Debates of May 3rd, 2021

Public Safety

[Bill Blair, Liberal, Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness]

Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to hear the member for Oshawa's concern. He may recall that we introduced a budget that provided $327 million to law enforcement in the country, the federal police, and provincial and municipal police services, to do gun and gang investigations. Unfortunately the member for Oshawa voted against it.

We have also brought forward a new measure to provide $250 million for community organizations working in the community to reduce gun and gang violence. I am hopeful that this time he may find it in his heart to provide that support.

The police and our community organizations are doing extraordinary work and we will support them.

Statistics Canada

[Francis Drouin, Liberal, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

Mr. Speaker, in 2016, Canadians from coast to coast to coast, including those in my riding of Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, were so excited about the return of the long-form census that the response rate was the highest ever.

The COVID-19 pandemic has shown us that accurate, high-quality data is vital to helping governments, businesses, non-profits and researchers make informed decisions.

Unlike the Harper Conservatives, who, for no good reason, scrapped the long-form census and cut Statistics Canada's funding, our government understands the crucial importance of science and data.

Would the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry please tell the House—

[The Speaker, Liberal, Anthony Rota]

Order. The hon. Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry.

[François-Philippe Champagne, Liberal, Minister of Innovation]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague for that excellent question.

I am pleased to announce that the 2021 census is officially under way as of today. Our government has invested in modernizing Statistics Canada to ensure it can continue to deliver relevant, world-class data. Statistics Canada employees have worked tirelessly to adapt to the COVID-19 situation.

I encourage all Canadians to visit census.gc.ca to learn more and help us plan the future together.

Canadian Heritage

[Shannon Stubbs, Conservative, Lakeland, AB]

Mr. Speaker, last week, the heritage minister quoted me asking to stop child sexual abuse material on Pornhub to justify his free speech attack in Bill C-10. The Criminal Code defines that child pornography websites break the law with such vile videos and images, but rather than go after companies profiting from child exploitation and non-consensual videos, the Liberals have decided they will go after Canadians' Facebook posts instead.

How can the Liberals use the failure to charge, prosecute and convict on child sexual abuse material as an excuse for their assault on Canadian rights and freedoms?

[Steven Guilbeault, Liberal, Minister of Canadian Heritage]

Mr. Speaker, the member opposite will be happy to learn that I will be tabling legislation on online harms in the coming week.

On the issue of cultural reproduction and the fact that web giants should be paying their fair share, as I mentioned earlier, her colleague, the member for Saskatoon—Grasswood, stated he wanted us to do that, and we are doing exactly that.

However, what is happening is that the Conservative Party got cold feet. Google and YouTube are very powerful companies and when the going got tough, those members ran for the hills. We are standing up for Canadian artists, for Canadian music and for Canadian culture.

[Kyle Seeback, Conservative, Dufferin—Caledon, ON]

Mr. Speaker, they say that imitation is the finest form of flattery and, if so, George Orwell must be blushing with the Liberals' Orwellian attempt through Bill C-10 to control Internet content and social media.

A few days ago, the minister embarrassingly and incoherently attempted to justify the inclusion of user content in the bill. Canadians are rightfully outraged.

Will the minister dump this bill, or re-protect user content, or insult me like he insulted the member for Lethbridge or will he again try to explain this unexplainable infringement on Canadian freedoms?

[Steven Guilbeault, Liberal, Minister of Canadian Heritage]

Mr. Speaker, what I would do is quote the member's colleague, the Conservative MP for Saskatoon—Grasswood. I will say it again. I think this needs to sink in. He said, “the legislation does nothing to address social media companies, such as Facebook and Google, and their various properties, such as YouTube, to pay its fair share.” Then the member added at a later date, “To the Professional Music Publishers' Association, you're right on about YouTube. It is not regulated in Bill C-10, and everybody is using YouTube. We are going to have an issue. As you pointed out, correctly, this should be regulated.”

That is what the Conservative member for Saskatoon—Grasswood has said. I agree with him, not with the most radical elements of the Conservative Party of Canada.

[Bernard Généreux, Conservative, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the government is pushing ahead with using the Broadcasting Act to give itself the power to regulate content on social media even though social media platforms do not use public airwaves.

The Internet was supposed to give people the freedom to express themselves, and even Canadian Heritage saw the value of exempting YouTube and Facebook from the new CRTC rules. Why did the Liberals end up pushing for these companies to be censored?

[Steven Guilbeault, Liberal, Minister of Canadian Heritage]

Mr. Speaker, this is another example of the disinformation campaign the Conservative Party of Canada is waging against the Canadian public.

An impressive number of stakeholders came to committee to testify on Bill C-10, and they told us how necessary this legislation is. It has nothing to do with moderating content and everything to do with getting web giants to pay their fair share for Quebec and Canadian culture.

The Conservatives have chosen to side with Google and YouTube, some of the richest companies on the planet, over our artists and our culture in Quebec and Canada. It is disappointing, and the Conservatives should—

[The Speaker, Liberal, Anthony Rota]

Order. The hon. member for West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country.

