activists and the thousands of people who stood together in solidarity with transgender and gender-diverse people by signing this petition.

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Mr. Taylor Bachrach (Skeena—Bulkley Valley, NDP)

Apr/29/24 3:39:33 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I rise to table a petition initiated by the folks at Transport Action Canada and signed by over 9,000 Canadians who are calling for a vibrant future for sustainable, affordable, safe and public passenger rail in this country. The petitioners call on the government to pass my bill, the rail passenger priority act, to invest in the replacement of Via Rail's long-distance fleet, to put riders and workers on the board of Via Rail and, most importantly, to ensure that high-frequency rail on the Windsor-to-Quebec corridor is procured publicly, built publicly and operated publicly in the public interest for the good of all Canadians. They call for government leadership and for a vibrant future for passenger rail, and I hope that the government will deliver just that.

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Ms. Jenny Kwan (Vancouver East, NDP)

Apr/29/24 3:40:19 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I rise to table petition e-4731, signed by 12,429 people across Canada. The petitioners note that Canadian citizens and permanent residents have beloved family members in Gaza and that, under existing policy, these family members are subject to visa application requirements that are often impossible to meet due to limited working bureaucracy infrastructure inside Gaza and/or their inability to travel to a Canadian visa office. They further note that current policy only allows for children and spouses to be sponsored for permanent residency, excluding siblings, parents and grandparents. They note that Canada has demonstrated an ability to facilitate visa-less travel at time of departure for spouses and children from Gaza to Canada; that Canada has supported the travel and reunification of families in international crises before, such as the Canada-Ukraine authorization for emergency travel and permanent residence policy for Ukrainian nationals with family members in Canada, including siblings, children, parents, grandparents and spouses; and that the Canadian government can update its policies governing eligibility for travel and residency as it chooses. Therefore, the petitioners call upon the Government of Canada to immediately create direct pathways for the emergency travel of Palestinians to Canada and establish a policy for permanent residence for immediate and extended Palestinian family members in Canada.

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Hon. Bardish Chagger (Waterloo, Lib.)

Apr/29/24 3:42:03 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it is always an honour and a privilege to rise on behalf of the good people of the riding of Waterloo. I bring two petitions that people from within the riding of Waterloo and the region of Waterloo have signed. The first brings to the attention of the House that tens of thousands of Palestinians have been killed over the last over three months; it is 200 days now. The petitioners are calling on the House of Commons and Parliament assembled to support the case that South Africa has brought forward to the ICJ. They are asking the House to acknowledge that the deliberate starvation of the civilian population of water, food and electricity amounts to collective punishment, which we know is clearly forbidden under international humanitarian law. They are asking the people assembled in this Parliament to uphold our responsibility to prevent and punish genocide wherever it occurs and to see that the case South Africa has brought forward helps to bring an end to the killing that is taking place. The second petition similarly calls on the House of Commons and Parliament assembled to demand an immediate ceasefire in the Israel-Palestine conflict. They are asking that the blockades be lifted so that there is a humanitarian corridor and that emergency and humanitarian intervention can be available for these people. They go further in asking us to make sure all necessary measures are taken to protect civilians, both Israelis and Palestinians, and to help foster a climate conducive to building a lasting peace in the Middle East.

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Ms. Elizabeth May (Saanich—Gulf Islands, GP)

Apr/29/24 3:43:45 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I am rising to present a petition that is of keen concern to residents of Saanich—Gulf Islands. In fact, it is a petition that other petitioners within the riding have had me present to the government and to the Parliament assembly before. It is not an unfamiliar issue, I know, to members on all sides of the House. It is the crisis of the absence of family doctors, specifically in Saanich—Gulf Islands. Where 92% of physicians across Canada work in urban areas, areas such as Saanich—Gulf Islands have 8% left to cover the needs of constituents. Within Victoria and Sidney, for example, the average wait time at a walk-in clinic is between 92 and 180 minutes. I certainly have experienced, recently, the absence of a family doctor and the impact it has had on my life. The petitioners, specifically recognizing that this is not solely one jurisdiction's exclusive responsibility, call on the House of Commons and Parliament to work with the provinces and the territories to come to a holistic and fair solution to Canada's current family doctor shortage crisis.

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Ms. Leslyn Lewis (Haldimand—Norfolk, CPC)

Apr/29/24 3:45:09 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, today, I rise to present a petition that has been signed by the residents of Haldimand—Norfolk. These petitioners are concerned about the legislative and regulatory changes that have significantly affected the natural health products industry. The petitioners are concerned that the new regulations will cause consumer prices to skyrocket and consumer choices to plummet at a time when inflation is at a record high. As such, they are calling upon the government and upon the Minister of Health to adjust the regulations and to reduce the costs to the industry.

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Mr. Kevin Lamoureux (Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons, Lib.)

Apr/29/24 3:45:56 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, if revised and supplementary responses to Question Nos. 2142, initially tabled on January 29, and 2340, initially tabled on April 8, could be made orders for return, these returns would be tabled in an electronic format immediately.

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The Speaker

Apr/29/24 3:46:22 p.m.
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Is that agreed? Some hon. members: Agreed.

