Thomas Mulcair

[Employment Insurance, May 28th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, the unemployed are expected to abandon the careers they have trained for, commute up to two hours a day, take a permanent 30% pay cut and get a McJob or work in the mines, as their ministers have said, even when it is not related to their skills.

However, failed Conservative candidates do not end up at McDonalds or in the mines, do they? No, they get nice cushy jobs in Paris. They end up on government boards, racking up expense accounts. Meanwhile, hard-working Canadians are told that they are lazy and defeatist.

Why are the Conservatives going after the unemployed? Why are they targeting people in need?

[Employment Insurance, May 28th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, no one should be surprised at the Conservatives' attitude. It was their Prime Minister who said that people in Atlantic Canada had a culture of defeatism and were dependent on EI.

To the Minister of Human Resources, employment insurance is attractive, even lucrative, a nice gift for the lazy people who make a living from fishing, farming and forestry.

How can the Conservatives justify policies that target the unemployed, attack workers and unfairly force people to give up either a third of their salary or their EI cheque?

[Employment Insurance, May 28th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, let us talk about unemployment insurance, something that will become important for the member very soon.

Canadians are starting to see through what the Prime Minister is doing with his catch-all budget bill.

The Conservatives are going to force Canadians to accept a 30% pay cut or else lose their employment insurance.

Cuts to EI, cuts to old age security, cuts to social rights: that is the perfect way to create cheap labour for McDonald's. The minister said so herself.

In six years, 500,000 manufacturing jobs have been lost, and they are being replaced with McJobs.

Is that the Conservatives' economic strategy?

[François Chevrette, May 28th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, I rise here today to pay tribute to François Chevrette, one of the most eminent constitutional law experts of his time, who passed away suddenly on May 19.

He became a professor at the University of Montreal faculty of law in 1968. He served as dean of the faculty from 1984 to 1988. He was long associated with the Centre de recherche en droit public and also penned many important publications.

Mr. Chevrette was an excellent communicator and a born teacher. He shared his passion for law with thousands of future judges, lawyers, notaries, professors and so on, all of whom were fortunate enough to learn from his intelligence and knowledge. He devoted himself entirely to his students, providing them with continuous support and the best possible advice.

On behalf of the NDP, I would like to acknowledge his outstanding contribution to public law. The legal community has lost a great constitutional expert. I would like to extend my sincere condolences to his family, his colleagues and his friends.

[The Economy, May 17th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, Conservatives are destabilizing the balanced economy that Canada has painstakingly built up since the second world war, sacrificing the entire manufacturing sector and all other export sectors, because the Canadian dollar is being held artificially high, because they are failing to enforce environmental legislation. The high number of U.S. dollars is bringing the Canadian dollar too high, hurting all export sectors.

That is the result of choices. Their priority is the unbridled development of the oil sands. We stand for sustainable development in this country.

[The Economy, May 17th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, 500,000 good-paying manufacturing jobs have been lost because we are not enforcing legislation. We are not enforcing the navigable waters act. We are not enforcing the migratory birds act. We are not enforcing the Fisheries Act. We are allowing these companies to use the air, the soil and the water as an unlimited free dumping ground. Their model for development is Nigeria instead of Norway. We know what we want: it is sustainable development to protect future generations.

Yesterday we found out another part of the government's development process: telling teachers and therapists in Newfoundland to go work in the mines. Is that the Conservatives' idea of an economy—telling people that they have to go work in the mines, telling them that they are lazy Newfoundlanders?

[Confidentiality of Information, May 17th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, it is no wonder the Conservatives received the Canadian award for most secretive government in history a couple of weeks ago from our journalists, but this is not run-of-the-mill Conservative secrecy. It is vindictive, it is vicious and it is illegal. One government department went so far as to check the home address of Globe and Mail reporter Daniel Leblanc.

Why? Why is the public service being enlisted to run a witch hunt on journalists?

[Confidentiality of Information, May 17th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, they are leaving the largest ecological, economic and social debt in history on the backs of future generations. We know what the problem is. It is the way we are developing them.

No one is saying we should not develop the oil sands. We are saying we don't—

[Confidentiality of Information, May 17th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, laws on government secrecy exists to protect real national secrets, not embarrassments to the Prime Minister. The article in the Globe and Mail said the government “...is refusing to open up the $16-billion purchase of 65 new fighter jets to a competition because of the potential negative reaction in the United States...”.

The Prime Minister might take issue with the truth, but it does not justify calling the cops, it does not justify intimidating reporters and it certainly does not justify attacking freedom of the press.

Is this the point we have reached in this country—having police investigate journalists who are only doing their jobs?

[Confidentiality of Information, May 17th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, once again, the Conservative government is on a witch hunt. This time, it asked the RCMP to investigate an article shedding light on the untendered procurement process for the F-35 jets. Daniel Leblanc of the Globe and Mail did not reveal national secrets, he revealed a national embarrassment.

The embarrassment is that the Conservative government broke every rule of sound public administration to purchase a plane that does not even work.

Who in the Conservative government ordered the police to investigate a journalist?