House of Commons Hansard #252 of the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament's site.) The word of the day was sexual.
The Speaker Liberal Geoff Regan
There have been discussions among representatives of all the parties in the House, and I understand that there is consent to observe a moment of silence in memory of the victims of the attack at the Centre culturel islamique de Québec.
I invite hon. members to rise.
[A moment of silence observed]
The Speaker Liberal Geoff Regan
I have the honour to inform the House that Ms. Brosseau, member for the electoral district of Berthier—Maskinongé, has been appointed member of the Board of Internal Economy in place of Mr. Julian, member for the electoral district of New Westminster—Burnaby, for the purposes and under the provisions of section 50 of the Parliament of Canada Act.
The Speaker Liberal Geoff Regan
Pursuant to section 79.2(2) of the Parliament of Canada Act, it is my duty to present to the House a report from the parliamentary budget officer entitled “PBO and Finance Canada Long-term Projection Comparison”.
Pursuant to section 79.2(2) of the Parliament of Canada Act, it is my duty to present to the House a report from the parliamentary budget officer entitled “Economic and Fiscal Monitor - January 2018”.
The Speaker Liberal Geoff Regan
Pursuant to section 28 of the conflict of interest code for members of the House of Commons, it is my duty to present to the House the report of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner on an inquiry in relation to the Right Hon. Prime Minister.
Kevin Lamoureux LiberalParliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons
Mr. Speaker, pursuant to Standing Order 36(8) I have the honour to present, in both official languages, the government's response to 107 petitions.
Business of the HouseRoutine Proceedings
January 29th, 2018 / 3:15 p.m.
Berthier—Maskinongé Québec
NDP
Ruth Ellen Brosseau NDPHouse Leader of the New Democratic Party
Mr. Speaker, in a moment, I will ask for the unanimous consent of the House to move a motion.
First, I would like to say how proud I am to rise in the House as member of Parliament for Berthier—Maskinongé and as NDP House leader.
This is my first day in this new role, and it is even more meaningful because the House leaders of all of the recognized parties are currently women. This is a historic moment, and I really look forward to working with my colleagues.
Of course, we know that today there remains still much to be done for the fight for equality, the fight against gender-based violence, and the fight for a workplace that is free from harassment and violence, in all its forms.
Today we are debating a bill that addresses harassment in our own workplace here in the House of Commons, which is in acute need of a culture overhaul from all sides. It is clear that all parties agree that the bill is a positive step in the right direction.
The motion I would like to move would send the bill directly to committee at the conclusion of today's debate. Following conversations I have had with my counterparts from all parties in the House, I believe, Mr. Speaker, you will find unanimous consent for the following motion.
That, notwithstanding any Standing Order or usual practice of the House, when no Member rises to speak on the second reading motion of Bill C-65, An Act to amend the Canada Labour Code (harassment and violence), the Parliamentary Employment and Staff Relations Act and the Budget Implementation Act, 2017, No. 1, or at the expiry of the time provided for Government Orders today, whichever comes earlier, the Bill be deemed read a second time and referred to the Standing Committee on Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities.
The Speaker Liberal Geoff Regan
Does the hon. member have the unanimous consent of the House to move the motion?
The Speaker Liberal Geoff Regan
The House has heard the terms of the motion. Is it the pleasure of the House to adopt the motion?
Scott Reid Conservative Lanark—Frontenac—Kingston, ON
Mr. Speaker, there have been discussions among the parties, and I hope you will find the unanimous consent of the House for the following motion that the House recognize that acts of violence and bigotry directed against religious believers, such as the June 23, 1985, bombing of Air India flights 182 and 301; the September 15, 2001, firebombing of the Hindu Samaj Temple and the Hamilton Mountain Mosque; the April 5, 2004, firebombing of Montreal's United Talmud Torah Jewish school; and the January 29, 2017, murder of Muslims at the Quebec City Islamic cultural centre, are inimical to a free, peaceful, and plural society, and declare January 29 of every year as a national day of solidarity with victims of anti-religious bigotry and violence.
The Speaker Liberal Geoff Regan
Does the hon. member have the unanimous consent of the House to propose the motion?
Justin Trudeau LiberalPrime Minister
Mr. Speaker, on this day one year ago, the great mosque of Quebec City was the target of an act of terror. On this day one year ago, children, spouses, friends and neighbours lost people they loved. On this day one year ago, Canada mourned its own: Khaled Belkacemi, Azzedine Soufiane, Abdelkrim Hassane, Aboubaker Thabti, Mamadou Tanou Barry and Ibrahima Barry.
