- Member of Parliament
- NDP
- Timmins—James Bay
- Ontario
- Voting Attendance: 63%
- Expenses Last Quarter: $134,227.44
- Government Page
- Jun/3/24 3:11:56 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, corporations should not be allowed to lie about the threats that are posed by their products, which is a no-brainer, unless of course we are talking about big oil. Last week, a front group for the oil and gas industry was found guilty of running a massive disinformation campaign on the supposed benefits of burning even more fossil fuels.
The planet is on fire. People are getting sick, yet this Liberal government has never taken on the lies and the greenwashing of big oil. To the Minister of Environment, what is it going to take to end this massively funded disinformation campaign by the fossil fuel industry?
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- Apr/11/24 1:53:43 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, that is a really interesting question because certainly every time people who were workers from the energy sector came to speak, the Conservatives shut them down and refused to speak. When we went out to Alberta to meet with and to learn from the coal workers who had been damaged in the transition, the Conservatives were not there, and the Conservatives did not let them speak at our committee.
The Conservatives also do not want people speaking to the facts that clean energy jobs are taking place and that we have 209,000 clean energy jobs now in Canada, and we are looking at another 190,000. In fact, Alberta alone would have been the world centre for new jobs if it had not been for Danielle Smith and the disinformation team, like the Tucker Carlsons, who believe in the globalist agenda; the Alex Joneses, who believe in the globalist agenda; and the member for Lakeland, who believes that standing up for workers is somehow part of a globalist conspiracy. That is false. That needs to be called out as false. That is disinformation. It is conspiracy, and Canadian workers deserve a lot better than that.
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- Apr/11/24 1:48:15 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, we dealt with 20,000 bogus amendments from a party that did not want any worker representation at the table. There were 20,000 bogus amendments and we were shouted at when we tried to talk about how none of these were actually generated by real people. That is the nature of democracy in our House. Then the Conservatives said they were going to make us vote all weekend.
In my final moments, I will say that we have the Conservative leader, who has refused to apologize for his connections with Alex Jones and has refused to distance himself. We are now dealing with the politics of disinformation. I certainly hope I see the Conservative leader today; it is an important issue.
If Conservatives are going to make us vote all weekend long, I will be here. I made a promise to workers in Alberta, I made a promise to miners and I made a promise to people working in the auto sector that we were going to make sure that they had a voice at the table, no matter what the Conservatives did to try to interrupt us.
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- Apr/11/24 12:56:49 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, certainly what we have seen from the Conservatives is part of the pattern of toxic disinformation. The only way one can get away with standing up in the House and making ridiculous claims about some kind of international globalist conspiracy that will kill 170,000, 190,000 or millions of jobs is if they try to shut down the facts.
We saw at our committee that every time workers came to speak, the Conservatives shut them down. They shut down the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, whose members work in the oil patch. They shut down the carpenters union, whose members work on so many of the building projects. They shut down the Canadian Labour Congress. They shut down Unifor, which represents workers in the EV plants. They shut down the Alberta Federation of Labour.
What is it about the Conservatives that they are so angry and are ensuring that the workers who brought the bill forward are not allowed to speak, so the Conservatives can get their disinformation sock puppets to spread falsehoods? Why is it so important that we actually have the voice of labour at the table when we are talking about the transition that is under way?
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- Apr/11/24 11:53:33 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, that was a master class in disinformation, but it was a dismal example of what we have seen from that member in misrepresentations.
I was fascinated that the last time she did one of her spiels, she claimed that Bill C-50, which came to us from working with labour unions and energy workers, was a “woke globalist agenda.” Now, “globalist” has become very much identified as one of the key hate terms of conspiracy theories, and one of the people promoting hate conspiracy is Alex Jones, who of course is supporting the present leader.
I would like to give her the opportunity to explain why her party is so tied into using the hate language of Alex Jones, Tucker Carlson and the extreme right on language like “globalist.”
