Canadian Heritage Committee on May 9th, 2024

[Rachael Thomas, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

—because you gave me the floor, Madam Chair—

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Yes, and—

[Rachael Thomas, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

—and then you allowed Mr. Coteau to step in and start speaking over me.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Mrs. Thomas, I am not going to fight with you because you seem to relish doing that.

I am just saying that I was about to press the button to tell Mr. Coteau that you had the floor when you challenged me about not doing it.

Please, let's get on with whatever you have to say.

Mrs. Thomas, go ahead.

[Rachael Thomas, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

Madam Chair, when you gave the floor to my colleague, Mr. Waugh, on his point of order, Mr. Coteau interrupted and said it was an example of far right extremism. That is unparliamentary.

A point of order was raised by Mr. Waugh, and for Mr. Coteau to call that an example of far right extremism is absolutely inappropriate.

I would ask you, as the chair, to make a ruling on that. Are you allowing that type of accusation to stand at this committee, or are we going to ask Mr. Coteau to withdraw his comment?

[Michael Coteau, Liberal, Don Valley East, ON]

Can I speak to it, Madam Chair?

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Excuse me, Mr. Coteau. Speak to the accusation made towards you.

[Michael Coteau, Liberal, Don Valley East, ON]

Thank you.

I find Mr. Waugh a gentleman; I find him a very good parliamentarian. The point I was making is that this is a perfect example of the delay tactics that are being used. If there was any offence to Mr. Waugh, I do apologize because I actually find him to be a very kind and very dignified politician.

I don't know what the interpretation was with the member, but that accusation is quite silly.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you, Mr. Coteau.

Now, will you finish your discussion on the motion?

[Michael Coteau, Liberal, Don Valley East, ON]

Yes.

My point is this: We have a leader of the official opposition. This is a person who holds a lot of influence and power in the House of Commons, but also a lot of influence across this country.

To go into a camp of far right extremists, to march with them, to shake hands with them, to have pictures, and to be called out on these exchanges and not retract his actions, not speak to those issues, is exactly what the problem is when it comes to how we combat extremism in this country.

[Philip Lawrence, Conservative, Northumberland—Peterborough South, ON]

I have a point of order.

That is just patently false. The Leader of the Opposition has condemned this group, and this group has threatened his wife, so this is really out of bounds.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

That is not a point of order, Mr. Lawrence.

I'm sorry. Go ahead, Mr. Coteau.

[Michael Coteau, Liberal, Don Valley East, ON]

If you can you imagine, this group has.... I'll just use Mr. Lawrence's terms. I believe he said that the group has “threatened his wife”. Could you imagine this type of threat made to a politician's spouse? Yet, for some reason, Mr. Poilievre goes into this camp, where clearly it was identified that there were folks who were connected to this extreme group, yet the Leader of the Opposition has not apologized for or spoken to this issue. I haven't heard him say anything to retract or to apologize for his actions.

I use this example because when we have people in these high-profile positions—it could be in business, it could be in politics, it could be in education—who are not speaking out against far right extremism, this is what allows our country to fail.

Again, I'm quite happy that this study has been brought forward so that we can look at how far right extremism is impacting the trans community and the racialized community and how it's impacting women in this country. There has been a connection to gender-based violence on this specific issue.

I think I'll end there and again thank the mover for this motion.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you, Mr. Coteau.

Ms. Ashton, thank you for your patience. You have the floor.

[Niki Ashton, NDP, Churchill—Keewatinook Aski, MB]

Thank you very much.

In fact, in line a bit with what we heard from Mr. Coteau, I know that we in the NDP feel very strongly about the Leader of the Opposition's visit with the convoy camp.

I would like to put forward the following amendment to the motion to be placed after the words, “the committee”, in line one: “condemn the leader of the official opposition for visiting a convoy camp that celebrated far right extremists and a group whose founder was referred to as a violent extremist by Canada's Integrated Terrorism Assessment Centre and”. It carries on to the rest of the motion.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you.

I'm going to entertain debate on the amendment by Ms. Ashton.

Martin, please go ahead on the amendment.

Mr. Gourde.

[Jacques Gourde, Conservative, Lévis—Lotbinière, QC]

Madam Chair, I have a point of order.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Please go ahead with your point of order.

[Jacques Gourde, Conservative, Lévis—Lotbinière, QC]

I would like to receive the French version of Ms. Ashton's amendment before we start debating it.

Would it be possible to get it in writing from the committee?

It's a basic constitutional right to receive a document in both official languages.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

I will suspend while we get it in French. Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Can you please check that you all have the amendment in English and French before we begin to discuss it?

Thank you.

Yes, everybody has it. All right.

Niki, your hand is up. Do you want to speak to your amendment?

[Niki Ashton, NDP, Churchill—Keewatinook Aski, MB]

Absolutely, and I will make it brief, because I would like for this to move to a vote—

[Rachael Thomas, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

I'm sorry. I have a point of order.

[Niki Ashton, NDP, Churchill—Keewatinook Aski, MB]

Of course, a point of order....

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Yes, Mrs. Thomas.