Today, we know that these six people were gunned down by ignorance and hatred, fuelled by Islamophobia and racism, which will never have a place in our society. This act of violence was both inexcusable and unacceptable.
Over the days and weeks that followed the tragedy, Canadians came together, finding strength in their differences and taking pride in the diversity that has enriched their country. Together, we chose love over hate, compassion over violence, solidarity over division. Together, we showed that we are capable of living up to the values at the core of the Canadian identity. We showed that we shine brightest in darkness.
On this day one year ago, we honoured the memory of those who left us too soon. We stood in solidarity with the Muslim community, which is too often targeted by hate.
As we mark this sombre anniversary and remember the extraordinary courage of ordinary people, I believe we must ask ourselves if we have done right by the men who lost their lives on this day one year ago. When the dust began to settle and it began to be business as usual once again, did we stand with neighbours and strangers who were targeted by hate? I ask not only the members of this House but all Canadians. Have we regularly condemned everyday acts of racism like we so forcefully did just one year ago? Have we defended the freedom of others, whether it be to pray, to love, or to simply be, as we would our own?
These attacks sought to divide this country and its citizens, drive wedges between neighbours, and make enemies of strangers. Sadly, the same can be said of hate crimes and other isolated incidents of discrimination that far too often go unnoticed or unreported. Things like graffiti and slurs have become commonplace, normalized, and even tolerated. The loss of life should not and cannot be a necessary condition for acts of hatred to merit our attention. Tragedy should not and cannot become a prerequisite for us to have important conversations in our homes and in our schools.
It should never have come to this point for attitudes to be changed and for changes to be made. We cannot bring back those who perished, but we owe it to them to fight the very sentiments that led to their loss. We owe it to them to speak up and to stand tall and explicitly against Islamophobia and discrimination in all its forms.
Every day, we can and must honour those who left us too soon and honour their values. In the face of ignorance, let us choose compassion. In the face of hate, let us choose love. Together, let us take a stand against Islamophobia and all forms of discrimination. We must not let fear into our hearts. We must not let racism take root in our society. Together, we must continue to find strength in our diversity and take pride in our differences. Every day, let us pay tribute to Khaled Belkacemi, Azzedine Soufiane, Abdelkrim Hassane, Aboubaker Thabti, Mamadou Tanou Barry and Ibrahima Barry. Let us show that Canadians will not be intimidated by violence or hatred, not today, not tomorrow, not ever.
Islamic Cultural Centre of Quebec CityRoutine Proceedings
Regina—Qu'Appelle Saskatchewan
Conservative
Andrew Scheer ConservativeLeader of the Opposition
Mr. Speaker, I thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak today. I want to join the Prime Minister and all of my colleagues in the House in remembering the victims of the shooting at the Centre culturel islamique de Québec on January 29, 2017. This shooting was an act of terror that shook the region, the province, and the entire country. It shook a city that is proud of its warmth and hospitality, particularly at this time of year when it welcomes people from around the world to its winter carnival.
Quebec City was home to the victims of the attack. It was where they lived with their families, worked, and prayed. It was for that last act, for practising their faith freely, as they must be able to do in Canada, that they were murdered in cold blood. They were fathers and sons, brothers and husbands. They went to pray and never returned home.
This should not happen in Canada. Our country has always welcomed those seeking freedom and a better life. It must always be a place where believers of all faiths feel safe and secure in their worship. An attack like this one is an attack on those very principles, which have stood the test of time and for which we have fought around the world. As always, we must do our part to defend those freedoms here in Canada.
All Canadians must feel secure in their communities. They must feel safe living freely and practising their faiths. An attack on Canadians in their place of worship is an attack on the religious freedoms that should be enjoyed by all of us. Sadly, there always will be people who seek to harm others because of the fanatical, violent ideologies they espouse.
We must remain alert to these dangers. We must not be afraid, but we must be ready to defend our society, its tolerance, and its freedoms from those who seek to undermine them.
We must also recognize and appreciate Canada's Muslim community, an integral part of our country. It has made an immeasurable contribution to our free, prosperous, and pluralistic society. Canadian Muslims must know that they will always have a home here, one where they can live in peace and liberty.
Last year's attack was a hate crime that took six innocent lives.
It was a strike against Canada's Muslim community and against the freedom of religion that we must always defend in Canada.
Today, we remember the victims. We offer our condolences to their families and friends.
