Debates of Feb. 7th, 2022

COVID-19 Protests

[The Deputy Speaker, Conservative, Chris d'Entremont]

I will just give a reminder to members to keep their questions and answers short so that we can give everybody an opportunity.

Questions and comments, the hon. member for Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie.

[Alexandre Boulerice, NDP, Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for her speech. She provided some interesting angles and perspectives, but I would like to come back to something that was said earlier by her colleague from Avignon—La Mitis—Matane—Matapédia.

She said that the Liberals were hiding behind jurisdiction to explain their lack of responsibility and leadership. She even mentioned that since this is happening in Ottawa, they say that it is up to the Ottawa police and the mayor of Ottawa to manage the situation, that their hands are tied because this does not fall under their jurisdiction.

I would like to know whether she agrees with her Bloc Québécois colleague that in times of crisis, jurisdictions are important, but they are not a reason to not take action.

[Christine Normandin, Bloc, Saint-Jean, QC]

Mr. Speaker, nor should they be a reason to encroach on the jurisdictions of others. I imagine that is what my colleague from Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie was hoping I would say, but I would certainly not say that to him.

However, they do not prevent collaboration and that is what we have wanted from the start.

[Kristina Michaud, Bloc, Avignon—La Mitis—Matane—Matapédia, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague who spoke extremely well this evening and did a good job describing both sides of the situation.

This is unfortunate, but at the same time, we are happy. There are many people watching CPAC this evening. Since I started my speech, my Twitter account has blown up with hateful messages.

I would like to know what my colleague thinks about the fact that people are using this situation to be divisive and insulting. It is truly deplorable. Personally, I can hardly believe it.

[The Deputy Speaker, Conservative, Chris d'Entremont]

The hon. member for Saint‑Jean has 32 seconds to respond.

[Christine Normandin, Bloc, Saint-Jean, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I will be quick.

I obviously do find this deplorable, and I too can see my phone blowing up out of the corner of my eye. It is unfortunate, because we probably would not have reached this point if the situation had been brought under control quickly.

I am guessing the members of the Quebec National Assembly did not receive as many hateful messages after last weekend's protest, since the protest was not as polarizing and was much more cordial.

As I pointed out, we have more in common with the protesters than not. We have let this protest polarize us.

[Yasir Naqvi, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the President of the Queen’s Privy Council for Canada and Minister of Emergency Preparedness]

Mr. Speaker, I am thankful for the opportunity to speak on this very important issue in this very important debate. As members know, I represent the riding of Ottawa Centre. The House of Commons, where most members are sitting as I sit in my home, is located in Ottawa Centre.

What we are seeing outside and what we have been talking about for the last 11 days is happening right in the heart of my community. Although Parliament Hill is located in downtown Ottawa, many people forget, and perhaps these occupiers have forgotten, that a block in all directions from Parliament Hill are residences. There are people who call downtown their home. There are seniors, people with disabilities, young people and families who live in downtown Ottawa.

I am now really at a loss for words for how I can describe what my community is going through, so I thought I would start my remarks today by reading to members a few of the emails I have been receiving, just to give people a glimpse of the pain and agony people have been going through over the last 11 days.

I could spend a full 20 minutes reading emails because there are so many, but I do want to talk a bit about solutions in my remarks.

The first email reads, “I am one of the Ottawa residents in your riding. I feel the need to raise my concerns with you so you may escalate them through the appropriate channels. The members of the convoy who are occupying the city have been causing damage and mayhem across downtown, and I strongly disagree with the police action, or rather the inaction of the police, up to this point.

“These people from the convoy have stolen from homeless shelters, vandalized and damaged houses and businesses that display pride flags, assaulted and harassed residents for wearing masks during the pandemic, desecrated our memorials, launched illegal fireworks, and most recently have been caught attempting to set an apartment building on fire while taping the doors closed.”

These are just some of the inexcusable actions that these people have done to our city and to the residents of our city.

The second email reads, “I have been a resident of Ottawa for over 40 years. Never before have I seen such prolonged, aggressive and unlawful behaviour in our community. Constant truck horns blaring, diesel fumes, engines revving and shouting at all hours have become insufferable. I am horrified by the racist and anti-Semitic symbols I have recently seen in my neighbourhood, which are unacceptable and have no place in Canada.”

