House of Commons Hansard #42 of the 43rd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament's site.) The word of the day was program.
Jag Sahota Conservative Calgary Skyview, AB
Madam Speaker, when I was talking about the response in immigration, I was talking about the constituents who were stuck outside of Canada and the response to bring them back to Canada. In regard to anything that helps Canadians deal with the pandemic, that would be something I would support.
Cathay Wagantall Conservative Yorkton—Melville, SK
Madam Speaker, my colleague mentioned a number of areas where the government had failed throughout this course of time. There is another area specifically, which is the Canada summer jobs program. The Liberals decided to extend the amount of time that it could run, they increased the wages to minimum wage, they included part-time work, they gave more opportunities for businesses to apply and yet they provided no more funding for the program.
This was set up. We had our wonderful, professional public service ready to run it. Instead, the Liberals chose to roll the dice, with an ethical violation as the outcome.
Could my colleague comment on the importance of that program and how the government failed to implement it?
Jag Sahota Conservative Calgary Skyview, AB
Madam Speaker, before I came here, I had to make calls to people who had received the funding, but so many had applied and were left out. Some of those were crucial services, especially during this pandemic. It was very important for the government to ensure that funds were available for those people who had applied and who were categorized as crucial service programs.
Damien Kurek Conservative Battle River—Crowfoot, AB
Madam Speaker, my colleague touched on a number of very important issues.
We have heard rumours in the last number of days, like we did in the last election, about a home equity tax. There is an old adage, and I was a volunteer firefighter for a number of years, that where there is smoke, there is fire. When one sees smoke a number of times, one must see that there must be fire.
Could my colleague talk about how devastating a home equity tax would be on Canadian taxpayers?
Jag Sahota Conservative Calgary Skyview, AB
Madam Speaker, on this side of the House we all know that side of the House raises taxes, so this is not a surprise to us. The carbon tax is an example at this time.
A motion to adjourn the House under Standing Order 38 deemed to have been moved.
Michael Barrett Conservative Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON
Madam Speaker, I find myself often rising to ask questions of the government with respect to its handling of ethical matters, and no more appropriate a time have we found to address the government on these questions than in light of the scandal that currently has engulfed the Prime Minister's Office.
For a third time, the Prime Minister is under investigation by the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner, twice having been found to have broken the law. On the front lines of this latest scandal with the WE Charity, the Prime Minister is in the company of another minister who has been found to have broken ethics laws in this country: the Minister of Finance with his forgotten French villa.
We hear from the finance minister and the Prime Minister, time and time again, that they are sorry. They are sorry they were caught, because right out of the gate with any of these issues the immediate response is that there is nothing to see here.
We remember with the SNC-Lavalin scandal the very first reaction by the Prime Minister was that the story in The Globe and Mail was false. Since then, the Ethics Commissioner investigated and found in the Trudeau II Report that the Prime Minister did contravene the Conflict of Interest Act. The story in The Globe and Mail was true.
We know that when it was before cabinet, and members of cabinet spoke out against the lack of ethical integrity at the table, the member for Vancouver Granville, the former minister of justice and attorney general, was fired. Canada's first female, indigenous attorney general was fired.
We know that when another member of cabinet with integrity, the former president of the Treasury Board, Dr. Jane Philpott, raised the issue as well, she was kicked out of caucus with the member for Vancouver Granville.
We know from those two reports, the Trudeau Report and Trudeau II Report, that the Prime Minister likes to reward his friends. We know from the ejection of the member for Vancouver Granville and the former president of the Treasury Board, the hon. Dr. Jane Philpott, that the Prime Minister punishes his enemies.
Accountability is not found today in the office of the Prime Minister, so we look to the government benches and ask Liberal members if they have the courage of their convictions and the intestinal fortitude to demand better of their Prime Minister.
Kevin Lamoureux LiberalParliamentary Secretary to the President of the Queen’s Privy Council for Canada and to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons
Madam Speaker, at times I wonder if the member goes to bed at night trying to influence his dreaming capabilities so he can raise some sort of issue with the government of the day that he can put a negative spin on. I was reviewing the question the member posed that ultimately led to the speech we just heard. The question was this: Why did the Bloc party vote with the government to prevent us from dealing with an issue that was in the House of Commons prior to the last election? He was upset with the Bloc because the Bloc voted with the government, but the Bloc agreed that the issue was from the previous Parliament and we did not need to talk about it.
If we were to go back to previous elections, I am sure we could find a number of interesting scandals that Conservatives were involved in. Do members remember the Senate scandal? Maybe we should regurgitate one of those scandals and have them go before the ethics committee.
At the end of the day, there has been a great deal of transparency and accountability. We have seen the Prime Minister, even when he was in opposition, bring forward things such as proactive disclosure. We have seen that the Prime Minister has been very candid in recognizing if he makes a mistake. He then apologizes for it and takes actions to rectify it.
