- Member of Parliament
- Minister of Public Safety, Democratic Institutions and Intergovernmental Affairs
- Liberal
- Beauséjour
- New Brunswick
- Voting Attendance: 65%
- Expenses Last Quarter: $117,680.95
- Government Page
- Jun/14/23 3:01:51 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, on the issue of sharing information when a member of Parliament is being threatened as part of foreign interference, we acknowledged the problem and rectified it.
The Minister of Public Safety has given instructions that, from now on, this kind of information and intelligence must be shared not only with the minister responsible but also with the parliamentarian concerned. We have made a positive change.
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- Jun/14/23 2:43:52 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, once again, I share our colleague's opinion on the need for swift action. I said it publicly and I repeat it now: Ideally, the opposition parties and the government will agree on a process by the end of next week. This work is being done in the interest of Canadians. I deeply appreciated the letter I received yesterday from the Bloc Québécois. I have had encouraging conversations with other opposition parties, even today. The work continues. I remain optimistic.
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- Jun/14/23 2:42:30 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I am happy to repeat the answers I gave to my Bloc colleague a few moments ago. As we have always said, the country, Canadians and parliamentarians will benefit from a public process that will follow up on Mr. Johnston's reports and recommendations.
This is an opportunity to collaborate on what kind of process will be launched, what kind of people will lead that process and what the mandate will be. I look forward to continuing to work with the opposition parties.
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- Jun/14/23 2:31:34 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, as I mentioned yesterday, the letter we received from the Bloc Québécois is an important step towards building a consensus about the right way to move forward. Our colleague put forward the idea of an independent public inquiry. Perhaps he did not hear when I clearly said that it is an option the government is considering.
However, the process for this public inquiry must be properly defined. How will it protect top secret information? What will the time frame be? Who are the right people to lead this process?
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- Jun/14/23 2:30:13 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his question.
I share the interest of all parliamentarians in finding the right process and, as I have said, a public inquiry has never been ruled out. However, it is a matter of finding the right way to do the work in a respectful manner, while taking into account the importance of protecting highly confidential security information, in order to rebuild Canadians' trust.
That is what we are going to do, hopefully with the support of the opposition parties.
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- Jun/12/23 2:27:17 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, as I said at the start of question period, that has always been an option.
I know that the Bloc Québécois will never form the government, but the Conservative Party is well aware that a public inquiry involving the most heavily protected national security information cannot proceed irresponsibly.
I think that everyone would benefit from a substantive discussion on how to approach the next steps in the public process and, if a public inquiry is the option chosen, how it will proceed, what its terms of reference will be and what the timeline will look like.
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- Jun/12/23 2:26:00 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, we look forward to working with our colleague from La Prairie, his leader and the other party leaders to strengthen Canadians' confidence in our democratic institutions.
Mr. Johnston's departure gives us all an opportunity to bring down the partisan temperature and discuss how we can work together on the next steps in a public process. We look forward to talking with the opposition parties to determine how we can do this in a responsible and serious way.
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- Jun/12/23 2:19:12 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I very much appreciate the collaborative tone of the Leader of the Opposition.
From the start, we have always said that a public inquiry was a possibility. Mr. Johnston did not recommend a public inquiry and explained why. It is a difficult decision to make in the circumstances for national security reasons.
However, we look forward to working with the opposition parties to discuss the next steps of a public process, such as the type of potential inquiries, the mandate, the people who could lead this inquiry. We look forward to having these conversations.
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- Jun/6/23 2:43:48 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, as everyone in the House knows, information from national security agencies must remain secret. Those circumstances exist in every one of Canada's allied countries in this important area.
The good news is that we have offered the leaders of the opposition parties, including the Bloc, access to this information and the opportunity to judge Mr. Johnston's findings for themselves. They simply prefer to play partisan games and attack Mr. Johnston instead of looking at the facts and fully understanding the reality of foreign interference.
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- Jun/6/23 2:42:31 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, how unsurprising to hear that another of my ideas has been branded a waste of time. The Bloc Québécois leader refuses to receive reliable top secret information from our intelligence agencies. Furthermore, Mr. Johnston was invited to appear before a parliamentary committee, which he did, for more than three hours, during which he was asked no questions of substance on foreign interference, but simply grilled on his integrity. In our opinion, that is the real waste of time.