The third email reads, “It should be well understood two years into this pandemic that disabled folks are among the most vulnerable to COVID-19. We fall into many groups. There are those like me who are vaccinated but who face a higher risk of adverse outcomes should we get infected. Others are immunocompromised and get less protection from the vaccine and will be less able to fight off an infection. Others still are medically ineligible for a vaccine.

“Public health measures requiring mask wearing and vaccine passports have kept the disabled community safe. They are our first line of defence. Disabled Ottawans have been placed at serious risk over the past 10 days, given the flagrant disregard for mask wearing and vaccine passports by occupiers.

“Places like the Rideau Centre as well as small businesses have closed because they were unable to keep customers and their employees safe.”

The fourth email reads, “We are constituents of Ottawa Centre and fortunately live in the Glebe. Our daughter, however, is in Centretown. She was first impacted by the current crisis when, a week ago last Friday, she was trying to do an online presentation from home with a background of air horns. She moved in with us nine days ago. Others have not been so lucky and have had to remain confined to their homes in the red zone. On one of our daughter's visits to check on her home, all she could smell on the first two floors was diesel fuel. Imagine trying to take care of kids in this situation. One of our daughter's neighbours has downloaded an app that measures decibels. Sixty-six is the maximum before hearing begins to be impaired. The neighbour's app was reading 72 inside her home.”

The fifth email reads, “I feel unsafe buying groceries as people are in the store without wearing masks and behaving aggressively. Like many other businesses, Massine's Independent Grocer on Bank Street is dealing with the protest noise and aggression from the public, as well as possible increased exposure to COVID-19 omicron from those not wearing masks while taking on the costs of hiring extra security. I feel bad for the cashiers and security staff who have remained patient and calm under these dire conditions. I am exhausted. While the last 23 months of the pandemic have certainly been challenging, working from home during the week with all the noise from the protest has become aggravating, while not being able to enjoy a short walk or a quiet afternoon indoors over the last two weekends has truly become depressing.”

I could go on. I could read five, 10, 15, 20 or 100 more emails from people pleading for peace. These are people who are peace-loving, people who understand that we live in the nation's capital and that peaceful protest is part of our democracy, but not something of this nature, not something that is nothing short of an occupation, not something that is unlawful and definitely not peaceful.

What people in my community have been asking is whether people have forgotten that we are still living through a global pandemic. In fact we are still going through a fifth wave with restrictions around us to ensure that we do not get ill and that we do not overburden our health care system and our health care workers. Sometimes I wonder, when I hear some of the debate and the arguments in the House, especially coming from the official opposition, if the COVID-19 pandemic even happened, if maybe somehow things are normal and we all just decided to change the rules.

We have all gone through a very difficult time. It has not been easy for any one of us, especially those who are vulnerable or marginalized. We need to have a conversation around what lies ahead, about how we end this pandemic, how we get to a place where it becomes an endemic and how our lives would be impacted by that. However, that debate does not take place in the form that is happening right now outside the House of Commons. That is not a debate. That is just holding a community hostage. That is not how to engage in a meaningful or respectful conversation.

I am not interested in speaking with somebody who waves a swastika or a Confederate flag. I have members of racialized and Jewish communities in my riding who are, and I have used this word before, rattled. They are scared. They are retraumatized. They are victimized. None of us believes we are actually seeing those images in our hometown, our nation's capital.

I urge all members of the House, all respectable good people with the right motivation to serve their communities to build a better country, to please come together and ask these occupiers to leave my community alone and restore peace to my community. If they want to engage in a conversation, then have a conservation, but we cannot have a conversation when a whole set of neighbourhoods have been held hostage over the last 11 days.

This protest, this occupation, this civil unrest, has to come to an end. It has to come to an end for the sake of the people who live in this community and for the businesses who have suffered so much, who were looking forward to opening on January 31 when the provincial lockdown measures were being lifted. They are unable to do any business. They are closed. Have we thought about the impact on them and their families? How are they going to make ends meet?

I am grateful to my colleagues, ministers and the member for Ottawa—Vanier, who is also the President of the Treasury Board, who are working closely with me so that we can find ways to support our businesses, which have now had a double hit to them as a result of this occupation.

In my limited time, I want to focus on what we can do. How can we get out of this? I am already pleading for us to all to work together, to speak with one voice, to be the rational people that we are, to ask these occupiers to please leave and then engage in a process where they work with their elected representatives, or where they perhaps run for office themselves if they feel so strongly that we need better laws and better policies. In a democratic society, that is what we do.

