Debates of Nov. 30th, 2023

Traditional Statutory Holidays

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Carleton, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I believe if you seek it, you will find unanimous consent for the following motion: That the House of Commons condemn the divisive statements published by the Canadian Human Rights Commission claiming that public celebrations of Christmas amount to religious intolerance and discrimination; that the House recognize the rich cultural traditions that Christians and many other Canadians share at this special time with their friends, their communities and their families, and affirm their right to celebrate freely; and that the House of Commons wish all Canadians a merry Christmas.

[The Speaker, Liberal, Greg Fergus]

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

[An hon. member]

Nay.

[Mario Beaulieu, Bloc, La Pointe-de-l'Île, QC]

Mr. Speaker, if you seek it I hope that you will find unanimous consent for the following motion: that this House reaffirm that English and French are the two official languages of this Parliament, that it reaffirm that the witnesses invited to committee can use the official language of their choice, that it denounce the comments of the member for Lethbridge, who called into question a witness' right to speak French in committee.

[The Speaker, Liberal, Greg Fergus]

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

It is agreed.

The House has heard the terms of the motion. All those opposed to the motion will please say nay.

[Some hon. members]

Nay.

Decorum

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons]

Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. It is very clear in our Standing Orders, and it has been a long tradition, as we all know, that for 15 minutes of every day the House sits, we have Standing Order 31, which enables members to speak for one minute on an issue they feel is most fitting for them on that particular day.

The member for Brampton Centre, not once or twice, but on five occasions, was not able to get his statement out. I have never witnessed that in my experience in the House of Commons for well over 10 years now. In fact, it was 15 minutes later on another S.O. 31 that the member was able to give his full one-minute presentation.

[An hon. member]

It is full of lies.

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Winnipeg North, MB]

Mr. Speaker, even as I speak, the member across the way said that it was “full of lies”. That is the lack of respect I want to make reference to in terms of the point of order. The member for Perth—Wellington Nater—

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Winnipeg North, MB]

Mr. Speaker, I am sorry. The member for Perth—Wellington clearly indicated that you, Mr. Speaker, are a joke. That is what the member for Perth—Wellington stated. That does not include the body language that was also used, which, in essence, was a contempt of the Speaker's chair.

I would ask that the member for Perth—Wellington be asked to apologize to the House, because his actions against you, Mr. Speaker, are actually actions against all of us. The matter of the S.O. 31 should in fact be looked into by your office, because I would not want to see that type of behaviour going forward, where a member is denied the opportunity to have their full minute to express an issue they believe is important.

[The Speaker, Liberal, Greg Fergus]

I thank the hon. parliamentary secretary for raising this issue. I see the member he referred to in his point of order, the hon. member for member for Perth—Wellington, rising to his feet.

[John Nater, Conservative, Perth—Wellington, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I did indeed indicate that you were a joke. That is true. I am sorry for that. I withdraw it.

[The Speaker, Liberal, Greg Fergus]

I thank the hon. member for withdrawing that remark, and I consider the matter closed.

The hon. member for South Surrey—White Rock.

[Kerry-Lynne Findlay, Conservative, South Surrey—White Rock, BC]

Mr. Speaker, this is on the same point of order. There is a long-standing rule in the House that one's comments should not bring disorder to the House.

The comments by the member, which the member for Winnipeg North is defending, were so egregious, so inflammatory and so erroneous that they caused disorder in the House. I welcome the opportunity to ask you to look at the transcript of what he was saying and to come to your own conclusions.

[The Speaker, Liberal, Greg Fergus]

I thank the hon. member on this point.

The hon. minister is rising on the same point of order.

[Arif Virani, Liberal, Parkdale—High Park, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I rise very seldom on these kinds of matters, but I think it is really critical to appreciate the importance of freedom of expression not only in this country, but also in this chamber.

In this chamber, we attempt to critically reflect the views of our constituents. There are times when I have heard things, on both sides of this chamber, and I have been here for eight-plus years now, that I do not agree with and that I am sure others do not agree with.

However, the notion of shouting down an individual, not once, but five times, and preventing them from actually being able to deliver their S. O. 31 is something I have not seen before. I think it merits reflection on your part, Mr. Speaker.

[Michael Barrett, Conservative, Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I rise on the same point of order. Yesterday, after question period, it was drawn to the Chair's attention that during members' statements, the member for Mississauga—Erin Mills screamed profanities during a member's statement.

The member giving the statement was me. I was not given the opportunity to repeat it once, or even six times, in spite of the fact that what I said did not create disorder, but it was a member on the government side of the House who screamed profanities. Mr. Speaker, if—

[The Speaker, Liberal, Greg Fergus]

Just because this is not on the same point of order, I am going to get to the member for Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes and will listen to him patiently, but the member for Nunavut has been patient on her feet on another point of order, and I would like to give her that opportunity. There was a list of people who were on—

[Michael Barrett, Conservative, Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON]

Mr. Speaker, this is on the same point of order.

[The Speaker, Liberal, Greg Fergus]

No, you are raising—

[Michael Barrett, Conservative, Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON]

Mr. Speaker, we are talking about order in the chamber during members' statements—

[Speaker]

I thank the hon. member for Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes. I am just letting him know that the point of order raised was in regard to the member for Brampton South, and I believe the member is raising an issue in regard to the member for Mississauga—Erin Mills.

I am going to ask the hon. member, on the same point of order, to please go ahead.

[Michael Barrett, Conservative, Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the member from Winnipeg said that the 15 minutes members are given for statements are to be sacrosanct, but the member is speaking from the benches of a party that engaged in the conduct he was decrying today.

It is hypocrisy for the government House leader's deputy to rise and to cry foul when his parliamentary colleagues engaged in worse conduct yesterday.

[The Speaker, Liberal, Greg Fergus]

I want to thank the hon. member for Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes. The reason I wanted to get back to him is that the Chair had expressed yesterday that we would look at Hansard and the video, which we did. We could not make anything out. We even worked with the folks from Hansard to see if we could detect the words the hon. member referred to. Therefore, I cannot come back to the House on that point.

The hon. member for Nunavut.