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Apr/29/24 3:46:28 p.m.
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Question No. 2142—

Questioner: Alistair MacGregor

With regard to federal support to Canada’s grocery sector, between November 1, 2015, to January 1, 2024: (a) how much federal funding was provided to Canada’s major grocery companies (Loblaws, Metro, Walmart, Sobeys, and Costco) to support business development, by (i) year, (ii) dollar amount, (iii) company; (b) how much federal subsidies were provided to those major grocery companies (Loblaws, Metro, Walmart, Sobeys, and Costco) to support business development, by (i) year, (ii) dollar amount, (iii) company; and (c) what programs were responsible for managing federal funding and subsidies to Canada’s grocery sector, by federal department or agency?

Question No. 2340—

Questioner: Alistair MacGregor

With regard to federal investments in Canada’s grocery sector since January 1, 2006: how much federal funding has been provided to (i) Loblaws, (ii) Metro, (iii) Walmart, (iv) Sobeys, (v) Costco, broken down by company, year, and type of funding?

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Mr. Kevin Lamoureux (Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons, Lib.)

Apr/29/24 3:46:28 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I would ask that all remaining questions be allowed to stand.

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Stand
Ask

The Speaker

Apr/29/24 3:46:35 p.m.
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Is that agreed? Some hon. members: Agreed.

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The Speaker

Apr/29/24 3:46:51 p.m.
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I wish to inform the House that I have received two notices of requests for an emergency debate concerning the same subject. I invite the hon. member for Carleton and the hon. member for South Surrey—White Rock to rise and make brief interventions.

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Hon. Pierre Poilievre (Leader of the Opposition, CPC)

Apr/29/24 3:46:51 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I rise today on a matter of grave, urgent and time-sensitive importance. Your decision on whether to grant this emergency debate will be a life or death decision. If you question that, let me share with you the statistics and the background. In May 2022, the Prime Minister announced that he was granting British Columbia's NDP government an exemption to the Criminal Code prohibition on crack, heroin, meth and other deadly drugs. In January the following year, 2023, that exemption took effect, which decriminalized those aforementioned drugs and their use in playgrounds, hospitals, parks, transit and other places where children and vulnerable people are exposed to the risks. The results are now in, and they are irrefutable. In the 12 months that followed the decriminalization of those hard drugs, British Columbia had a record-smashing 2,500 drug overdose deaths. This represents a 380% increase in said deaths since the Prime Minister took office. In other words, in the period since these policies came into effect, we have seen drug overdose deaths increase by a factor of four. Furthermore, Canada now has the fastest-growing drug overdose death rate and the second-highest total rate of any of the 11 countries reviewed by The Commonwealth Fund. In other words, people are dying as a direct result of these policies. This is not simply my claim; it is now the NDP government's admission. As I said at the outset, it was the NDP government that asked for the decriminalization, which the Prime Minister granted. That provincial government has now reversed itself and has asked for the government to urgently recriminalize drugs in many public places. It is an admission that this policy is taking lives. This is where the urgency comes in. Every day in British Columbia, six people die of drug overdoses. This is by far the highest overdose rate anywhere in Canada. It is something that even the NDP government is now attributing, in part, to the decriminalization. Unfortunately, that provincial government needs the federal government's permission to reimpose criminal sanctions on those drugs, something that the minister refused to grant today. That means that even though the NDP government in B.C. wants to recriminalize it, as I stand here and as the clock ticks, decriminalization is in place. Every single day that goes by before the Prime Minister reverses himself, decriminalized drugs will be killing people on the streets of Vancouver, on Vancouver Island, in the Lower Mainland and in other places across the province. An hon. member: Oh, oh!

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The Speaker

Apr/29/24 3:51:06 p.m.
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I would ask the hon. member for New Westminster—Burnaby to please hold his comments until he has the floor. The hon. member for Carleton has the floor.

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Hon. Pierre Poilievre

Apr/29/24 3:51:15 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, anyone who believes six deaths per day is not an emergency needs to give their head a shake. Anybody who says that 2,500 deaths a year is not an emergency needs to give their head a shake. Those numbers, by the way, do not include the indirect deaths caused by drug-induced crime on innocent bystanders who might just be taking their kids to a local Starbucks before they get stabbed in front of their family and die in a puddle of their own blood, which is then broadcast on social media, as we have seen. Those are the kinds of horrific scenes that have become commonplace ever since the Prime Minister and the NDP radical policy was implemented. Given that we are losing six lives a day, given that the reversal of the policy could prevent some of those lost lives, or at the very least, that such a matter should be debated, and given that the clock is ticking as the NDP government in B.C. awaits a decision from the Prime Minister and his health minister, this is an emergency. We ask the Speaker to join with common-sense Conservatives to allow for this debate to happen immediately so that we can stop the drugs, disorder, death and destruction that the radical NDP-Liberal decriminalization policy has caused.

