Debates of Oct. 25th, 2023

Amendments to the Standing Orders

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

I declare the amendment lost.

The next question is on the main motion.

If a member participating in person wishes that the motion be carried or carried on division, or if a member of a recognized party participating in person wishes to request a recorded division, I would invite them to rise and indicate it to the Chair.

[Daniel Blaikie, NDP, Elmwood—Transcona, MB]

I would like to request a recorded division, hopefully with a different result.

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

Vote #433

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

I declare the motion lost.

The House resumed from October 24 consideration of the motion that Bill C-278, Prevention of Government-imposed Vaccination Mandates Act, be read the second time and referred to a committee.

Prevention of Government-Imposed Vaccination Mandates Act

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

The House will now proceed to the taking of the deferred recorded division on the motion at second reading stage of Bill C-278 under Private Members' Business.

Before the Clerck announced the results of the vote:

[Claude DeBellefeuille, Bloc, Salaberry—Suroît, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. I would like to seek unanimous consent for the member for Beloeil—Chambly to record his vote as being against the motion because he was unable to use the app. It was not working.

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

Is there unanimous consent to apply the vote of the hon. member for Beloeil—Chambly?

[An hon. member]

No.

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

Vote #434

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

I declare the motion defeated.

I wish to inform the House that, because of the deferred recorded divisions, Government Orders will be extended by 76 minutes.

It is my duty pursuant to Standing Order 38 to inform the House that the questions to be raised tonight at the time of adjournment are as follows: the hon. member for Calgary Rocky Ridge, Finance; the hon. member for Bow River, Carbon Pricing.

Public Safety

[Dan Mazier, Conservative, Dauphin—Swan River—Neepawa, MB]

Madam Speaker, I rise for the 18th time on behalf of the people of Swan River, Manitoba, to present a petition on the rising rate of crime. The people of Swan River are tired of the NDP-Liberal government's soft-on-crime policies, which allow violent repeat offenders to be out on the streets.

Folks in this rural community do not recognize their once safe town. Instead of focusing on tomorrow's future, the people of Swan River are focused on yesterday's crimes. The petitioners are calling for action with jail, not bail, for these violent repeat offenders.

The people of Swan River demand that the Liberal government repeal its soft-on-crime policies, which directly threaten their livelihoods and community. I support the good people of Swan River.

Air Transportation

[Mike Morrice, Green, Kitchener Centre, ON]

Madam Speaker, it is an honour to rise to present a petition on behalf of neighbours in Kitchener Centre. They note, first of all, that their quality of life is being negatively affected by a high frequency of air traffic occurring near residential areas, and this is related to stress and interrupted sleep. They note there is a need for greater co-operation on the part of airport management with citizens and federal authorities to reduce the negative impacts of aircraft noise.

The Region of Waterloo International Airport is home to one of the largest and busiest flight training schools in Canada, and its total air traffic, the petitioners note, has increased by over 1,400% between 2019 and 2022, making it now the sixth busiest in Canada. They note that the negative impacts for residents near this airport have worsened significantly over this time, given the fact that the airport, for example, does not have any nighttime flight restrictions or curfews in place, among a number of other items. They also note that Canada's other busiest airports in residential areas, in places such as Edmonton, Hamilton, Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal, are all subject to heightened noise management requirements, and air traffic and runway restrictions.

In light of all of this, the petitioners are calling upon the Minister of Transport to first ensure that all Canadian airports near residential areas have established sufficient airport-specific noise-abatement procedures and control requirements to meet all of their obligations under the Canadian aviation regulations and, secondly, to assess whether any other Canadian airports near residential areas should be subjected to additional noise management requirements and restrictions, such as the requirement to develop a minister-approved noise management plan and report publicly on these plans, heightened noise-abasement procedures, and operating restrictions for designated noise-restricted runways.

Child Care

[Leah Gazan, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

Madam Speaker, I am honoured to rise today to present a petition in the House. E-petition 4573 calls on the federal government to provide financial aid for all families and caregivers who were affected by Lanark County's sudden decision to terminate access to the Canada-wide early learning and child care funding for a particular child care provider.

This petition, brought by Tyler Williams from Carleton Place, Ontario, gathered 541 signatures. In addition to calling for funding intervention for families that were affected, it calls on the House of Commons to provide an explanation of the factors that led to this decision, support the call for an emergency council meeting with members of the public present to discuss the child care crisis facing Lanark County, and ensure that contingency plans for affected families, with appropriate timelines and procedures in place if funding for child care agencies is terminated, to ensure that no family is ever put in this position again.