In the moment we are living right now, we need to make sure this occupation ends. One of the ways we can do this is by ensuring that the laws are being enforced. The Ottawa police have been working hard and they are responsible for providing the safety and security of the residents of Ottawa. That is their job. By law, that is what they are required to do and it is important for them to enforce the law.

Municipal laws, provincial laws and federal laws, all three of them have been broken. I am a lawyer by profession. I have been the former attorney general of Ontario. I can give an entire list of laws that have not been followed. We need to make sure that enforcement is there. If resources are needed, as have been requested, as the federal government has been providing since day one, we will continue to provide them.

I have been involved in this from the moment the protest started. I have been working with the Minister of Public Safety, working with the Minister of Emergency Preparedness, including the Prime Minister, who has been engaged, who has taken the time to speak with me about this issue. We have been there for the City of Ottawa and the Ottawa Police Service to give them the resources they need so that the laws can be enforced.

We saw some enhanced law enforcement starting last night. I really hope that enhanced enforcement remains sustained, so that peace can be returned back to our community and we can ensure that the members of my community can go back to living the way they lived. We need to enforce the law. That is what the members of our community are asking for. We need to ensure there is a plan and that this occupation is put to an end.

There is no doubt that there are going to be conversations that are going to take place after this occupation has ended. It will come to an end. We will do as we always have, rightly so, which is to learn from incidents like these, from mistakes made, from things done well and things done not so well. We shall do so in this circumstance as well.

As one can imagine, as the member for Ottawa Centre, I am already starting to think about how we can do things differently, and at an appropriate time I will present ideas that we need to consider so that we can protect our democratic institutions, find ways to promote peaceful protests, as is our democratic right, but also safeguard the right of the residents of downtown Ottawa, the constituents that I am so honoured to serve, to live peacefully.

One of the ideas that I will be suggesting to members and the House is perhaps an evaluation of the parliamentary precinct. Right now we define the parliamentary precinct as Parliament Hill and some of the buildings located on Wellington Street and Sparks Street. Maybe we need to study increasing the boundary of the parliamentary precinct so that we can have better and more robust safety protocols in place. This is not to take away lawful, peaceful protests, which are critical to a democracy, but to ensure that we do not run into the kinds of circumstance we are in. I will indulge in a conversation with members, my colleagues, where we analyze and study whether the parliamentary precinct needs a bigger footprint with better protocols in place so that we can ensure that the whole of downtown is not held hostage.

I hope members have been able to see the challenge that I have, but most importantly, I hope that I have been able to channel some of the emotions of my constituents. Sometimes it is hard to express in words what my community is going through. Sometimes it is really difficult to hear the other side. I have always said that I want to listen to the other side, but not legitimize this occupation as something civil or peaceful when people are suffering. They have had a rough time over the last two years because of the pandemic and this has made their lives unbearable.

I urge all members of the House to stand together by the end of this debate and collectively ask for these people to leave. We can engage in a civil conversation. We can hear each other and agree to disagree, but this is not the way to do it. I implore and urge the protesters to please leave our community alone, to please let the people in Ottawa Centre and downtown Ottawa live peacefully.

[Frank Caputo, Conservative, Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, BC]

Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to rise on behalf of the residents of Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo on this important topic.

The hon. parliamentary secretary made two points that I wish to follow up on with him. They are both relatively brief.

The first is that he said we should work together. I note that the leader of the official opposition tonight sent a letter to the Prime Minister and all party leaders to work together. Based on that, would the hon. parliamentary secretary be prepared to advise the Prime Minister to do just what he said we should be doing?

The second is that the hon. parliamentary secretary said the police should be enforcing the laws. Does he view it as the Prime Minister's job to tell the police what to do in this situation?

[Yasir Naqvi, Liberal, Ottawa Centre, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I will address the second question first. I think the member opposite knows quite well that, in our system of democracy, politicians do not tell police officials how to enforce the law. There is a very important, significant and healthy distinction and differentiation between the two. I had the honour of serving as the solicitor general of Ontario. I very much know that we cannot tell the police how to operate. I would be very careful in suggesting that somehow the Prime Minister should tell the Ottawa Police Service, or any police service for that matter, how it should apply the law.