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- May/30/23 2:40:53 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, since forming government in 2015, we have taken the threat of foreign interference seriously.
We were the first government to put in place a suite of non-partisan measures precisely to strengthen our ability to respond to interference in our democratic institutions and also to inform parliamentarians about threats to democratic institutions and what the government is doing to counter them. I think the member will be happy if she talks to her colleagues who sit on these parliamentary committees.
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- May/30/23 2:38:15 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, we were disappointed but not surprised that the leader of the Bloc Québécois refused to have access to the most important and confidential information from CSIS. That would have given him a clearer picture of the facts in the whole matter of foreign interference.
I, too, used to be an opposition member. I understand that sometimes the truth is hard for the opposition. However, this time, we made an offer to the opposition party leaders, including the leader of the Bloc Québécois and the Conservative Party leader. They refused to get access to this information because they prefer to play political games.
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- May/30/23 2:35:46 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, what was truly exposed for all to see was the Leader of the Opposition's credibility when he refused the government's offer to grant him access to highly sensitive information.
He decided he would rather play partisan politics on an issue as critical as protecting our democratic institutions from foreign interference than get the facts so he could speak publicly and coherently based on the facts, instead of simply spouting partisan accusations.
This is what was exposed. My colleague must be a little disappointed in his leader.
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- May/29/23 3:01:57 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, all of Canada's national security allies are taking appropriate action to protect Canada's most secret national security information. I know the Bloc Québécois does not like that, but that is exactly how a responsible government works.
However, we have accepted the special rapporteur's recommendations on the difficulties in order to share information with political leaders within the government. The good news is that my colleague from Public Safety and the Prime Minister have addressed these deficiencies.
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- May/29/23 3:00:33 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, as the government, we took action from the start to create authorities to review our measures to counter foreign interference in our democratic institutions.
A committee of parliamentarians representing all parties and having access to the most sensitive information will evaluate all measures that are in place and make recommendations to the government on how we can further strengthen the measures we implemented.
That is precisely the work we look forward to doing with all parliamentarians.
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- May/29/23 2:42:26 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, perhaps my colleague opposite should consult his former boss, Mr. Harper, the former Conservative prime minister of Canada, who asked this individual, Mr. Johnston, to serve not only as the Governor General of Canada, but also as an adviser to the former Conservative government about an issue as important as a public inquiry into the Airbus situation.
If they were confident that this individual had sufficient judgment carry out those duties, I think it is unfortunate that they have lost that confidence for partisan reasons.
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- May/29/23 2:41:01 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, our government has taken the threat of foreign interference seriously from the moment we formed the government.
The former Conservative government was in power in 2013 when intelligence agencies detected the growing threat of foreign interference. The Conservatives, however, did absolutely nothing to strengthen our democratic institutions. We have done exactly the opposite since we formed the government.
We will rely on reports by experts from everywhere to strengthen our democratic institutions.
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- May/29/23 2:30:41 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, again, I invite my colleague from La Prairie to talk to his leader and convince him to take advantage of the government's serious offer to share highly sensitive intelligence, so that the leader of the Bloc Québécois and his colleague who sits on the committee of parliamentarians in charge of looking into precisely this type of issue can look at the very facts that Mr. Johnston and the committee of parliamentarians will see to reach their conclusions.
I think that is the least the Bloc Québécois can do on such an important issue.
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- May/29/23 2:28:58 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I once again encourage the leader of the Bloc Québécois to accept the government's offer to access the most sensitive and specific details that Mr. Johnston and the committee of parliamentarians, which includes a representative from the Bloc Québécois and from each of the other opposition parties, had access to. I would encourage him to access all that information and get all the facts before coming to unfounded partisan conclusions.
This is a serious matter that requires a serious response. I invite the Bloc Québécois to do exactly that.
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- May/29/23 2:22:12 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the only person here who is trying to hide the truth seems to be the Leader of the Opposition himself.
The Privy Council Office offered him access to the most sensitive documents that the special rapporteur reviewed in order to reach the conclusions that were made public last week. The Leader of the Opposition refused, because he would rather play petty politics on an issue that affects Canadian democracy.
It should be in the interest of all members of the House of Commons to support measures that will strengthen our democratic institutions.
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