Debates of Feb. 6th, 2024

Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada

[Melissa Lantsman, Conservative, Thornhill, ON]

Mr. Speaker, what an embarrassment it must be for the House leader to have to clean up the Prime Minister's mess every day. The invitation had the Prime Minister's name on it. It came from him, and for months he said only the Speaker invited Hunka. That turned out to not be true. The Prime Minister's own House leader said that the invitation merited a Speaker's resignation. The Speaker resigned because of him, and all of the Liberals watched him do it.

Will the Prime Minister be subject to the rules he imposes on everyone else?

[Steven MacKinnon, Liberal, Leader of the Government in the House of Commons]

Mr. Speaker, this is another small conflagration to mask the Conservatives' larger historical moral failing of not supporting the people, the armed forces and the President of Ukraine, who stood in this very chamber not months ago and asked us to support the Canada-Ukraine free trade arrangements. Then, the Conservatives voted against Operation Unifier and support for our troops, which once again supports Ukraine.

What is next? Why will they not stop trying to hide their moral failings?

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[The Speaker, Liberal, Greg Fergus]

There are several experienced members of the House who know that their time to speak will be recognized by the Chair when they are supposed to speak. Otherwise, I ask members to please allow questions to be asked and answers to be given so the Speaker can hear them, along with anybody else who is participating here.

The hon. member for Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia—Headingley has the floor.

[Marty Morantz, Conservative, Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia—Headingley, MB]

Mr. Speaker, that was a shameful answer from the member. It is another day with another international embarrassment.

After months of denials and throwing the former Speaker under the bus, we have learned that it was the Prime Minister who invited a Nazi to a reception with President Zelenskyy. He forced the Speaker to resign and to take the fall so he could avoid responsibility and cling to power.

After eight years of the Prime Minister, he is not worth the cost to Canada's reputation. Why did the Prime Minister invite a Nazi to a reception with the Ukrainian President?

[Steven MacKinnon, Liberal, Leader of the Government in the House of Commons]

Mr. Speaker, a community event was held with the President of Ukraine to which over 1,000 people were invited. In fact, some Conservatives were invited to that, but we are not talking about any of that today because the Conservatives care about this. They are pretending to care about this. This is fake outrage.

Why are they doing this? It is because today we are voting on trade arrangements with one of our closest allies, the people in the country of Ukraine, who are repelling, as we speak, Russian invaders and dying. This is a moral failing of historic proportions.

[Luc Berthold, Conservative, Mégantic—L'Érable, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister keeps misleading the House.

On September 27, the Prime Minister said in this House that he had no idea that a former Nazi was going to be involved in the events surrounding President Zelenskyy's visit. We now know that the Prime Minister personally invited the Nazi to his private reception in Toronto. He said that the Speaker of the House should resign for inviting a Nazi into the House of Commons. After eight years, it is safe to say his relationship with the truth is pretty questionable.

Will the Prime Minister apply the same standard to himself and resign?

[Steven MacKinnon, Liberal, Leader of the Government in the House of Commons]

Mr. Speaker, apparently the Conservatives want to talk about their moral failings in French, too.

I will come right out and say it: Why are we talking about this in the House today? We are talking about it because they are about to vote against an historic agreement between Canada and Ukraine at a time when the two countries want to support each other in terms of trade and we want to strengthen Ukraine so it can drive the Russians out of its homeland.

This is a moral failing that the Conservatives are trying to mask by raising this issue today. I would invite them to draw back from this moral failing and vote in favour of the bill.

Public Safety

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

Mr. Speaker, there has been a breakdown in law and order in this country. Over the last eight years, auto thefts are up 34% and violent crimes 39%. Canada has become a foreign interference playground for the PRC, Iran and Russia. Behind all of this is organized crime, money laundering and terrorist financing. In fact, in a U.S. indictment unsealed last week, Iran hired two Hell's Angels' members in British Columbia as assassins.

When is the government going to get serious about crime in this country and start protecting Canadian citizens?

[Arif Virani, Liberal, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada]

Mr. Speaker, I have a lot of respect for the member for Wellington—Halton Hills, but I would ask him to reflect seriously on the vote he is going to cast on the fall economic statement.

The fall economic statement deals directly with the money laundering that is fuelling organized crime. We know that auto theft and so many other crimes right now are being committed and orchestrated by organized criminals. We have the ability to get tough on their financing structures and break down those organizations.

The member hopefully has the rectitude to address that issue, vote against his leader's instructions and vote in favour of the fall economic statement.

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

Mr. Speaker, Bill C-59 will do little to combat the problem of organized crime and money laundering in this country, which by the government's own estimate is $133 billion a year, equal to 5% of GDP. The government has ignored numerous reports and protected lawyers from money laundering and terrorist financing law and failed to crack down on Canada's big banks and their funnelling of money laundering and terrorist financing through our financial system.

When is the government going to subject lawyers to federal law and start cracking down on our big banks and the gobs of money laundering going through our financial system?

[Arif Virani, Liberal, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada]

Mr. Speaker, I again would ask the member to use reason, for which he is known in this chamber, and to think about the vote he is being asked to cast and the votes he has already cast.

What am I talking about? We know that police forces around this country are asking for resources. We dedicated resources of $121 million last week to combat guns and gangs, yet the member, under the guidance of his leader, was instructed to vote in an all-night voting session against that funding. That is not becoming of that member or of that caucus.

