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Member of the Joint Interparliamentary Council Whip of the New Democratic Party Member of the panel of chairs for the legislative committees

Heather McPherson

  • Member of Parliament
  • Member of the Joint Interparliamentary Council Whip of the New Democratic Party Member of the panel of chairs for the legislative committees
  • NDP
  • Edmonton Strathcona
  • Alberta
  • Voting Attendance: 67%
  • Expenses Last Quarter: $141,604.97

  • Government Page
Context: House Hansard - 299 - Apr/15/24
Ms. Heather McPherson (Edmonton Strathcona, NDP)
  • Apr/15/24 5:10:42 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, my colleague gave an incredible speech, and she has raised the issues of her constituents. New Democrats have tried for a very long time to expand the number of countries that we are looking at with regard to foreign interference, because we understand that it is an issue not just with China. It is an issue with many countries, like Russia and Iran, that have influence and political interference in our communities, in our neighbourhoods and our country from coast to coast to coast. We know there have been parties in the House that have not wanted us to look at that, have not wanted to expand that, but we are looking at political interference, and that is what we heard so clearly in the member's speech. Can you explain why some parties did not want to include countries like Iran in looking at foreign interference?
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Context: House Hansard - 220 - Sep/19/23
Ms. Heather McPherson
  • Sep/19/23 7:45:13 p.m.
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Mr. Chair, that is a very important question. I am a member of the Canada-China committee as well, and at that committee we have also heard members of the diaspora telling us time and time again that they are afraid, that they need more action by the government and that they need more steps taken to protect them. This is not something that is new. In fact, one of the things that I mentioned in my speech is that they have been actually telling government representatives about this for 30 years. Therefore, a couple of things need to happen. When we look into the foreign interference study, we need to make sure that we are looking at China, Russia, Iran and India, because those are the four countries that we have been told have the biggest influence on our democracy or carry out the biggest interference in our democracy. That is one step that we can take. We need to have a registry so that we can know who these players are. We need to understand. Most importantly, we need to listen to the diaspora when they tell us what is happening in their communities. When they tell us that they feel unsafe and when they tell us that things are happening that are wrong and are an attack on our democracy and our sovereignty, we need to listen, and I do not think we have done that very well.
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Context: House Hansard - 192 - May/8/23
Ms. Heather McPherson (Edmonton Strathcona, NDP)
  • May/8/23 4:43:06 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, my colleague always speaks so eloquently, and I learn so much from his interventions. One of the things he talked about was the fact that the interference in our elections and the interference in our political system are not just happening from one country or another. I think that it is very important, when we stand in this House, to be very cautious and very careful with our language. With this particular example, we are seeing a diplomat from the government of China, but we also know that we have had people from the terrorist regime in Iran. We know that Russia has tried to influence Canada. In fact, during the convoy, we knew there was foreign influence coming from the United States. Could the member speak a bit more about how Canada could do more to protect itself, not just from risks from the PRC but also from other countries around the world that we know are interfering with our political system?
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Context: House Hansard - 159 - Feb/13/23
Ms. Heather McPherson (Edmonton Strathcona, NDP)
  • Feb/13/23 2:46:13 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, with everything from illegal police stations to election fraud and attempts to spy in our airspace, Canadians are rightly concerned about foreign interference by the Chinese government and others. It is up to the government to defend Canadians from threats to our democracy. Right now, they are letting Canadians down by not following the lead of other nations. We need better contact points for Canadians being threatened and intimidated, more support for our institutions and greater protections from foreign spies. When will the government stop dragging its feet and take action to protect Canadians from foreign interference and spying?
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