Debates of Jan. 31st, 2024

Foreign Affairs

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, Volodymyr Zelenskyy came to the House and asked all of us to support Ukraine in its fight for freedom and its economic independence.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy asked us to support a renegotiation and a renewal of the Canada-Ukraine free trade deal. In this House, everyone except Conservative MPs stood up to support Volodymyr Zelenskyy—

[The Speaker, Liberal, Greg Fergus]

The Prime Minister has 10 seconds left on the clock.

I am going to ask all members, and I am going to ask, in particular, the member for Dufferin—Caledon, please, to allow the answer to be heard. Not only is it important for all of us and for Canadians to hear that, but it is important for members, especially members who require translation. They cannot hear over the heckling.

Let us make sure that we have an opportunity to hear clearly the questions and the answers.

The right hon. Prime Minister has 10 seconds left on the clock.

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Papineau, QC]

Mr. Speaker, Ukrainian Canadians from across the Prairies are begging their MPs to please stand up for Ukraine. Will they do that in the upcoming Canada-Ukraine free trade vote?

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, on this, like everything else, he is a fake and he is a phony.

[The Speaker, Liberal, Greg Fergus]

The hon. Leader of the Opposition is a well-experienced man in Parliament. I would caution him to avoid using language like that, which could cause disruption and could be interpreted differently.

From the top, the hon. Leader of the Opposition.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Carleton, ON]

Mr. Speaker, his carbon tax deal does not distract from the fact that he announced $400 million in surface-to-air equipment that he has still not delivered.

What he did deliver is detonators to Putin, so that Putin could put them in landmines and blow up Ukrainians. He delivered a turbine that was refurbished in Montreal, so that Putin could put it in his pipelines to pump gas and make money off Europe that we should be bringing home to this country.

Why is it that the Prime Minister always stands up for the dirty dictators like Putin instead of the paycheques for our people?

[The Speaker, Liberal, Greg Fergus]

Once again, I would caution all members to be very careful about how they impugn motivations to specific other members. This was the subject of a declaration that the Chair made back in October. I encourage all members to please refer to it again, to make sure that we keep on the right side of parliamentary language.

The right hon. Prime Minister.

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, when the Leader of the Opposition refers to Ukraine as some “faraway foreign land”, when he continues to insist that all of his MPs, including Ukrainian Canadian MPs, vote against a free trade agreement that Volodymyr Zelenskyy is asking us to vote for, to support Ukraine, he cannot hide behind the kind of misinformation and disinformation that he regularly peddles.

It is very simple. Will the members of the Conservative Party—

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[The Speaker, Liberal, Greg Fergus]

As I just made a statement to a member in this House, I will make it again. Please be—

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[The Speaker, Liberal, Greg Fergus]

I invite all members to be very careful about imputing motivations or associating members with governments that we find to be disreputable, if not odious. I will ask the hon member for South Shore—St. Margarets to come and speak to me at the chair, and we will discuss this.

The hon. Leader of the Opposition has the floor.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister could not point to a single thing that I said that was untrue, because it was all factual. It is a fact that we already have an excellent trade agreement with Ukraine, that it does not include a carbon tax and that there is no need for a carbon tax to be in any free trade agreement. In fact, there never has been a need for a carbon tax in any other free trade agreement in history.

While we remember the carbon tax, the Prime Minister forgot to include in the deal a ban on his sending detonators and turbines over to Putin. Why is it that he is so determined to allow Putin to acquire weapons and money rather than having a real free trade deal with Ukraine?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, the leader of the official opposition has an opportunity to correct the record of him having called Ukraine a faraway foreign land by allowing his Ukrainian Canadian MPs, at the very least, to vote in favour of the renewal of the Canada-Ukraine Free Trade Agreement, which is coming up for a vote in the coming days. For those who choose to stand with Ukraine, it is an opportunity to stand in this House and be counted. Why is he muzzling his Ukrainian Canadian MPs?

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, we are 100% united in our support of Ukraine and in our opposition to the carbon tax. This is what the Prime Minister does. He divides. He wants to distract from the fact that he doubled housing costs, caused 30 homeless encampments in Halifax, and caused shootings to go up by 100% and drug overdoses to go up by 300%. It is no wonder that he would want to use fear and falsehoods to distract from his many failures, and that is exactly what he is doing.

Why will the Prime Minister not finally unite this country instead of trying to divide and conquer?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, this House used to be united in its support of Ukraine and in its support of Volodymyr Zelenskyy, yet now we see—

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[The Speaker, Liberal, Greg Fergus]

I am going to ask the Prime Minister to start again, and I am going to ask all members to please listen to the response without interruption so that we can have an orderly House.

The Prime Minister, from the top.

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Papineau, QC]

Mr. Speaker, this House used to be united in its unequivocal support for Ukraine, and then the Leader of the Opposition disparagingly referred to Ukraine as a faraway foreign land, something for which he has not yet apologized, and demanded that all his MPs, including MPs from the Prairies, where there are strong Ukrainian Canadian populations, vote against a free trade deal that Volodymyr Zelenskyy has deliberately and directly asked Canadians to support. When will he stand up for Ukraine?

CBC/Radio-Canada

[Martin Champoux, Bloc, Drummond, QC]

Mr. Speaker, let us talk more about CBC/Radio‑Canada CEO Catherine Tait's appearance at the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage yesterday. Nothing she said provided anyone with any reassurance about her vision for Quebec news and culture. She will not be reinstating the 600 jobs she cut, a disproportionate number of which were on the French-language side. At this morning's scrum, the government floated the possibility of additional financial assistance for CBC/Radio‑Canada.

Will the Prime Minister commit to making any additional funding for Radio‑Canada conditional on jobs being reinstated?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, in this era of misinformation, disinformation and the transformation of our digital and media universe, we need a strong CBC/Radio‑Canada to protect our culture, protect our democracy and tell our stories from one end of the country to the other.

We will always be there to stand up for CBC/Radio‑Canada and we will try to make the necessary investments so it can continue to fulfill its mandate to inform, entertain and strengthen democracy here in Canada.

[Martin Champoux, Bloc, Drummond, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the Bloc Québécois will support the Prime Minister provided that he offers assistance to CBC/Radio-Canada on the understanding that jobs will be maintained.

However, CBC/Radio-Canada is not the only one struggling. All of our electronic news media are asking for the same wage subsidy that the federal government is giving, and rightly so, to our newspapers. Huge cuts have been made at Bell and TVA. Weekly newspapers are losing their means of distribution, and the news black-out on Meta is hurting the entire sector.

Will the Prime Minister give all news media the same consideration that he has shown to the crown corporation?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, supporting journalists and local journalism is extremely important to this government, especially in these challenging times. That is why we introduced Bill C‑18, which will help our journalists operate at all levels.

We will continue to be there to defend an independent, free and professional press. We know that a lot of work remains to be done in these times of uncertainty. Unlike the Conservatives, we will be there to work with all parties interested in protecting journalism.

Housing

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, after eight years, the Prime Minister is not worth the cost of housing, which has doubled since he promised to lower it, but there is good news. Rent is down for the eighth consecutive month in the United States. Meanwhile, it has more than doubled under the Prime Minister. It is up 9% in the last year alone.

Can the Prime Minister explain why rent is going down in the States while it skyrockets under his leadership here at home?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to give the Leader of the Opposition another opportunity to apologize for referring to Ukraine disparagingly as a faraway foreign land.