Official Languages

[Rhéal Fortin, Bloc, Rivière-du-Nord, QC]

Mr. Speaker, all three federalist parties voted against a bilingualism requirement for miscarriage of justice review commissioners. The Liberal parliamentary secretary and the NDP justified dropping the bilingualism requirement by saying it would stand in the way of hiring unilingual French-speaking commissioners. Frankly, unilingual francophones have never benefited from bilingualism taking a backseat, believe me.

Are these parties really saying that it is impossible to find nine competent bilingual jurists out of 40 million Canadians?

[Arif Virani, Liberal, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada]

Mr. Speaker, judges in Canada are extremely important. Their role is extraordinarily important. The need to be bilingual is a very important priority and not just for judges in Quebec, but for judges across Canada. When we took office in 2015, we revised the process for appointing judges. This includes the fact that bilingualism is a priority for us when it comes to assessing applications.

[Rhéal Fortin, Bloc, Rivière-du-Nord, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the parliamentary secretary is not following his minister's instructions.

Another excuse for giving up on bilingualism is that apparently it is too expensive. Yesterday, Radio‑Canada reported that it obtained a copy of a letter from the Privy Council announcing that it would take years and it would be very expensive to translate the documents produced for the Rouleau commission. It seems that the production of a simple index would cost too much too.

This raises three questions for us. How much is bilingualism worth? How much is Canada prepared to pay for bilingualism? Most of all, have we ever heard anyone here complain about the cost of translation from French to English?

[Randy Boissonnault, Liberal, Minister of Employment]

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague for the question. I acknowledge the frustration of francophones in the country on this.

As my colleague knows full well, the commission produced a final report of 2,000 pages in both official languages. The challenge of this situation should also be noted, specifically that the commission received 200,000 documents.

That does not mean this situation is acceptable. There is a lesson to be learned here and we will do better in future.

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

Mr. Speaker, what we are seeing is a marked tendency to extinguish the francophone presence in Canada. It is happening in the justice system, as my colleague demonstrated. It is also happening with appointments, such as that of Governor General Mary Simon, and in major events, such as the all-star hockey game and the Grey Cup.

I am appealing to my colleagues in the national parties. If they choose to do nothing to stop the extinction of francophones, if they tolerate it or come up with excuses to abandon the French language, what choice are Quebeckers left with?

Our only choice is independence.

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[The Speaker, Liberal, Greg Fergus]

Order, please.

The hon. Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Official Languages.

[Randy Boissonnault, Liberal, Minister of Employment]

Mr. Speaker, it is obvious that, on this Tuesday in the House of Commons, the Bloc Québécois is trying to pick a fight over language.

I want everyone to know that I am a redeemed francophone. When I first landed at Campus Saint-Jean in Alberta in 1998, I could not speak French, but I learned French and now I am the Minister of Official Languages. I am proof that bilingualism is working in Canada.

Public Safety

[Jake Stewart, Conservative, Miramichi—Grand Lake, NB]

Mr. Speaker, after eight years of soft-on-crime policies, this Prime Minister has created the auto theft crisis. According to the Liberal government's own news release in New Brunswick, car theft has spiked by 120%.

It is time to stop the crime. Will the Prime Minister reverse his soft-on-crime, catch-and-release policies that have caused the auto theft crisis?

[Dominic LeBlanc, Liberal, Minister of Public Safety]

Mr. Speaker, our government obviously takes the increase in auto theft extremely seriously, which is why we have invested in a very significant way in the Border Services Agency and the RCMP to work on organized crime.

When we formed government, we found out that Conservatives had cut 1,000 officers from border services and half of the border services officers who work on criminal intelligence to interdict the export of, for example, stolen vehicles. Good news, we reversed those cuts, we have invested more and we are going to continue to do more to deal with this issue.

[Jake Stewart, Conservative, Miramichi—Grand Lake, NB]

Mr. Speaker, the results are in after eight years. There were five agents working at one port; five people.

This Liberal government has let organized crime run rampant in Canada. The Prime Minister is not worth the cost or the crime. His reckless policies have caused an explosion in car thefts. He is responsible for the ports. He is responsible for the RCMP and the Criminal Code. These are federal responsibilities.

Car thefts have spiked 190% in Moncton and 93% in Saint John. Will this Prime Minister finally reverse his soft-on-crime, catch-and-release policies?

[Dominic LeBlanc, Liberal, Minister of Public Safety]

Madam Speaker, I can assure my colleague from Miramichi that this government will continue to crack down on auto theft and organized crime. They like fancy slogans where they make up things like “catch and-release”. He is from Miramichi, New Brunswick, and he knows that applies to salmon angling and not serious criminals, so just because he repeats the silly phrase does not make it true. Our government will do what is necessary with provincial partners and local police to crack down on this. We have invested in the CBSA and the RCMP and will continue to do more.

[Pierre Paul-Hus, Conservative, Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC]

Mr. Speaker, after eight years under this Prime Minister and this government, auto theft has doubled in Montreal.

Furthermore, the Canada Border Services Agency is responsible for controlling our borders, including ports. The Port of Montreal, however, has only five Canada Border Services Agency officers on duty to inspect the huge volume of containers transiting through the port on their way to foreign destinations. This morning, our leader proposed to significantly increase that number to 75 officers.

Will the Prime Minister take the Conservative leader's proposals into account during discussions at his summit on Thursday?