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Hon. Kerry-Lynne Findlay (South Surrey—White Rock, CPC)

Apr/29/24 3:53:19 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I also rise to request an emergency debate on the Prime Minister's dangerous and failed drug decriminalization policy. The House heard the Leader of the Opposition speak about the gravity, that it is a grave and urgent matter, and I agree with that. I particularly agree with it as a British Columbian. B.C. Premier David Eby and his NDP government have finally admitted that these extremist policies are a failure, and now, he has come begging for major changes to the Prime Minister's hard drug decriminalization plan. For Canadians watching who are not from B.C., this plan allows for opioids, cocaine, heroin and methamphetamines to be used in public spaces such as parks, coffee shops, one's local Tim Hortons, public transit and even hospitals. When this policy began in 2023, the province set a devastating record. In that one year, there were over 2,500 drug deaths. After nine years of the NDP-Liberal Prime Minister, more than 40,000 Canadians have tragically died from drug overdoses; those are 40,000 completely preventable deaths. Taxpayer-funded drugs continue to be handed out by the radical Liberal government, and those deadly drugs are increasingly diverted into the hands of organized crime and into the hands of teenagers, pushing our youth into the destructive cycle of addiction. We see videos about this pretty much daily out of British Columbia. Drug overdose is now the number one cause of death for 10-year-olds to 17-year-olds in B.C. That is pretty devastating. Until the Prime Minister's extremist drug decriminalization policy is dismantled, it will continue to cause death, chaos and carnage across Canada. Parliament has a responsibility to attend to the ongoing destruction caused by this deadly hard drug policy. I understood from the minister earlier today in question period that they have Premier Eby's request under review. As the Leader of the Opposition just said, every day of review means six more deaths; that is every day. I trust my request will be considered as the emergency and crisis that it is. In order to save lives, to rebuild families, to eliminate chaos in our streets and to start putting more money into treatment and recovery from drug addiction, we must put an end to these dangerous and deadly policies immediately. I repeat that it is six lives per day, every day. The time to turn this hurt into hope starts now. Please consider this as the urgent matter that it is.

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The Speaker

Apr/29/24 3:56:49 p.m.
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I would like to thank the hon. member for South Surrey—White Rock and the member for Carleton for giving the Speaker notice, as well as for the arguments they presented in the House. However, I do find that their request does not meet the requirements of the standing order as it is listed in the House of Commons Standing Orders.

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Mr. Peter Julian (New Westminster—Burnaby, NDP)

Apr/29/24 3:57:26 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. I believe the Table has received notice, and I did mention prior to the break when we went back to our constituencies that I would be intervening on the issue of the use of false titles in the House of Commons. Members will recall that this came up just prior to the constituency break. I did say at the time that I would be bringing forward further information, so I am rising on it today. When we speak in the House, we have to follow clear rules of decorum in the way we address each other. We are guided by general principles, by being respectful, being truthful and not using false information, which is why we do not refer to each other with false titles. The House of Commons Procedure and Practice, third edition, commonly referred to as Bosc and Gagnon, which is, of course, our procedural bible, says: During debate, Members do not refer to one another by their names but rather by title, position or constituency name in order to guard against all tendency to personalize debate. A Minister is referred to by the portfolio he or she holds.... Remarks directed specifically at another Member which question that Member’s integrity, honesty or character are not in order. A Member will be requested to withdraw offensive remarks, allegations, or accusations of impropriety directed towards another Member. The Speaker will recall that, on April 18, the member for Calgary Forest Lawn had to retract his comment after stating that the member for Edmonton Strathcona was “in the government right now”. The Speaker will also recall that the member for Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes had to withdraw his comments on April 18, while we were questioning Mr. Firth before the bar, because the member was saying things that were not true. On the same day, during question period, the member for Milton referred to the leader of the Conservatives with a false title and the Speaker immediately intervened to ask the member to withdraw his statement. We are encouraged to see that the speakership is taking the matter of false titles and factually incorrect statements to heart. I would like to quote a ruling handed down by the Chair on March 29, 2022: Members are elected to the House under the banner of a political party or as independents. The party that can obtain the confidence of the House forms the government. As such, it is the governing party and it consists of ministers, parliamentary secretaries and backbenchers who, without being members of the executive, are all part of the same political group. The other parties in the House and independent members constitute the opposition since they are not members of the governing party. ... It is clear to the Chair that there is no change in the status or designation of the members of the New Democratic Party, nor in that of their officers, as a result of this agreement. That agreement being the confidence and supply agreement. ...No NDP member is holding a ministerial post. There has been no change in the representation of the parties in the House. As a result, it seems obvious to the Chair that the NDP still forms a recognized opposition party, just like the Conservative Party of Canada and the Bloc Québécois. Since that ruling, the official opposition, the Conservative Party, has interchangeably used, in a very false way, the terms “NDP-Liberal government” and “Bloc-Liberal government”, which makes no sense. This shows the contradiction, and that they are aware they are issuing falsehoods. They have repeatedly used these false titles, these false comments, in the House of Commons. Repeating in the House over and over— Some hon. members: Oh, oh! Mr. Peter Julian: Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives are, of course, heckling because—

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The Speaker

Apr/29/24 4:01:51 p.m.
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I will ask the hon. member for Prince George—Peace River—Northern Rockies to hold his comments until he has the floor. The hon. member for New Westminster—Burnaby will please continue with his point of order.

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