In the end, I truly believe that we need to move forward. The report the member referred to, the second report on the Prime Minister, was dealt with in the House. We are not the only party in the House that agrees with that. I suggest the member remain focused on some of the good things that are happening. Maybe the member could spend less time dreaming about how he can create crisis situations and instead look at ways we can improve the system. I am not saying the system cannot be improved upon; the system can be improved upon.
There will be mistakes. Conservative ministers made mistakes and went to the commissioner. I urge members to remember that the commissioner is relatively new. That position only came into being in 2008, so there have only been two prime ministers and two governments that have been subjected to the commissioner. It is a learning process, and we have a Prime Minister who understands that. When mistakes are made, he is very straightforward and he co-operates with the Ethics Commissioner.
I see those as positive things. I only wish that Conservative opposition members would give some attention to not only the negative side of life but also to the positive side of life. Maybe they could bring forward ideas so we can ensure there is more accountability and transparency.
I am very open-minded, and I look forward to the rebuttal in the form of a question from my friend, but I would like to see us move forward. I would like to see if we can come up with some positive contributions to how we could change the system and ultimately see an improvement. I know he has it in him to come up with some positive recommendations. I would implore him to suggest one or two of them in a positive light.
Michael Barrett Conservative Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON
Madam Speaker, the member opposite talked about things that I dream up at night, when these are, in fact, the nightmares Canadians are having with respect to the ethical scandals we are seeing from the Prime Minister's Office.
The question I originally asked, which brought about this late show, had to do with the Liberals working with the separatist Bloc party to prevent the Ethics Commissioner from presenting his report at the ethics committee. That is the lack of accountability of the Liberals. It is the same ethics report that the Prime Minister refused to allow nine people to testify for, or to provide evidence to the commissioner about.
A positive recommendation I have for the member opposite is that the Prime Minister voluntarily offer to appear at any standing committee of the House. A second recommendation I would make to the member is that the Prime Minister agree to waive all cabinet confidences this time, not just the ones that have already been broken through various reports.
These are recommendations the member opposite should encourage the Prime Minister to follow. Those are recommendations that the Liberal caucus should really encourage the Prime Minister to take, because if he does not, Canadians will be unable to have confidence in their institutions and their public office holders. Frankly, they deserve better.
Kevin Lamoureux Liberal Winnipeg North, MB
Madam Speaker, just to emphasize, the member opposite is focused on trying to blame the Bloc for voting with the Liberals to prevent something from a previous election coming before a House of Commons standing committee. This is the same Bloc that often votes with the Conservative Party against the government. The member is imputing motives that might not necessarily be justified, I would suggest, and I am trying to be as nice as I can with regard to it.
When I think of standing committees, in the back of my mind I am trying to think if Stephen Harper ever appeared before one. I wonder if the member is aware that, even though the office of the commissioner has only been around since 2008, there were a number of Conservatives—
The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Alexandra Mendès) Liberal Alexandra Mendes
The hon. member for Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan.
Garnett Genuis Conservative Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB
Madam Speaker, I have just come to the House from the hearings of the Subcommittee on International Human Rights. We spent all day in powerful hearings about the genocide happening in East Turkestan or Xinjiang in China where Uighur Muslims are facing all kinds of horrific human rights abuses simply on the basis of their faith and ethnic background. There was a clear consensus among witnesses that there is a genocide ongoing in Xinjiang, and there was a call from witnesses to take strong action here in Canada to respond to that genocide; indeed, to make meaningful our historic commitments to saying “never again”, that we will never again allow a people to be eradicated or attempts to eradicate them in this kind of way. Adrian Zenz, a senior researcher, described what is happening in Xinjiang as the largest mass incarceration of a minority since the Holocaust.
The calls to action included Canada's imposing Magnitsky sanctions against those involved in this gross violation of human rights, and also a response that would looks at the use of Uighur slave labour in our supply chains, with stronger legislation to prevent products that are produced through slave labour from making their way into our supply chains, as well as stronger measures to prevent government co-operation, like we have seen with Nuctech and security firms that are also involved in gross violations of human rights in East Turkestan.
The last panel at our hearing brings me to this question today, because we had an opportunity to hear from Kamila Telendibaeva, the wife of Huseyin Celil. Mr. Celil is a Canadian citizen of Uighur background who is currently in prison in China. He has been in prison in China for over a decade, and he has not had access to consular services. It is a horrific situation. He is the father of four, but he has never had an opportunity to meet his youngest son, because his wife was pregnant at the time he was taken. However, he was not arrested in China. He had travelled to Uzbekistan on a Canadian passport and was arrested in Uzbekistan and transferred to China. He has a wife and four sons here in Canada, the youngest of whom he has never met.