As for working together, of course we should work together and I look forward to reading the letter, but I think the member opposite should also listen to the medical experts as to why it is important that people get vaccinated and put an end to this pandemic.

[Jean-Denis Garon, Bloc, Mirabel, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his engaging and moving speech and appreciated the focus on his constituents. We cannot help but empathize. Mr. Speaker, if you had not told me, I would never have guessed that my colleague was a member of the party in power.

I started counting the number of concrete solutions he proposed, but I did not get past zero. Where is the crisis table with the police forces, as suggested by former justice minister Allan Rock? It does not exist. Where is the transparency? Where is the daily press conference with the Minister of Public Safety? The minister has not held a single one.

The Liberals need to understand that Quebeckers and Canadians gave them a minority mandate in the last election. The Liberals need to stop speaking and listening to themselves and start listening to solutions.

[Yasir Naqvi, Liberal, Ottawa Centre, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I think the member opposite is trying to say that somehow this is a political problem. We are living through a pandemic. We have a health care challenge at the moment. This is a global pandemic. Canada is not alone in fighting this pandemic. This is happening across the world. I do not understand the suggestion that the way to deal with the protests outside is to hold daily press conferences. How will that put an end to this crisis?

What is needed is to ensure that the laws that we have created, which we are all part of, are properly enforced. If somebody breaks the law, then they should face the consequences. That is what is required in Ottawa at this moment. I am on the ground. I am out there trying to find solutions. We need to make sure the laws are enforced. This is an unlawful protest that needs to end.

[Laurel Collins, NDP, Victoria, BC]

Mr. Speaker, when I talk to constituents, they are tired, frustrated and disheartened that we are still in this pandemic, but the vast majority of them are following public health guidelines. They are tired and fed up with people who refuse to wear masks, who refuse to follow public health orders and who are putting others at risk.

People in Ottawa, as the member mentioned, are beyond tired and fed up. They are experiencing harassment and assault, and witnessing anti-Semitic and fascist symbols. Women are being threatened with rape, and residents from racialized and 2SLGBTQIA+ communities are having discriminatory slurs hurled at them. Canadians are also concerned at hearing reports of an attempted arson in the lobby of a residential apartment building. It is terrifying.

Does the member agree that it should not have taken this long for the Prime Minister to start talking to municipal and provincial governments? The convoy organizers were clear about their intent. They were allowed to do exactly what they said they would do. Does the member understand why Ottawa residents are tired and fed up with the Liberal government?

[Yasir Naqvi, Liberal, Ottawa Centre, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I agree with the hon. member on the point that Canadians have made a lot of sacrifices. They are following the public health guidelines. They are getting vaccinated. They are wearing masks. They are socially distancing themselves. It is amazing. I have two young children. It is amazing to see the kinds of habits our kids have developed. They are good habits for good hygiene, as a result of this pandemic. A lot has been done.

I also want to assure the member that, since the beginning of this crisis, the Prime Minister has been fully engaged. I have had conversations with him. He is being briefed, but the Prime Minister, as the head of government, has no power to tell police how to deal with the situation.

Our law is absolutely clear, nor do we want in our system of democracy to have politicians telling police what laws they should be enforcing and how. It is our job to create the law and the role of the independent police is to enforce the law. In fact, an independent judiciary should arbitrate whether the application of the law is correct or not. I can assure all members that the Prime Minister has been engaged. The Prime Minister is fully informed, briefed and making sure that this crisis is over as quickly as possible.

[Andy Fillmore, Liberal, Halifax, NS]

Mr. Speaker, I just want to tell the member for Ottawa Centre that my heart is breaking for him and for his constituents. It is hard to imagine taking what is happening here in Ottawa and putting it in Halifax, a city that I love as much has he loves his city, and seeing this terrorizing of neighbourhoods, damage to property and the illegality going on. It just must be so incredibly heartbreaking, and so many of our hearts go out to them now.

The member is in a very unique position, being the member of Parliament for the most directly impacted part of the city, but also as a former attorney general for the Province of Ontario. He alluded to some of the proposals for changes that he will be bringing forward in due course. I would love if he could bring us a sneak preview on the flavour of some of those.

He mentioned changes to the parliamentary precinct, including the elimination of vehicles on Wellington Street and the pedestrianization of that street, which would be a remarkable innovation. He mentioned changes to the operating procedures of this House to better manage some of the activities of members. I would be very interested to hear that.