Guy Caron NDP Rimouski-Neigette—Témiscouata—Les Basques, QC
Mr. Speaker, today, 17 children are orphans. Because of hate, 17 children are now orphans. They are orphans because their fathers were killed simply for being Muslim. On January 29, 2017, Khaled, Azzedine, Aboubaker, Mamadou, Ibrahima, Abdelkrim, and dozens of others made their way to the Grande mosquée de Québec. It was a winter night like any other. Peaceful. However, that night, an act of terrorism changed their lives, and ours, forever.
A year ago, lslamophobia changed lives forever in Quebec, in Quebec City, and across Canada.
The tragedy at the great mosque in Quebec City, the Grande mosquée de Québec, is the worst terrorist attack in Quebec since the shooting at the École polytechnique in Montreal in 1989, which killed 14 women and injured 14 others. They were targeted simply because they were women. There was a “before” and “after” the Polytechnique. There is now a “before” and “after” the great mosque of Quebec City. Over the past year, a lot has been said and a lot has been written about the attack. The dead have been mourned, and their lives have been honoured. We honour them again today.
However, it is not enough to honour them. We must commit to fight Islamophobia in order to deprive hate of future victims. Today, on this day of commemoration, we must ask ourselves whether lessons have been learned, whether the tone of the discussion has changed, whether it has worsened. The truth is that hateful acts have not diminished, especially not online, on social media.
Harassment in the street continues, especially for Muslim women, and acts of violence are still all too common. Let us not forget that last summer, a car belonging to the president of the Centre culturel islamique de Québec was set ablaze in front of his home. The intimidation of young Muslims also continues. How will they navigate this environment of constant suspicion that surrounds them? These youth live in the real world, where they cannot close their eyes and pretend there is no racism directed towards them.
Le Devoir announced this week that in Montreal alone, almost 250 hate crimes were reported in 2017. That is almost one every day, just in Montreal. Furthermore, we know that a large number of hate crimes go unreported.
Silence is a common refuge for those who are tired of hate. Because hate is becoming so prevalent in our society, too many are tuning out, but this is how hate prevails and why we, as parliamentarians, have a special responsibility to speak out.
Hate has always found a target. In the past, it was the Irish, Jews or Italians; today, it is Muslims or Arabs. Who knows which group will be targeted tomorrow? History is watching us.
I am a white man, and as a white man I do not know what it is like to face racism. I will never be the victim of xenophobic acts, but some of my neighbours, friends, constituents, fellow MPs, and staff will be. Some members of my own family have faced racism. We need to stand up and say that we will not get used to this and we will not turn a blind eye to this hate. We will confront it, we will denounce it, and we will work to end hate.
What we need is education. Racism does not simply materialize out of thin air. It takes root in the space our society allots, and some people feed it. We need the right tools to rid our society of it. That will not happen from one day to the next, for racism is tenacious, as we all know. It is our responsibility as elected representatives to be aware of the impact of words, of our own words, of the messages we send and how they are interpreted and reinterpreted.
The day after the shooting at the Quebec City mosque, 6,000 people in Quebec City and 15,000 people in Montreal joined thousands more in communities across Canada to stand in solidarity with the families of the victims. They gathered to not only mark the tragedy, but to condemn racism, Islamophobia, and populist hate. Candles in hand, thousands enduring freezing temperatures, showing us that the best response to those who would tear us apart is solidarity and that openness and acceptance trump suspicion based on nothing but ignorance.
Tonight, similar gatherings are planned for Quebec City, Montreal, Ottawa, Guelph, Kitchener, Hamilton, Toronto, St. Catharines, London, Yarmouth, Halifax, Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Calgary, Vancouver, Surrey, and Victoria.
People are gathering, shoulder to shoulder, to remember, to share the same pain, and to share the same hope for a brighter future. To quote NDP leader Jagmeet Singh, “We're all in this together”, no matter the colour of our skin, our beliefs, our gender identity, our place of birth, or the clothes we wear.
Dignity does not discriminate on the basis of religion, race, or gender. Human dignity knows no borders. Today, 17 children are orphans because of hate. The survivors must hold their heads high. As a society we must be united in our determination to combat hate. Together, let us pass on a peaceful world to the next generation, a world where everyone knows that they belong. Together, we will work to end the inequality that divides us. Together, we will douse the flames of intolerance, because everyone deserves to live in peace, because everyone deserves to see their children laugh, run, and discover everything life has to offer as they grow up.
Today we are reminded why it is so important that we stand united against all forms of hate. As our leader Jagmeet Singh has said, “We need to champion the politics of love to fight the growing politics of hate, the politics of courage to fight the politics of fear.”