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Mr. Speaker, I know that facts really tend to frighten the Conservatives. If they are feeling uncomfortable about facts, maybe they can get a little safe room where they can live in disinformation. I was talking about the International Energy Agency.
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Madam Speaker, I am really glad to know that my hon. colleague has a son. I do not know what that has to do with stopping me from talking about the failure of the Conservative leadership to deal with disinformation, falsehoods, paranoia and conspiracy.
I would think it would be in the interests of all our children if, as parliamentarians, we act like adults. Obviously that has not been happening with Bill C-11. I am going to be here all week. I sit and listen to disinformation and falsehoods every day, but I think it is really important that we are clear when we call it out.
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Mr. Speaker, we listened to 18 minutes of disinformation and conspiracy theory, then the member said that the bill is a lie. I think she has to withdraw that comment, given the disinformation we have had to sit through. We sat through it respectfully.
Mrs. Rachael Thomas: I made my own statement.
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Madam Speaker, it is important that we not use disinformation in the House. The member mentioned that restaurant waitresses were breaking the law by asking for vaccine information. That is a falsehood. Could the member correct that?
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- Oct/18/22 12:42:11 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I was very interested in my hon. colleague's talk about propaganda, because one of the most dangerous things we have seen with the Putin regime is the powerful use of propaganda and disinformation. That needs to be called out.
One of the things I found very concerning was to see the Premier of Alberta, Danielle Smith, using her position to promote Putin propaganda, like, for example, claiming that it is right for people in Ukraine to be forcibly annexed into Russia. That has to be called out. There is nothing democratic about this. This is not about choice; it is about an illegal annexation that is being done with terror, murder, torture and rape. If we are going to stand up to Putin and Putin propaganda, we have to call out those who are spreading disinformation.
I ask the member if he will denounce Danielle Smith and her totally unacceptable comments promoting Putin's misinformation war against the Ukrainian people.
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Madam Speaker, it is a simple question. The member's picture is on the front page of Le Journal de Montréal, with 38 other Conservatives who are against abortion. Is it a real picture or did they make a mistake and is that disinformation?
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Madam Speaker, it has been very entertaining this afternoon. The Conservatives are saying that Canada is going to be turned into North Korea, and now my friend is saying that the Liberals are going to stop people from watching deck renovation videos.
I did agree with the hon. member about the need to fight for the fundamental rights of every Canadian and how governments control what people can do. I noticed that the cover of Le Journal de Montréal today had a picture of 39 Conservatives who are against the rights of women to make choices, and the member's picture is in there. I would like to ask him if that is disinformation, or if his—
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- May/4/22 3:48:58 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, yes, I heard the exchange. I thought he referenced her in terms of disinformation, which is different from misinformation. I would like you to check the Hansard, because, truly, if they are using their position to spread disinformation, I think that is a legitimate question, but I could have been wrong.
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- Feb/21/22 9:17:53 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, Congress has launched an investigation into Facebook and how bot farm accounts in Romania, Vietnam and Bangladesh were tied to the “freedom convoy”. One stolen account accounted for millions of dollars raised and 340,000 members signed up in two days.
I am asking why Parliament has not agreed to look into Russian disinformation in the driving of the convoy, when Congress has stepped up with a serious investigation into how bot farms and extremist content were driven from outside of Canada against Canadians.
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- Feb/21/22 7:35:40 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, Canada has become a very toxic petri dish of disinformation. We see online now that this is somehow some kind of a plot with the World Economic Forum. There is this crazy theory going around that the UN flew a secret plane into North Bay and they fired rubber bullets on people in Ottawa. We are hit and inundated with anti-vax disinformation, and it is also being perpetuated by Conservative MPs. In Washington, Congress is looking into whether Facebook was allowing bought accounts from foreign sources to push the convoy, particularly Russian disinformation.
Is Parliament ready to step up and look at the disinformation campaign? If Congress is investigating what happened with the convoy, why is there not anything happening here in Parliament?
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- Feb/19/22 8:49:28 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I am rising on a point of order.
That member was openly promoting disinformation. That is not debate. We have to call out disinformation—
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