[Yasir Naqvi, Liberal, Ottawa Centre, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the member opposite is right. I, along with the member for Ottawa—Vanier, am in the heart of this crisis. As I mentioned, the community's suffering is unbearable. I am starting to run out of words to explain it.

That is why, as soon as this crisis is over, we need to start engaging and thinking about the future. We need to think of how to prevent things like that by ensuring that we create an environment where we have peaceful protests, which are, I want to stress, a democratic right.

One of the interesting things about Ottawa, as everybody can imagine, are the multiple jurisdictions. We have the Parliament of Canada, which is the Government of Canada, and then we have municipal services too. From street to street, jurisdictions can change. A park is owned by one federal entity and a street next to it is a provincial or a municipal street. What we need to look at are the boundaries of the parliamentary precinct so we can perhaps better coordinate.

The member just said something that has been a deep desire of mine. We need to look at finding ways to convert Wellington Street to a more pedestrian street, to beautify it and make it green, so more people can enjoy the beauty of Parliament Hill as opposed to being able to drive their cars along it, and perhaps even occupy it, as we have seen in this instance.

[Michael Chong, Conservative, Wellington—Halton Hills, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I will be splitting my time with the member for Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan.

Canadians have the right to protest. Protest has long been part of our democracy. It is so important that we enshrined it in the Constitution, in the four fundamental freedoms enumerated in section 2 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

All Canadians have the fundamental freedoms of conscience and religion, free speech and expression, association, and peaceful assembly. The freedom to protest in the public square, whether on a sidewalk, in front of a legislature or in a public park, is a fundamental freedom. If Canadians want to, individually or in groups, protest by walking up and down Wellington Street or by standing around the centennial flame in front of Parliament, they are free to do so.

Millions of Canadians over many decades have exercised this fundamental freedom, but what Canadians do not have the right to do is to blockade. There is no right to blockade. There is no right to blockade a street. There is no right to block a highway. There is no right to blockade an international border crossing. There is no right to blockade the construction of a new pipeline, nor is there a right to blockade a rail line. There is simply no right to blockade.

Canadians do not have the right to harm other people or to interfere with the freedoms of their fellow citizens. While freedoms are fundamental, they are not unlimited. Freedoms are limited by what harm they do to other people, and freedoms are limited by how they interfere with other people's freedoms.

We are a nation rent asunder: west against east; rural against urban; the unvaccinated against the vaccinated. We are a nation divided because of a lack of leadership, leadership that begins at the top. The Prime Minister needs to reflect on the language and rhetoric he has used over the past six months, which has so divided this country.

He has used rhetoric that has referred to over three million unvaccinated Canadians in disparaging terms, rhetoric that suggests that those who disagree with him are not Canadian. This rhetoric has poured rhetorical fuel on the fires of division that are pitting one Canadian against another: friends against friends; family members against family members; the unvaccinated against they vaccinated; those in favour of mandates against those opposed; and those calling for an end to restrictions against those in favour of restrictions.

While many have fanned the flames of division in this country, they are not the head of government. They are not the prime minister of a G7 country. The Prime Minister's rhetoric in the last six months is unbefitting the high office of this land that he holds. Instead of bridging divides and reducing tensions and lowering the temperature, he has demonized the other.

It is time for the protesters to end the blockade in Ottawa and the blockade at the border crossing in western Canada. It is time for the protesters to go home to their families and their communities. We have heard their concerns. We have met with some of them, and it is now time for them to go home. Their concerns have been heard loud and clear. No doubt, in the coming weeks, their concerns will be debated here on the floor of this democratically elected legislature.

Canada is a country founded on the trinity of a belief in freedom, democracy and the rule of law. In a free and democratic society, the rule of law must be upheld. In this case, the governments in this country have delegated the enforcement of the law against blockades to the police. I encourage the protesters blockading here in Ottawa and at our international border crossing to follow the direction of the police.

In a democracy, only the state is authorized to use force, including lethal force, to uphold these fundamental freedoms that we enjoy and to uphold the rule of law. We have delegated this use of force to law enforcement. In our democracy, citizens are not entitled to use force. As citizens, we settle our differences through the ballot box or the court system. We do not settle them through force.

