Evidence of meeting #141 for Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities in the 44th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was cmhc.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Don Stewart Conservative Toronto—St. Paul's, ON
Thank you, Chair.
Minister, your mandate says that you will “lead a whole-of-government approach to build a more inclusive, equitable and just society” and take action “to prevent radicalization to violence and to protect vulnerable communities.”
Does that include protecting our Jewish communities from anti-Semitism?
Conservative
Don Stewart Conservative Toronto—St. Paul's, ON
Do you believe anti-Semitism is a major issue in Canada?
Liberal
Kamal Khera Liberal Brampton West, ON
Absolutely. We condemn it. We are working extremely closely with the Jewish community. We are working extremely closely with my colleague the Minister of Public Safety.
Conservative
Don Stewart Conservative Toronto—St. Paul's, ON
Minister, according to StatsCan, hate crimes are up 251% since 2015. Two-thirds of religiously motivated hate crimes this year have been against the Jewish community. Your mandate calls on you to combat hate crimes in Canada. Meanwhile, we saw anti-Semitic mobs take to the streets, shouting, “From Palestine to Lebanon, Israel will soon be gone” and “There's only one solution: intifada, revolution.”
Do you unequivocally condemn these chants by hateful mobs on our streets, yes or no?
Liberal
Kamal Khera Liberal Brampton West, ON
Mr. Chair, through you, every single person in the House, and I think every Canadian, condemns hate and anti-Semitism.
Conservative
Liberal
Conservative
Liberal
Kamal Khera Liberal Brampton West, ON
I also want to allude to where you talked about hate crimes. I think it's important.
Conservative
Conservative
Don Stewart Conservative Toronto—St. Paul's, ON
Minister, two weeks ago, an anti-Semitic mob took over the streets of Montreal. Protesters stood in front of Jewish counter-protesters, made Nazi salutes and reportedly said, “The final solution is coming your way.” You know what the final solution is.
Do you condemn these protesters and the anti-Semitic threats?
Liberal
Kamal Khera Liberal Brampton West, ON
We all condemn unequivocally anti-Semitism or hate in any form in this country. In fact, I have put forward Canada's first-ever action plan on combatting hate. We have put forward $274 million, and the Conservative Party of Canada voted against it.
Conservative
Don Stewart Conservative Toronto—St. Paul's, ON
At York University, student unions issued a declaration—
Liberal
Kamal Khera Liberal Brampton West, ON
Shame on them to pretend to care about hate in this country, when every chance they've had, they've voted against it, including supports for Jewish Canadians in this country.
Conservative
Don Stewart Conservative Toronto—St. Paul's, ON
They issued a declaration calling the barbarism of October 7 a “justified and necessary” act of resistance “against settler-colonialism, apartheid, and genocide”.
Liberal
Wayne Long Liberal Saint John—Rothesay, NB
I have a point of order.
Chair, the minister has clearly said that she condemns these acts.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Bobby Morrissey
Thank you, Mr. Long. That's debate.
We will return the floor to Mr. Stewart.
Conservative
Tracy Gray Conservative Kelowna—Lake Country, BC
I have a point of order, Mr. Chair.
I'm wondering if you can ask the minister to control herself and stop screaming—
Conservative
Tracy Gray Conservative Kelowna—Lake Country, BC
—which she has been doing throughout most of this committee. She's been yelling throughout most of this committee.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Bobby Morrissey
Mrs. Gray, we're going into debate. It's coming from both sides. I give a lot of latitude.
The member who's currently questioning has the floor. I would expect both the member and the witness to respect one another.
Conservative
Don Stewart Conservative Toronto—St. Paul's, ON
Thank you, Chair.
Notwithstanding that, according to U of T sociologist Robert Brym, most Jews feel “unsafe and victimized.”
Does that surprise you?