Tourism Industry

[Patrick Weiler, Liberal, West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, BC]

Mr. Speaker, while all Canadians have been hard hit by the pandemic, Canada's tourism sector has been perhaps the hardest hit. Not only were the people and businesses in this sector among the first to be impacted by COVID-19, when economies reopen, the tourism sector will still take some time to recover.

Could the minister responsible for tourism tell the House how budget 2021 will help our tourism sector rebound from the pandemic and come back stronger?

[Mélanie Joly, Liberal, Minister of Economic Development and Official Languages]

Mr. Speaker, we know that people working in the tourism sector have been extremely hard hit by the pandemic and economic crisis. That is why we heard their call for more help. That is exactly why we have announced in the budget that we will be providing $1 billion more in support for the tourism sector, including a tourism relief fund to help our local tourism businesses.

We cannot wait to welcome back Canadians and the world to our cities and regions when it is safe to do so, but meanwhile, people in the tourism industry should know that our government has their backs.

Airline Industry

[Taylor Bachrach, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

Mr. Speaker, the big airlines continue to sit on billions of dollars of Canadians' hard-earned money for cancelled flights. For months we called on the minister to help, but instead of siding with Canadians, he sided with the airlines, saying there was nothing he could do to force refunds. Now we have emails showing that the government knew early on about gaps in the rules that allowed companies to keep Canadians' money, yet it waited half a year before even starting to make changes.

Will the government explain to Canadians why it took so long to get them their money back?

[Omar Alghabra, Liberal, Minister of Transport]

Mr. Speaker, our government continues to be committed to making sure Canadians get their refunds. We know that the airline sector has been hit very hard because of the pandemic, so we have been working with the Canadian Transportation Agency, with the aviation sector and with airlines on making sure passengers receive their refunds.

Yes, the hon. member is referring to a letter written by my predecessor last December, but there was a lot of work done prior to that letter. He only referred to that letter and did not talk about the months and weeks of work that the previous minister and—

Health

[Derek Sloan, Independent, Hastings—Lennox and Addington, ON]

Mr. Speaker, a grocery worker in a western province contacted me because his employer told him he could not come to work if he did not get the COVID vaccine. In the U.S.A., the COVID vaccines are authorized under an emergency use authorization and when a treatment is authorized in this way, it is illegal to force employees to take it.

In Canada, we use a similar interim authorization for the vaccines. In the opinion of the minister, should this grocery clerk be fired if he chooses not to take the vaccine?

[Patty Hajdu, Liberal, Minister of Health]

Mr. Speaker, I will decline to comment on the specifics of the individual situation since I would like to understand more about his concerns. However, there is no federal statute that compels people to get vaccinated. Different workplaces and different settings will require vaccination for a variety of illnesses.

For example, many school boards require common childhood immunizations prior to a child being enrolled. These are not unprecedented decisions that employers in some settings have taken, and, of course, none of them are federally decided upon.

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order that arises from question period.

In light of the exchange that took place regarding UNRWA, I am hopeful you will find unanimous consent for me to table the February report of the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education, which details contemporary examples of anti-Semitic hate in UNRWA-produced study materials. This report demonstrates that, contrary to claims by the minister, hateful content appeared in UNRWA-produced materials.

I would be happy to table that report, if there is unanimous consent.

[The Speaker, Liberal, Anthony Rota]

All those opposed to the hon. member moving the motion will please say nay.

[Some hon. members]

Nay.

The House resumed from April 29 consideration of the motion.

Opposition Motion—Access to COVID-19 Vaccines

[The Speaker, Liberal, Anthony Rota]

It being 3:13 p.m., pursuant to order made on Monday, January 25, the House will now proceed to the taking of the deferred recorded division on the motion of the Leader of the Opposition relating to the business of supply.

Call in the members.

(The House divided on the motion, which was negatived on the following division:)

Vote #104

Business of Supply

[The Speaker, Liberal, Anthony Rota]

I declare the motion lost.

We have a point of order. The hon. member for Windsor West.

[Brian Masse, NDP, Windsor West, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. I would ask you to review the tapes. Prior to the vote, a member in this chamber proceeded to get out of his seat and deliberately walk out this chamber without a mask. I ask you to remind the members of the policy here, because I witnessed that member walk by pages and other people in here. As you know, we can speak without a mask in our designated seats, but we are not supposed to move without that mask, without the proper PPE.

I would ask you to review the tapes to see whether that member has done this before and to ensure that our clerks, our other staff who are here, especially on the Hill where we do not have some of the same benefits for health and safety as other places, are protected. It is not just about members like myself who are distanced in this case, but it is also about the people they come into contact with as they move through this chamber, who do not get the same benefits for health and safety that I enjoy. I would ask you to review the tapes and come back and remind the House of the penalties and consequences for disobeying and directly not following the safety guidelines as recommended by health experts.