We all bear responsibility for the current divisions in this country. We all have a responsibility to reflect on how we got here. I grieve for my country. Instead of peace, order and good government, we have chaos, disorder and poor government. While many democracies are under pressure, both from domestic and foreign forces, Canada has been particularly buffeted by an inability to respond.

The pandemic has laid bare the state of our institutions, and they are weak and ineffective. For most of the last year, we did not have a Governor General because of scandal. Eight of the most senior members of the Canadian military were forced out in scandal. The former clerk of the Privy Council resigned in scandal.

We have a military procurement system that cannot procure, and we have payroll systems that cannot pay. We have a Parliament that cannot do its job, because the government defied four orders of the House and its committee for the production of documents.

We have a debates commission that, in the last two elections, ran what are almost universally acclaimed as the two worst sets of election debates since election debates were first held in this country, in 1968. The People's Republic of China interfered in the last federal election and spread disinformation through proxies, leading to the defeat of several candidates, and nothing has been done.

We have some of the highest levels of household indebtedness in the world, and governments in this country are not far behind. Less than two years ago, some provinces in this federation had trouble raising cash on debt capital markets to pay police officers and nurses, and the federal government had to step in to bail them out. We have the second-worst health care system among leading economies of the OECD, according to the Commonwealth Fund.

Greenhouse gases have continued to rise each and every year that the current government has been in power to a record high level in 2019, the last year for which we have data. In the early months of this year, it looks like we will once again break through records with record-high levels of emissions. We have not met our NATO commitments in decades, and now Russia is about to invade a democracy in eastern Europe. Now, we have a national capital in paralysis and the seizure of an international border crossing, which is the hallmark of a sovereign state.

We have gotten to this place because we have not been serious. We have not been serious about the rule of law. We have not been serious about ensuring our democratic institutions reflect the diversity of views in this country. We have not been serious about domestic policy. We have not been serious about foreign policy. It is time we got serious.

[Peter Fragiskatos, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of National Revenue]

Mr. Speaker, I want to ask the member a question relating to vaccine mandates. Given the fact that rates of hospitalization continue to be a challenge in Canada, how does the member feel about vaccine mandates?

[Michael Chong, Conservative, Wellington—Halton Hills, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I believe that we should encourage all Canadians to get vaccinated. Vaccines are a miracle of modern medicine. They are safe and effective, and they are a critical tool for emerging out of this pandemic. We should encourage Canadians to get vaccinated through nudges and encouragement, not by demonizing them and singling them out. I think that is the leadership we need from the current government as we go forward to emerge from this pandemic.

[Jean-Denis Garon, Bloc, Mirabel, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to go back to the first part of my colleague's speech.

I, too, support the right to protest and freedom. However, people who believe freedom means financing illegal activities with foreign money, throwing rocks at an ambulance, preventing a child from receiving cancer treatment, setting off fireworks in densely populated areas, or setting fire to the home of someone who has filed a noise complaint, those people are not defenders of freedom, and they are not democrats.

I am very pleased to hear my colleague recognize that tyranny occurs when certain people believe that their freedom has no limits, and that their freedom is unlimited. I hope that everyone in this House recognizes this, because it is the first step to resolving the crisis we are currently dealing with.

[Michael Chong, Conservative, Wellington—Halton Hills, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for the question and comment.

I believe that it is very important for everyone to obey the law. This responsibility is incumbent upon all citizens of Canada, because all Canadians are subject to the law. The police are responsible for enforcing the law. If someone does not obey the law, the provincial and federal governments also have the authority to make people obey the law. That is a hallmark of our democracy.

[Lisa Marie Barron, NDP, Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC]

Mr. Speaker, listening to my colleague, I cannot help but think of a quote by Desmond Tutu. He said, “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.” Can the member explain how he can stand by silently, ignoring citizens who are being harassed and assaulted in their communities?

How can he stand silently while displays of racism and anti-Semitism are waved in the streets of Ottawa, paralyzing a community with hate and fear? Can the member share when he will begin standing up for those who are oppressed and experiencing hate and racism?

[Michael Chong, Conservative, Wellington—Halton Hills, ON]

Mr. Speaker, quite simply, I believe that the blockades are illegal. I believe that the blockades here in Ottawa and at the international border crossing in Coutts, Alberta, are illegal. I believe that it is up to law enforcement to uphold the law and ensure that these blockades are taken down at a time and choosing of law enforcement.