The Speaker Liberal Geoff Regan
Is there unanimous consent for the hon. member for Pierre-Boucher—Les Patriotes—Verchères to add his remarks? Agreed.
Xavier Barsalou-Duval Bloc Pierre-Boucher—Les Patriotes—Verchères, QC
Mr. Speaker, one year ago, six people lost their lives at the Centre culturel islamique de Québec. We Quebeckers lost six of our sons. Each and every one of us remembers the moment we heard about what happened in Sainte-Foy on January 29, 2017. We will never forget how we felt then.
Ibrahima Barry, Mamadou Tanou Barry, Khaled Belkacemi, Abdelkrim Hassane, Azzedine Soufiane, and Aboubaker Thabti were all fathers, brothers, friends, colleagues, and members of our community. They all chose Quebec and made it their home and their society; above all, they chose us, Quebeckers.
These six individuals chose us because, in Quebec, everyone, without exception, has the right to freedom, the right to security, and the freedom to practice their religion.
On behalf of the Bloc Québécois, I want to pay tribute to their memory and offer my support to their families and loved ones. I also want to acknowledge the courage and resilience of the eight people who were injured in the shooting. On this, the anniversary of the Quebec City mosque shooting, we have a responsibility to respond to hate with love, to bigotry with solidarity, to violence with fellowship. We share the pain felt by the victims' families and friends. We are all in this together, and we will all listen together.
In memory of Ibrahima, Mamadou, Khaled, Abdelkrim, Azzedine, and Aboubaker, today we celebrate the fellowship that unites us and the solidarity that brings us together.
Let us learn from this appalling tragedy and not let these terrible losses be in vain. Let us be more attentive and more loving towards one another and never let the tragedy of January 29 ever happen again.
The Speaker Liberal Geoff Regan
I believe there is unanimous consent for the hon. member for Saanich—Gulf Islands to add her comments.
Elizabeth May Green Saanich—Gulf Islands, BC
Mr. Speaker, I thank you and my colleagues. As my colleague from the Bloc Québécois said, we are in this together. We must never forget this dark episode in our history, when six Canadians were gunned down and 19 others were injured. I want to express my love and solidarity for our Muslim brothers and sisters across the country.
We are together today as we were last year. On a personal note, I want to extend my thanks to the right hon. Prime Minister for taking on the airplane representatives, leaders of the other parties: our dear friend, who is not here now, Rona Ambrose, and the previous leader, the member for Outremont. We were together, standing on that cold night, with our candles, with thousands and thousands of Quebeckers holding their small children, with blankets and toques, and children coming home from their hockey games standing along the snowbanks to watch us, lit by candlelight, in our grief and solidarity.
There is only one thing I would want to add to what we have already said. I want to thank the Prime Minister again for making it possible for representatives of all parties to travel together again today to Quebec City to stand in solidarity with the extraordinarily generous and open-hearted people of Quebec, who were also victims of having such a terrible crime committed in their most beautiful city. That is another atrocity, because it attaches to an open-hearted and wonderful city a crime that broke our hearts.
It is appropriate that we heed the call of the National Council of Canadian Muslims that we make a permanent decision to create a day of remembrance on January 29, but another action we can take to show our deep commitment is to recognize the heroism of Aymen Derbali.
Mr. Derbali remains seriously injured.
He will never be able to walk again. He is a father of three, originally from Tunisia. When the gunman opened fire, he stood to attract attention and take more shots to try to protect other people. He has earned two MBAs at Laval since coming to this country. He must be an extraordinary human being, and I would hope that we can find a way, perhaps not as Parliament but as individuals, to contribute to the fund to ensure that he has housing that is accessible, because he will be in a wheelchair, and his current housing will not work for that.
I will not go on. I am sure we all feel in our hearts how much we could do to say to our Muslim brothers and sisters across this country our deep commitment that this never happen again.
[Member spoke in Arabic]
[English]
Larry Bagnell Liberal Yukon, YT
Mr. Speaker, pursuant to Standing Orders 104 and 114, I have the honour to present, in both official languages, the 49th report of the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs regarding the membership of committees of the House.
If the House gives its consent, I would like to move concurrence at this time.
(Motion agreed to)
Kevin Lamoureux LiberalParliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons
Mr. Speaker, there have been discussions among the parties, and I believe you will find unanimous consent for the following motion.
I move:
That, notwithstanding the provisions of any Standing Order, for the duration of 2018, when a recorded division is to be held on a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday, except recorded divisions deferred to the conclusion of Oral Questions, the bells to call in the Members shall be sounded for not more than 30 minutes.