- Member of Parliament
- Liberal
- Eglinton—Lawrence
- Ontario
- Voting Attendance: 64%
- Expenses Last Quarter: $83,797.98
- Government Page
- Jun/19/23 2:48:18 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, that is exactly what I did as Minister of Public Safety. I have strengthened the briefing protocol to ensure that I and the entire government team have all the information we need to protect our communities.
In addition, we have a very strong track record with new powers and new transparency mechanisms. We are always ready to work together, not only with the Bloc Québécois, but with all members in the House.
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- Jun/19/23 2:43:08 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, as I have made clear now on a number of occasions, I have taken corrective steps to ensure that briefing protocols are provided in a timely manner, especially when it comes to sensitive decisions involving the transferring of dangerous offenders like Paul Bernardo.
As soon as I found out, I contacted the commissioner to express the concerns of the Leslie Mahaffy and Kristen French families. That is precisely what the responsibility of this position is, as well as issuing new instructions to ensure that this kind of things does not happen again.
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- Jun/12/23 2:39:01 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, from the outset, we have always been willing to work with the Bloc. We invited the Bloc, and all members of Parliament, in fact, to receive a briefing from the intelligence services so that we could make fact-based decisions. Yes, another opportunity is now presenting itself to work together. All the options are on the table. We must do this work together to better protect our democratic institutions.
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- Jun/12/23 2:36:28 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the government is always ready to work with the opposition, including the Conservatives. However, it was the Conservatives who refused to receive a briefing from the intelligence services. I hope that now, with a renewed spirit and this new opportunity for collaboration, we will be able to work with the opposition, because this is an extremely important issue. It is critical that we address the threats posed by foreign interference, and we need to work together to do that.
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- Jun/8/23 2:59:46 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, if we have accused the opposition of making personal attacks against Mr. Johnston, it is because those are the facts. For several months now, the opposition, especially the Conservatives, has continually engaged in personal attacks against Mr. Johnston, despite his long-time service to Canadians.
Now, we need the opposition to reverse course and agree to work together, accept the security briefing and help us protect our democratic institutions and all the Canadians who are working toward that goal.
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- Jun/8/23 2:23:56 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, at this stage, it is shocking but not surprising that the Conservatives continue to focus on Mr. Johnston, someone who was appointed by former Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper, someone who did much work under the last Conservative government. Despite all of that, they would rather focus on partisan attacks than the actual hard work of fighting foreign interference together.
Mr. Johnston has laid out a path forward to engage Canadians to ensure our national security establishment has all of the tools necessary to protect Canadians. Rather than continue on with these partisan attacks, the leader of the Conservative Party of Canada should take the briefing.
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- May/30/23 2:48:24 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, we are confident that Mr. Johnston has laid a path forward in holding public hearings that will put communities at the centre of a conversation on the way we can fight against foreign interference to protect our democratic institutions. It is encouraging that at least the NDP is prepared to take the briefing. It is simply up to the Conservatives now, if they are serious, to roll up their sleeves, get a seat at the table and take a briefing so we can fight foreign interference together.
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- May/30/23 2:33:13 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, we have been taking the work of fighting against foreign interference very seriously since 2015. Again, the contradiction is the Conservatives, who want to say they are taking this seriously, yet voted against the new authorities that we granted to our national security establishment to fight this scourge. The fact that they do not want to support taking a briefing so that they can equip themselves with the information to have a responsible, thoughtful conversation about this I think lays bare that they do not take it seriously.
Again, when will you take the briefing?
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- May/30/23 2:32:05 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, if the member opposite had been paying attention, she would have noted that we did a public consultation on the creation of a foreign agent registry by listening to Canadians, by working with diaspora communities to make sure that we understand their concerns around marginalization and stigmatization. The best way forward is for the Conservative Party of Canada to take the briefing.
I have a simple question, through you, Mr. Speaker, to them. When will you take the briefing?
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- May/30/23 2:31:01 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the only cover-up that is occurring right now is the leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, who continues to cover his own eyes from the classified briefing that we offer him. The irony is that a member of his own Conservative caucus, the member for Durham, at least took a briefing from CSIS.