This horrific situation, the genocide of the Uighurs, in particular the detention of this Uighur Canadian, should seize Canadians and the government. I raised this issue at the Canada-China committee with our ambassador on February 5. Unfortunately, he initially seemed unaware of the case, and then he said that Mr. Celil was not a citizen. I note that the Minister of Foreign Affairs has since corrected this, but it remains a fact that we have regular mention, and rightly so, of other Canadians who are detained in China, but we have not seen nearly the same level of attention paid to cases involving Canadian citizens who originated abroad. Cases such as Mr. Celil, Fan Wei or others have simply not gotten the same attention in statements by our ambassador as cases that involve those born in Canada. That is very disappointing, because I think that we should all believe in a principle that a Canadian is a Canadian, and yet we have not seen a strong enough response.
During the testimony today, witnesses asked that the government not only make right what was made wrong but that it also take further steps, including appointing a special envoy to look into this case. I want to know what the government's response is to those calls actions and—
The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Alexandra Mendès) Liberal Alexandra Mendes
The hon. parliamentary secretary.
Kevin Lamoureux LiberalParliamentary Secretary to the President of the Queen’s Privy Council for Canada and to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons
Madam Speaker, I would first like to thank members of the standing committee and those who have taken the time to present and share their thoughts on this very important issue.
Huseyin Celil is a Canadian citizen. As the Prime Minister and the Minister of Foreign Affairs have consistently stated, the government is seized at all levels by cases of Canadians detained in China, including the long-standing case of Mr. Celil. Mr. Celil has been in detention in Xinjiang since 2006.
The provision of consular services to Canadians in China is governed by a bilateral agreement that details consular obligations and entitlements of our two countries in order to facilitate the protection of the rights and interests of our citizens. It is also governed by the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. Canada expects China to live up to its obligations under these agreements.
In the case of Mr. Celil, despite repeated and ongoing attempts, Canadian officials have not been granted consular access. The government is deeply concerned about the case of Mr. Celil and will continue to raise his case at every opportunity at senior levels. Canadian officials will continue to advocate for Mr. Celil and seek consular access to him to verify his health and well-being and offer him assistance.
Mr. Celil is of the Uighur ethnicity, and Canada is deeply concerned by the mass detention of Uighurs in Xinjiang based on their ethnicity and religion and under the pretext of countering extremism. We acknowledge the pain and hardship experienced by Mr. Celil's family as a result of his detention. Consular officials are in communication with Mr. Celil's family and will continue to provide support until they are reunited.
Uighurs have been disappearing into detention in China, and getting information about their whereabouts can be incredibly challenging. Publicly and privately, in multilateral fora and in bilateral conversations, Canada has consistently called on the Chinese government to address the situation. Canada has called on the Chinese government to allow the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the UN Special Procedures immediate, unfettered, meaningful access to Xinjiang.
Our government will always stand up for Canadians in need of assistance abroad. We recognize and affirm that Mr. Celil is a Canadian. We will continue to advocate for him and make every effort to obtain consular access to him.
Garnett Genuis Conservative Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB
Madam Speaker, I thank the hon. member for speaking from the heart.
I want to follow up on some of the testimony we heard. The government has said words with respect to this issue, but we need strong action.
Irwin Cotler, a former Liberal justice minister, said this is a genocide that requires us to respond in accordance with our international obligations under the genocide convention. We must recognize it and respond to it. We must recognize that we have a responsibility to protect and then deploy a range of measures to protect, to do what we can, whether this involves Magnitsky sanctions or other actions. We should also ensure that we do not have slave labour in our supply chains. That is a problem right now, and we need tougher legislation dealing with slave labour in our supply chains, especially coming from Xinjiang.
I wonder if the member would be willing to recognize specifically that China has not met its international obligations when it comes to consular access, and comment on the suggestion that we should have a special envoy to deal with this case.
Kevin Lamoureux Liberal Winnipeg North, MB
Madam Speaker, the Government of Canada remains deeply concerned about the ongoing detention of Mr. Celil.
As with all cases of Canadian citizens detained abroad, our officials have repeatedly sought consular access to determine Mr. Celil's well-being. While Canada has submitted numerous official requests and made high-level interventions in the case, China has not granted Canadian officials access to Mr. Celil.
Canada is deeply concerned by the mass detention that is taking place based on ethnicity and religion and under the pretext of countering extremism. We will continue to advocate on Mr. Celil's behalf and call on China to allow consular service officials to visit him.
The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Alexandra Mendès) Liberal Alexandra Mendes
The motion that the House do now adjourn is deemed to have been adopted. Accordingly the House stands adjourned until tomorrow at 10 a.m. pursuant to Standing Order 24(1).
(The House adjourned at 6:51 p.m.)