I thank the petitioners for their advocacy, and I am proud to table this petition in the House today.

Climate Change

[Mark Gerretsen, Liberal, Kingston and the Islands, ON]

Madam Speaker, I rise today to present a petition on behalf of Canadians who are calling to the attention of the government the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which has warned repeatedly that rising temperatures over the next two decades will bring widespread devastation and extreme weather.

The petitioners go on to indicate that Canadians are certainly feeling the impacts of flooding, wildfires and extreme temperatures. They recognize that addressing climate change requires a drastic reduction in greenhouse gas emissions to limit global warming to 1.5°C and indicated they are aware that the federal government committed in 2021 to cap and cut emissions from the oil and gas sector to achieve net zero by 2050.

Therefore, the petitioners are calling on the Government of Canada to move forward immediately with bold emissions caps for the oil and gas sector that are comprehensive in scope and realistic for achieving the necessary targets that Canada has set to reduce emissions by 2030.

Child Support

[Tom Kmiec, Conservative, Calgary Shepard, AB]

Madam Speaker, I am tabling a petition on behalf of my constituents, who draw to the attention of the House that Canada now has the highest rate of common-law relationships among G7 countries, with the share of co-residing common-law couples increasing from 6% in 1981 to 23% in 2021. There are other statistics that they draw the attention of the House to, including the number of children living with a lone parent, step-parents, parents in a common-law relationship or other non-traditional unions.

The undersigned citizens and residents of Canada call upon the Minister of Justice to initiate a statutory review of the Divorce Act, specifically concerning the federal child support guidelines, which would take into account the evolving reality of blended families and the variance of incomes over time to better reflect the needs of children in shared custody situations.

Impaired Driving

[Bardish Chagger, Liberal, Waterloo, ON]

Madam Speaker, impaired driving kills hundreds of Canadians and injures thousands more every year. Shauna and David of the region of Waterloo know this all too well. Their 23-year-old son was stolen away from them and taken from this earth because of this.

Hundreds of volunteers with MADD Canada, hundreds of citizens of Canada, are calling upon the Government of Canada to introduce legislation to require anti-impaired driving technology in new vehicles by 2026-27. This is something that has been done by the United States of America through the HALT Act, and they would like the Government of Canada to consider this for Canadians as well.

Float Homes

[Bardish Chagger, Liberal, Waterloo, ON]

Madam Speaker, I also would like to present a second petition today as the president of the Gloucester Pool Cottagers' Association and founder of the Float Homes Not Vessels Coalition resides within the region of Waterloo. Members have been having conversations on ensuring structures are properly labelled, and in this case, that they be referred to as “float homes” and not vessels.

These citizens of Canada, who are also residents of Ontario, are calling upon the Government of Canada, namely the Minister of Transport, to classify both existing and new float homes as float homes, not vessels. This would be in a manner that is consistent with other provinces.

Petitioners note the previous government changed this definition, and as a result, these structures are currently exempt from all forms of provincial and municipal oversight and regulations, including building code adherence, environmental protection, public safety, taxation and local management. They look forward to the Government of Canada providing a response as to what the appropriate next steps should be and hope to see this classification change sooner rather than later.

Firearms

[Arnold Viersen, Conservative, Peace River—Westlock, AB]

Madam Speaker, I am pleased to rise today to present a number of petitions in the House of Commons. The first petition seeks to support the health and safety of Canadian firearm owners. The petitioners recognize the importance of owning firearms, and they note this is a big part of Canadian heritage. They are concerned about the impacts to hearing loss, the damaging noise levels of firearms and the need for noise reduction.

These petitioners acknowledge that sound moderators are the only universally accepted, recognized health and safety device that is criminally prohibited for ownership in Canada. Moreover, the majority of G7 countries have recognized the health and safety benefits of sound moderators, allowing them to be used for hunting, sport shooting and reduced noise pollution. In many cases, such as in many countries in Europe, for example, these sound moderators are a requirement.

Petitioners are calling on the Government of Canada to allow legal firearm owners the option to purchase and use sound moderators for all legal hunting and sport shooting activities.

