Senator Housakos: Government leader, both in the other chamber and in this chamber, it has been now six years that we’ve been asking about this issue of foreign interference. Semblances of this bill have been tabled back in 2019 by MP Kenny Chiu in the House of Commons. I tabled this bill now 14 months ago. That is a long time. The minister now, for a number of months, has been talking about publicly consulting. What do they need to consult on? We know what needs to be addressed, and this is a potential tool that can be put in place quickly.

Senator Housakos: Government leader, both in the other chamber and in this chamber, it has been now six years that we’ve been asking about this issue of foreign interference. Semblances of this bill have been tabled back in 2019 by MP Kenny Chiu in the House of Commons. I tabled this bill now 14 months ago. That is a long time. The minister now, for a number of months, has been talking about publicly consulting. What do they need to consult on? We know what needs to be addressed, and this is a potential tool that can be put in place quickly.

Our American allies have done it. Our allies in the U.K. have done it. Our allies in Australia have done it. Why can’t this government do simple things that the public is calling for, that the opposition is calling for and that can take a couple of months to do?

Senator Housakos: If I may finish my point of order, I think we’ve earned that right on this side of the chamber. I am trying to finish the case that number one, it is in the Rules, in the law, that he is the government leader. We insist that there is at least a respect and an appreciation for the Rules and the law in this institution.

Senator Housakos: If I may finish my point of order, I think we’ve earned that right on this side of the chamber. I am trying to finish the case that number one, it is in the Rules, in the law, that he is the government leader. We insist that there is at least a respect and an appreciation for the Rules and the law in this institution.

We didn’t get a written copy of the Speaker’s ruling unfortunately because we remember it was done in haste when he ruled on the government having the right to use closure. In that ruling, he made it clear that Senator Gold was the leader of the government. That was the ruling as we understood it. If anybody wants to challenge it, they can go ahead on a point of order.

Senator Housakos: Government leader, both in the other chamber and in this chamber, it has been now six years that we’ve been asking about this issue of foreign interference. Semblances of this bill have been tabled back in 2019 by MP Kenny Chiu in the House of Commons. I tabled this bill now 14 months ago. That is a long time. The minister now, for a number of months, has been talking about publicly consulting. What do they need to consult on? We know what needs to be addressed, and this is a potential tool that can be put in place quickly.

Our American allies have done it. Our allies in the U.K. have done it. Our allies in Australia have done it. Why can’t this government do simple things that the public is calling for, that the opposition is calling for and that can take a couple of months to do?

Senator Housakos: If I may finish my point of order, I think we’ve earned that right on this side of the chamber. I am trying to finish the case that number one, it is in the Rules, in the law, that he is the government leader. We insist that there is at least a respect and an appreciation for the Rules and the law in this institution.

We didn’t get a written copy of the Speaker’s ruling unfortunately because we remember it was done in haste when he ruled on the government having the right to use closure. In that ruling, he made it clear that Senator Gold was the leader of the government. That was the ruling as we understood it. If anybody wants to challenge it, they can go ahead on a point of order.

Hon. Leo Housakos: My question is for the government leader in the Senate. We just found out yesterday that Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino — who helps Canadians sleep so comfortably at night — has announced that this country is not going to see a foreign influence registry before next fall.

This is another example — despite the urgency by both the public and the media — of so many cases where we currently see our national security has been compromised, yet your government continues to vacillate on this issue and bury its head in the sand, always taking an extraordinary amount of time to respond to the globe’s biggest bully: the Chinese Communist Party in Beijing.

Why is the government so reticent in taking a hard stand to protect Canadians of Chinese descent, as well as so many other Canadians of the diaspora who are being intimidated and threatened?

Why doesn’t your government embrace Bill S-237 — a private member’s bill that has been lingering in this house for 15 months? Take the bill, mould it, send it to committee, build in the elements that the government wants and expedite it out of this chamber, which the government can do quickly, given the fact that the majority of senators here continuously vote for what they wish. Get it over to the House, where there is a political will to deal with this. Why are we waiting until next fall? What is going on?

Hon. Leo Housakos: In his ruling.

Hon. Leo Housakos: Thank you, Your Honour. Thank you to Senator Carignan for raising this point of order.

Senator Cardozo, there is no ambiguity. The only ambiguity and confusion there have been in the last eight years is that some in this chamber have allowed themselves to give into the political pressure of the agenda of a Prime Minister who has imposed his vision, political and partisan view on this institution. No ambiguity. It’s in the law. It’s in the rule and the law as stated by Senator Carignan.

More importantly, the current government leader — who styles himself as a representative — if you read his mandate letter, Senator Cardozo, which was issued by the Prime Minister of Canada, he refers to him as the government leader.

After that, we’re a very flexible opposition and we allow people to carry on with their charade, which is fine. If they want to style themselves as representatives, there’s not much representation going on in this place between the government leader and this institution as we’ve seen in Question Period and other exchanges. If he wants to style himself as that, that’s one thing.

But getting up during Question Period and questioning our authority and our right to call him and refer to him as government leader as somehow impugning his reputation, that is a bit much because that is the law. We’re lawmakers.

I will ask people in this chamber to go back to the speech of the Speaker where he mentioned that it’s important that we as an institution are transparent and honest.