Governments and cabinets in this country do not direct law enforcement as to their actions. We empower them with delegated authorities to enforce the law. Whether it is arson, harassment or violence, we have to ensure that law enforcement has the tools and resources necessary to do the job. I have confidence in the premier of the Province of Ontario. I have confidence that the law enforcement agencies and the institutions of the federal government will do their jobs and put an end to this crisis.

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

Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure for me to speak to the House tonight about the ongoing convoy protest movement that is happening across the country, as well as about the federal mandates that have spawned this response.

Let me say at the outset that when people have disagreements about important public issues, I think it is so important that they take the time to talk to each other and try to understand each other's perspectives. If there is a particular challenge in doing that in Canada, it is because we are such a vast country. People in different regions with different kinds of experiences or perspectives that are informed by their region may have a harder time engaging in that dialogue with people who live very far away. This may be further challenged by the fact that we are a bilingual country, so sometimes it is harder to have those conversations across those experiential, regional or linguistic divides.

However, there is something about this convoy movement that has suddenly shrunk those geographic divisions, because people have come from all across the country to be in Ottawa to express the significant concerns they have. Members of Parliament now have an opportunity to go out and talk to some of the people who are here, ask them why they are here, look at what signs and symbols they are waving or not waving and take that opportunity to engage in that dialogue. What is incredible to me is that, by all indications, there are many members of Parliament who will participate in this debate tonight who do not seem to have taken the opportunity to look around, to try to talk to people and try to understand.

I would challenge any member who has not done it to go outside, tonight or tomorrow, and ask the people right in front of this building what their experiences are. Did they lose a job? Did they have family that lost a job, or did they lose a business? Was someone they care about affected by this in some way, or do they know someone who has experienced suicidal ideation for the first time because of lost opportunity or social isolation that came about as a result of the pandemic? What are the experiences in their lives that have led them to come and take this fairly drastic step?

There are many people I know here who are protesting for the very first time, so let us try to understand and ask those questions.

I got the call at about 6:45 from Sebastien in our lobby, who does great work for us on the Conservative side, telling me that I would have an opportunity to speak tonight, so I was thinking through what I would do to prepare. Usually I sit in my office, look things up and work in front of my computer, but instead I decided to go out and talk to people. I had done a bit of this before, but I tried to be intentional about asking people what had brought them here and what things they were maybe seeing reflected in the conversation that were not represented or were represented. I think, again, it is important for us as members of Parliament to take that opportunity to try to understand, and many people told me they came here because they were deeply concerned about mandate policies.

They believe in the core principle of individual autonomy, and in individuals' ability to make choices about their own health without being threatened with job loss as a result of it. I think it is objectively the case that Canada's approach, when it comes to vaccine mandates, is far more draconian than many other countries around the world. For instance, countries in Europe have an alternative that is based on natural immunity, yet Canada does not seem to recognize that. It is interesting for me, because we could say, “This is the science. We are not including natural immunity because it is the science.” However, it is the same science in Europe, or it should be. It is the same virus, so these are legitimate questions.

Why do we not have the option to consider natural immunity and rapid tests that would allow people leeway, especially truckers who are working alone and public servants who are working from home? Why are there not reasonable accommodations, when an individual wants to exercise autonomy over themselves and their own bodies? I think those are reasonable questions.

I had a lot of conversations with different people when I was out talking with the people who were there. I met a young man who actually voted NDP in the last election. I do not know if he will again after some of the things that have been said. I talked to people a bit about some of the questions raised in the media about hateful symbols, because we have certainly seen some of those photos.

I was told that in the very small number of instances where people put forward symbols of hate, they were actively told by other protesters to put them away, that they did not want to see those here and that they were not representative of what they were doing. Objectively, if someone walks up and down Wellington Street, what they will see is people waving Canadian flags and people with various signs expressing messages about mandates.

I will tell members that my grandmother was a Holocaust survivor, so I think, particularly for my family, the fact that one person or maybe two people were walking around with swastikas is incredibly offensive, and obviously that strikes something in me that is different from other members who do not have that same family experience.

The reality is that these individuals were told to leave by other protesters. They were told that they were not welcomed there and that their message was not the message that other people were trying to present.