Protection of Human Life

[Arnold Viersen, Conservative, Peace River—Westlock, AB]

Madam Speaker, the next petition is from Canadians from across the country who are concerned about our laws that do not reflect and protect all of human life. Petitioners want the Canadian government to respect human life from conception to natural death, and they ask the Government of Canada to support measures that would do so.

Pornography

[Arnold Viersen, Conservative, Peace River—Westlock, AB]

Madam Speaker, the next petition is from Canadians from across the country. They want to draw to the attention of the House of Commons there is no laws requiring makers, distributers or advertisers of commercial pornographic material to ascertain or document the consent or age of those depicted in the material.

They also want to highlight the ethics committee's report on MindGeek, which stated, “That the Government of Canada mandate that content-hosting platforms operating in Canada require affirmation from all persons depicted in pornographic content, before it can be uploaded, that they are 18 years old or older and that they consent to its distribution”.

They want to offer their support to Bill C-270, the stop Internet sexual exploitation act, which would add two offences to the Criminal Code. These would be for creating pornographic material for commercial purpose without verifying the age or obtaining consent of the individual shown, and to distribute pornographic material without verifying the age and consent of those depicted, and also for not removing that material if, in writing, consent is withdrawn.

Finally, they want to recognize the work of organizations such as Defend Dignity, the National Council of Women, the London Abused Women's Centre, the Montreal Council of Women, Parents Aware and the National Child Exploitation Crime Centre. They have all expressed their support for Bill C-270. Therefore, they call on the Government of Canada and the House of Commons to adopt Bill C-270 quickly and expeditiously.

The next petition I have to present comes from Canadians from across the country who are concerned about the age verification that is not happening for those depicted in pornographic material.

The petitioners are also calling for the Government of Canada to ensure that age verification and consent are confirmed prior to distribution. They are also calling on the Government of Canada to pass Bill C-270 quickly and expeditiously.

Ethiopia

[Arnold Viersen, Conservative, Peace River—Westlock, AB]

Madam Speaker, the next petition I have comes from Canadians from across the country who are concerned about the conflict that has engulfed Ethiopia in the last year.

The petitioners are concerned that humanitarian actors have not been able to access certain regions. They are also concerned that both the Ethiopian and Eritrean armed forces may have inflicted war crimes on the Tigrayan people.

As such, the petitioners are calling on the Government of Canada to call for maintaining peace in that region and to ensure that our international assistance aids in the peacekeeping there. They are calling for an end to violence in Ethiopia and for all sides in the Tigray conflict to put down their arms. They are also calling on the Government of Canada to promote short-, medium- and long-term elections monitoring in Ethiopia.

COVID-19 Mandates

[Arnold Viersen, Conservative, Peace River—Westlock, AB]

Madam Speaker, the next petition I have comes from Canadians from across the country. It is kind of timely, given the vote that we had today.

The petitioners are calling for an end to all the COVID mandates that are still in place across the country. Currently the government has suspended only some of the mandates, and the folks who have signed this petition want them to be exhausted completely.

The petitioners are calling on the Government of Canada to finally and permanently end all federally regulated COVID mandates and their restrictions.

Human Rights

[Arnold Viersen, Conservative, Peace River—Westlock, AB]

Madam Speaker, the next petition I have comes from Canadians from across the country who are concerned about the human rights protections in Turkey, Pakistan and Bahrain.

The petitioners state that Turkish, Pakistani and Bahraini officials have committed gross human rights violations against thousands of Turks, including eight Turkish Canadians. The petitioners say that the Turkish officials have killed hundreds, including Gokhan Acikkollu.

The petitioners say that Turkish officials have wrongfully detained over 300,000 people without any reason. The petitioners state that multiple international human rights groups have confirmed these gross human rights violations in Turkey.

The petitioners ask that the Canadian government closely monitor the human rights situation in Turkey, sanction Turkish officials who have committed gross crimes against these eight Canadians, and call on the Turkish, Pakistani and Bahraini governments to end all human rights violations in their respective countries.

Pornography

[Arnold Viersen, Conservative, Peace River—Westlock, AB]

Madam Speaker, the final petition I have today is another petition which calls on the Government of Canada to ensure the quick passage of Bill C-270, the stopping Internet sexual exploitation act.

This bill comes out of recommendation number two from the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics report on MindGeek, which requires all content-hosting platforms in Canada to verify age and consent prior to uploading this content.

As such, the petitioners are calling on the House of Commons to pass Bill C-270 quickly and expeditiously.