Now I say, through you, Mr. Speaker, to the member: take the briefing, learn the information and do the work of fighting foreign interference together.
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- May/29/23 3:09:06 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, every single one of us in this chamber has a responsibility to take the issue of foreign interference seriously. What we have seen from the Conservatives is the exact opposite.
They have voted against legislation to give our national security establishment more powers to fight this scourge.
We heard their own national campaign director in the last election say that members of their caucus did not take this issue seriously and now we have the leader of the Conservative Party of Canada who refuses to take the briefing. To him, I say, “Take the briefing and take this issue seriously, so that we can fight foreign interference together.”
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- May/29/23 2:25:59 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the Conservative leader is the one who wants to cover his eyes from the information.
We have insisted that we are prepared to work with the leader of the Conservative Party of Canada to make sure that he has access to the same classified information that Mr. Johnston had, that the two panels who verified the integrity of the 2019 and 2021 elections had, that NSICOP will have and that NSIRA will have. It is he and he alone who refuses to take this issue seriously because he refuses to take the briefing.
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- May/29/23 2:24:50 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the leader of the Conservative Party of Canada is sinking in the quicksand of his own logic when calling the briefings fake. What does he think the public servants who work in the security establishment have been doing, other than advising the government on how we can protect the people who defend our democracy every day?
If he is seriously about it, he will take the briefings, roll up his sleeves, sit at the table and help us defend our democracy from foreign interference.
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- May/29/23 2:23:40 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it is the leader of the Conservative Party of Canada who is silencing himself by refusing to take the briefings. It is the leader of the Conservative Party of Canada who is covering his own eyes from the same information that Mr. Johnston had access to, which other non-partisan professional public servants had access to. It leaves Canadians wondering why. Is it because he would rather play partisan games than do the hard work? I think we know the answer to that question and it is yes.
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- May/16/23 2:42:01 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I share my hon. colleague's concerns. That is why the government, with help from CSIS, will continue to provide briefings. That is why, in budget 2023, there are federal resources to set up a coordinator to fight foreign interference. That is why there are additional resources for the RCMP to protect all Canadians.
We need to protect our democratic institutions. That is not just the job of the government, but of all members of the House.
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- May/8/23 2:35:21 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, as my colleague across the aisle knows full well, both the Prime Minister and I directly reached out to the member for Wellington—Halton Hills to share the concerns with regard to the reports around foreign interference and his family. We offered him a briefing, and we will continue to provide that support going forward.
What is also important is that while the Conservatives talk tough when it comes to national security, they never back it up. They cut nearly a billion dollars out of the national security apparatus. They stood in the way of the additional tools to our national security apparatus, which are there to defend the members of this chamber. If they are serious about uniting behind the cause of defending democracy, they will start doing it today.
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- May/8/23 2:33:08 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I share the concerns of my colleague. That is why last week I tabled an annual report of CSIS, which illustrated that they have provided briefings to 49 federal parliamentarians. We will continue to provide the support that is needed for every member in this chamber to be able to do their job, secure in the knowledge that they are representing their communities in a way that is safe.
This is a government that will continue to do everything that is necessary to defend our democratic institutions, including the people who work in them.
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- May/4/23 2:40:39 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague for acknowledging the good word done by CSIS, whose report was tabled in the House earlier today.
The report indicates that CSIS offered 49 briefings to members here, in the House of Commons. This is a tangible example of how we can work on protecting our democratic institutions.
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- May/4/23 2:36:00 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, first I would like to reiterate that we do take the concerns that have been expressed by the member for Wellington—Halton Hills very seriously. That is why, as soon as we were informed about this issue, which was Monday earlier this week, we reached out to him directly. We offered a briefing to him. We made sure that briefing happened, and we will continue to work with him and all members to make sure that we can uphold our democracy.
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- May/4/23 2:28:51 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, let us be very clear: It was only on Monday of this week that the Prime Minister, the government members and I were informed about concerns regarding the member for Wellington—Halton Hills. Once we found out, we dealt with the situation. We provided a briefing to the opposition member.
We are going to keep working with all members to protect our democratic institutions.
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