Debates of April 11th, 2024

Canadian Sustainable Jobs Act

[Corey Tochor, Conservative, Saskatoon—University, SK]

Mr. Speaker, you have asked for an apology and you have yet to receive it from the member. It is on his watch to deliver that apology and for you to enforce it or to eject the individual.

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

Still on the same point of order, I see the hon. House leader for the NDP.

[Peter Julian, NDP, New Westminster—Burnaby, BC]

Mr. Speaker, the member retracted. I would ask members of the Conservative Party to actually listen to his speech and allow him to continue.

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

Mr. Speaker, on that same point of order, I would draw your attention to the Debates from February 12, 1997, at page 8014, 8016 and 8017, in which the Speaker found that the unwillingness of the then member for Fraser Valley East to fully retract and apologize without conditions constituted a breach of the authority of the Chair and subsequently named the hon. member, pursuant to Standing Order 11.

I suggest that this is a similar case to that.

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

Let us try once again to retract it and apologize so that we can move on.

The hon. member for Timmins—James Bay, go ahead so that I can hear it.

[Charlie Angus, NDP, Timmins—James Bay, ON]

Mr. Speaker, you did hear it before, so you will hear it again: I retract and I apologize.

I certainly apologize, as well, for anybody who had to watch the behaviour of the Conservatives who shut down our committee with screaming, shouting and intimidation for eight straight hours. The reason they did that was so the public would not hear these facts, which is why we have to deal with these constant interruptions. When we talk about facts with Conservatives, they are threatened by them.

I think I made a very clear—

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

We are saying not to have conditions to the apology and the retraction.

The hon. member for Timmins—James Bay.

[Charlie Angus, NDP, Timmins—James Bay, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I will say this for the third time: I retract it. I apologize.

Can I continue?

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

You may continue.

[Charlie Angus, NDP, Timmins—James Bay, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I am very sorry that we had to witness the abuse at that committee—

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[Charlie Angus, NDP, Timmins—James Bay, ON]

Mr. Speaker, that is within my purview—

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

This will be number three.

The hon. member for Lakeland.

[Shannon Stubbs, Conservative, Lakeland, AB]

Mr. Speaker, the member is fully displaying his contempt for democracy and for the duly elected members of Parliament who represent our constituents in this place who may have different views and opinions from him. He actually did not apologize. He retracted and defended himself. The end of his comments were actually to further reinforce the truth of the assertion that he made.

This entire thing is such a charade. I do not know why we have rules in this place, at committees or in this chamber, if they are not going to be applied equally and fairly all the time.

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

We are getting into debate a bit.

The hon. member for New Westminster—Burnaby.

[Peter Julian, NDP, New Westminster—Burnaby, BC]

Mr. Speaker, when you rise in the chair, I hope Conservatives will respect that and sit down. When you rise, that is a signal for Conservatives to sit down.

I very clearly heard the member for Timmins—James Bay. He retracted and apologized—

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

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

Members should stop yelling. Do that first so that I can hear what is happening on the floor. I cannot hear a darn thing because everyone is yelling.

The hon. member for New Westminster—Burnaby.

[Peter Julian, NDP, New Westminster—Burnaby, BC]

Mr. Speaker, if you, with order in the House, allow the member for Timmins—James Bay to continue, he has information. It is true that Conservatives disagree, but they are just going to have to listen respectfully, in the same way that we listened to their speeches respectfully a few hours ago.

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

When I ask someone to retract, they are to retract or apologize but not to provide any other comments. Let us just move on to the next thing. There will be no “buts”, no “ands” or anything like that. Let us just have a straight-out apology.

Let us try it, for the fourth time, without the “but”.

The hon. member for Timmins—James Bay.

[Charlie Angus, NDP, Timmins—James Bay, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I do not want to challenge you, but I think it will be the fifth time I have retracted and apologized.

I can do it a sixth time: I retract and apologize.

Can I continue?

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

You may continue.

[Charlie Angus, NDP, Timmins—James Bay, ON]

Mr. Speaker, we dealt with 20,000 bogus amendments from a party that did not want any worker representation at the table. There were 20,000 bogus amendments and we were shouted at when we tried to talk about how none of these were actually generated by real people. That is the nature of democracy in our House. Then the Conservatives said they were going to make us vote all weekend.

In my final moments, I will say that we have the Conservative leader, who has refused to apologize for his connections with Alex Jones and has refused to distance himself. We are now dealing with the politics of disinformation. I certainly hope I see the Conservative leader today; it is an important issue.

If Conservatives are going to make us vote all weekend long, I will be here. I made a promise to workers in Alberta, I made a promise to miners and I made a promise to people working in the auto sector that we were going to make sure that they had a voice at the table, no matter what the Conservatives did to try to interrupt us.

[Warren Steinley, Conservative, Regina—Lewvan, SK]

Mr. Speaker, we just saw a demonstration from the member of Parliament for Timmins—James Bay of why he will not run for re-election. He does not represent any of the views of his constituents.

The reason he said he will be here all weekend is that—

[Peter Julian, NDP, New Westminster—Burnaby, BC]

Mr. Speaker, on a point of order, those were absolutely inappropriate, disingenuous comments.

This is questions and comments on the bill, not personal attacks. The member should know better, and he should retract and apologize.