I spoke with a young man who was at the protest who told me he was gay. He told me that he brought a pride flag with him, and he was not bothered by anyone. Nobody had a critical comment about that. I spoke with many people, including visible minorities and a number of Jewish gentlemen who had come from Montreal to see the protest. There is this representation in the media and in the comments of other members that this is just a sea of people waving Confederate flags or something, and that is not happening. Whatever side one is on, that is objectively not what is happening.

Let us start by looking around and listening to the objective facts on the ground and try to understand what the source of the concerns are. Maybe we could recognize the people who have lost their jobs, who are being told they cannot work alone by themselves in their truck, who cannot work from home as a public servant, who cannot travel in the context of a family emergency or whatever the case may be, who are affected by these mandates and who are prepared to take other precautions, like get a rapid test. They may have a point. I think they do have a point. I agree with them in saying that these federal mandates should end. We should end the federal mandates not because of the protests, but because it is the right thing to do. The federal mandates simply do not make sense as policies when it comes to vaccination.

We talked about the impacts that these vaccinations have had on other people, and our party has consistently taken a very reasonable approach in saying that employers should take appropriate measures to secure the safety of their workplaces. If those in the public service, for example, choose to exercise their autonomy not to get vaccinated, they should take a rapid test if they are coming into the office. A lot of people are still working from home, but testing is a good alternative. In fact, we know there are many breakthrough infections even for those who are vaccinated, so getting regular rapid tests is a pretty good idea. I think it would be reasonable under the circumstances of the omicron variant, for example, to say that rather than having a vaccine mandate for air travel, everybody simply has a rapid test before they fly.

Now, we have had problems with the availability of rapid tests, because the government only discovered rapid tests, it seems, about two years into this process. Now it wants to be congratulated for procuring rapid tests two years later. Two years from now we will be having better ventilation in schools. Well, folks, it is just too late. We should have been talking about rapid tests right out of the gate and deploying a system of widely available rapid tests before the vaccine was even available. Then we would be ahead. We could be where other countries are. Many other countries and many other jurisdictions around the world are now lifting their restrictions completely, yet the government is continually talking about ways to further tighten mandates, to further squeeze the very small portion of the population that is not vaccinated.

The fact is, the vast majority of Canadians have been vaccinated. For the small minority who have chosen not to get vaccinated, I think it is fair to assume at this point that they will probably not get vaccinated. At this point, it is time to say that with the reality of COVID, which is going to be with us, most people are going to choose to get vaccinated but some people are going to choose not to. We believe in this principle of individual freedom of autonomy, and we cannot function very well as a country if the government continually wants to fire and otherwise penalize people who exercise their autonomy. I would say that it is time to lift the mandates and it is time to work toward getting back to normal.

Of course, we can continue to take appropriate precautions in response to events that come up, but the level of restrictions on individual freedom and the level of coercion are not something that I think any of us would have thought possible in this country two years ago. These were supposed to be temporary measures, and now it very clearly is time to move on. It is time to look to the future, because continually finding new ways to squeeze that small minority of the population that is not vaccinated is not going to change anything. It is not going to move us forward and it is not going to allow us to get out of this.

People who have never protested before are coming here to say that they want to be able to work. They do not want to be fired from their job for exercising personal autonomy. They do not want to be seeing empty grocery store shelves. They do not want long delays to access immigration services because people are being laid off because of these mandates. Let us end the mandates because it is the right thing to do.

[Peter Fragiskatos, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of National Revenue]

Mr. Speaker, in debate, obviously we exchange points of view. Here is a point of view I want to quote. It reads as follows: “I spent the week undergoing the Siege of Ottawa.... I ask that we clear the streets and that we stop this occupation controlled by radicals and anarchist groups.” Those are the words of the Conservative Party's previous shadow critic for public safety, a member of the House.

Does the member opposite agree with his colleague or not?

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

Mr. Speaker, I think I made my views very clear in my speech. This member should take the opportunity to go out and engage in dialogue, and try to come to an understanding of what the significant concerns here are.

What I really focused on in my remarks is the fact that we should be ending mandates and ending the continual squeezing of that minority who have chosen not to get vaccinated and all the impact that is having on access to services. We are seeing significant backlogs in immigration services in our offices and backlogs in accessing other services. When we put people who are working from home on unpaid leave and do not allow them to provide the services they have been providing, we cannot pretend that is not going to have an impact. When we take trucks providing essential services off the roads, that is going to have an impact. These mandates are having a severe impact on vaccinated and unvaccinated people alike, and they need to end.