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Minister of Justice Attorney General of Canada

Hon. Arif Virani

  • Member of Parliament
  • Minister of Justice Attorney General of Canada
  • Liberal
  • Parkdale—High Park
  • Ontario
  • Voting Attendance: 64%
  • Expenses Last Quarter: $120,537.19

  • Government Page
Context: House Hansard - 316 - May/23/24
Hon. Arif Virani (Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, Lib.)
  • May/23/24 9:15:03 p.m.
  • Watch
Madam Chair, I want to make two clarifications. The study on the Canadian Victims Bill of Rights generated a report from the committee on December 7 of last year. In addition, what the member for Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo was asking was quite troubling, because the notion that a sitting attorney general would appear in live court during the middle of a criminal proceeding would, in my view, raise a very significant concern about undue influence and possibly efforts to influence the outcome of a proceeding. That would be entirely untoward and inappropriate. With respect to the question presented by the member for Niagara, what is troubling about even floating the idea of invocation of the notwithstanding clause is that it presents a spectre where the charter and the rights and freedoms contained therein are an inconvenience that needs to be overcome. The fact that they would be cavalierly overcome by a man who is the leader of the official opposition, who would purportedly claim the role of prime minister one day, is very troubling. It would set a precedent, as it has never been done in the history of this country. It would also demonstrate a real disregard for the important interests that Canadians have in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms itself. Why do I say that? It is because the charter protects fundamental things, such as the free expressive rights that we have been talking about in the context of the online safety bill, which are protected under section 2B; freedom of religion, which is so preciously at stake right now when we are dealing with so much troubling anti-Semitism; the ability to peacefully assemble, which is protected under section 2 of the charter; and our rights to equality and our rights to basic presumptions of innocence. If the Leader of the Opposition would so cavalierly use the notwithstanding clause to trump basic presumptions about innocence, it raises a lot of questions for Canadians, including those who are watching right now: In what other ways would he use it? Section 7 protects a woman's right to have an abortion in this country. Section 15 protects such things as equality rights in terms of gay marriage. Would he use it in those regards? I do not know the answer to these questions. However, as Minister of Justice and as guardian of the Constitution and the rights and freedoms contained therein, I am very troubled. Our position as a government, our position as a party, is clear. We created the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and we stand by it; that means every right and freedom contained therein. Canadians need to know what we stand for and what the official opposition stands for.
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Context: House Hansard - 171 - Mar/22/23
Mr. Arif Virani
  • Mar/22/23 8:24:52 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, again, I highlight the member's advocacy for his sector of Niagara and the tourism that takes place there. It is critical to the Canadian economy, to the Ontario economy and to the region of Niagara. What I would put to him quite simply is that the issues I hear about in Niagara, from the tourism sector, do relate to acute shortages, but they are not tracing those acute labour shortages in the sector to the excise duty escalator. The 0.78¢ per beer is not directly impacting the industries he is advocating for. What is affecting them is things like the pandemic itself and things like acute labour shortages, people rethinking where they want to work and how they want to work. The ways we can address that are by encouraging more of the policies that are helping get people back to work, including through immigration, which we are strongly advocating for.
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