Senator Gold: I’ve never dismissed or denigrated the importance of these questions or holding the government to account.

Because there are so many senators who are relatively new to this chamber, let me remind you of what typically — and not, perhaps, inappropriately —

Senator Plett: Answer the question. This is Question Period.

The Hon. the Speaker: Honourable senators, I wish to draw your attention to the presence in the gallery of Dr. Tobias Schmid, Director at the Media Authority of North Rhine-Westphalia, and Dr. Laura Braam, Team Leader at the Media Authority of North Rhine-Westphalia, who are experts in the protection of children from online harms on the internet. They are the guests of the Honourable Senator Miville-Dechêne.

On behalf of all honourable senators, I welcome you to the Senate of Canada.

Senator Gold: Thank you for the question. I do, of course, accept the legitimacy. As I said, again, I sound like the broken vinyl record perhaps. But I have provided all the information today that I am in a position to provide. In that regard, senator, I have really nothing further to add to the answer I gave to Senator Plett’s question.

Senator Gold: Thank you for your question and the commentary that preceded it. Again, I repeat and I know you are not happy with this answer, but I have provided all the information I am in a position to provide, and I have nothing further to add to my statement.

Senator Plett: Yet they didn’t all stay in that one hotel room. If there had only been 56 people in that hotel room, I would accept that as being very frugal.

Senator Gold, you and I are old enough to remember the old vinyl records where the needle got stuck and it played the same thing over and over again. You remind me of that vinyl record.

We know how many people were there. We know there were prime ministers there, but we also know the Governor General and Stephen Harper did not stay there. Tell me if Paul Martin stayed there. Tell me if Jean Chrétien stayed there. If that’s what you’re inferring, Senator Gold, I would accept that as an answer.

Canadians deserve the truth. They deserve to be heard, and they deserve transparency from our Prime Minister. This is why I’m asking you these questions.

Yes, it was expensive to stay there. I hear there were rooms that cost $1,700 a night. Not this one. This one cost $7,300 a night for five nights, Senator Gold — a $36,500 invoice for this room alone. Senator Gold, $36,500 is the annual salary for someone working forty hours a week at $18.25 an hour.

How on earth does Prime Minister Trudeau think this expense is reasonable and appropriate, when at the end of the day he is not personally footing the bill but rather asking and expecting Canadians to?

Senator Gold, yesterday, Prime Minister Trudeau slipped and basically admitted in the House of Commons that it was all about him. Will you, Senator Gold, and your government come clean and tell Canadian taxpayers straight up: Was it Prime Minister Trudeau who stayed in that room?

Senator Boisvenu: Senator, you used a word that made what little hair I have left stand on end a bit. You said that you trust that judges aren’t handing out conditional sentences like candy, but that’s what they’re doing. Eighty per cent of men charged with spousal abuse receive a conditional sentence. This bill will ensure that 90% of men will receive a conditional sentence. What message does it send to society to say, “Men, if you beat your wife for 10 years, you’ll get to serve two years at home,” knowing that 40% of offenders don’t comply with their conditions? Then they can get closer to their wives.

Don’t you think that’s what’s already happening when you say “candy”?

[English]

Senator Boisvenu: Would the honourable senator accept a question?

[English]

Senator Simons: Do I still have time?

The Hon. the Speaker pro tempore: We have three minutes.

[Translation]

Senator Simons: As I have said, I would trust that the responsible members of the judiciary would not give out conditional sentences like Halloween candy. Those would be reserved for the very specific fact-based cases where they were appropriate. In no way would I suggest that somebody who breaks into a house and is in the house unlawfully to menace the residents of the house should be treated in the same way as somebody who gets lost in the woods in the winter and breaks into a cabin to not freeze to death.

[Translation]

Hon. Jean-Guy Dagenais: Canada isn’t meeting its targets in the fight against climate change. Canada isn’t meeting its target for the number of francophone immigrants entering the country. We’re all aware of the public service’s lack of efficiency in processing immigration files and, while we’re at it, the files of migrants arriving at Roxham Road.

As the Minister of Immigration is increasing Quebec’s proportional share of immigrants from 50,000 to 113,000, can you tell us how your government can dispute and deny the concerns of Quebec’s premier regarding the threat this represents to the French language?

I hope you won’t tell me that there’s money allocated for that.

Senator Boisvenu: If I’d come up with a long list, very few of my colleagues would have been inclined to make drastic changes to Bill C-5, so I’m focusing on crimes associated with domestic violence in particular. It often starts with harassment and sexual assault, and the situation always gets worse if those crimes aren’t severely punished when they’re committed in a context of domestic violence. You can be certain that in 2023, 2024 and 2025, the number of murdered women will increase.

The Hon. the Speaker: Senator McPhedran, as I mentioned yesterday, there are a number of people whom I don’t get to on a daily business who want to ask questions. Could you please try to get to your question?

The Hon. the Speaker pro tempore: Is leave granted, honourable senators?

The Hon. the Speaker: Honourable senators, I wish to draw your attention to the presence in the gallery of Haung Yu, Sébastien Maillé, Katalin Toth and Leigh Anne Swayne. They are the guests of the Honourable Senator Ravalia.

On behalf of all honourable senators, I welcome you to the Senate of Canada.

Hon. Marc Gold (Government Representative in the Senate): Again, you are making assumptions in your question —

Senator Batters: He admitted it yesterday.

Senator Gold: — that I’m not in a position to validate.

Senator Gold: I gave you a different answer today than I did yesterday.

Let me say this because the expenditure of public funds is important, and Canadians are hurting right now.