Debates of April 30th, 2024

Mental Health and Addictions

[The Speaker, Liberal, Greg Fergus]

The hon. Leader of the Opposition knows that to make an accusation directly at the character of a single person is not appropriate.

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[The Speaker, Liberal, Greg Fergus]

I am going to ask all members to control themselves.

I will ask the hon. Leader of the Opposition to rephrase his question and to start from the top.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Carleton, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I also condemn the extremism of a prime minister who gives hundreds of thousands of dollars of anti-racism money to a Jew-hater who has proposed shooting Jews in the head. I condemn a prime minister who allows the IRGC, which murdered 55 Canadians, to remain legal. I condemn a prime minister who allows the open use of crack, heroin, meth and weapons in hospital rooms, which threatens nurses, and on school buses next to children.

Will the Prime Minister reverse his extremist policies and the death they bring?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, the leader opposite is showing us exactly what shameful, spineless leadership looks like. He shakes hands with white nationalists and then actively courts the support of those members who—

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[The Speaker, Liberal, Greg Fergus]

Order, please.

If the hon. member for Lethbridge has problems with the Chair, she should challenge the Chair, but as the hon. member knows, challenging the Chair is against the rules of the House. I ask the hon. member to please withdraw her remarks.

[Rachael Thomas, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

Mr. Speaker, I stated that the Chair is acting in a disgraceful manner—

Naming of Member

[The Speaker, Liberal, Greg Fergus]

Mrs. Thomas, I must name you for disregarding the authority of the Chair.

[An hon. member]

She withdrew it.

[The Speaker, Liberal, Greg Fergus]

Pursuant to the powers vested in me under Standing Order 11, I order you to withdraw from the House and from any participation by video conference for the remainder of this day's sitting.

[And Mrs. Thomas having withdrawn:]

[The Speaker, Liberal, Greg Fergus]

Coming back to the original point, I am going to ask the Prime Minister to start again and to please, as I had asked the Leader of the Opposition to do, reframe his question in a way that does not call into question the character of an individual member of Parliament.

Mental Health and Addictions

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, the leader opposite is showing us once again what he will do try to earn votes through personal attacks. He shakes the hand of a leader of a white nationalist group then goes to actively court the support of the group's members and thinks he can get away with it. It is a group that advocates for violence against 2SLGBTQI+ Canadians, against Hindus and Sikhs and against Muslims and Jews. Diagolon stands against everything we stand for as Canadians, and yet he will not denounce its members or what they stand for. That is shameful.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, that, like everything else the Prime Minister says, is false. He uses fear and falsehood, and this latest distraction, because he does not want to face the fact that he has become so extreme and radical that even the B.C. NDP is distancing itself from his decriminalization of crack, heroin, meth and other hard drugs in hospital rooms, which causes nurses to have to stop breastfeeding their babies for fear the contaminated air might end up in the breast milk for the baby.

Why will he not ban these drugs?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, the Leader of the Opposition still will not condemn these groups. Any leader who needs the support of a far right, white nationalist group to fundraise and get closer to power does not deserve elected office. He is a 19-year career politician who knows exactly what he is doing and thinks he can get away with it. It was a choice to pander to white nationalists, not an accident, and it is a choice to continue to not condemn them and not condemn everything they stand for, in his quest for votes.

[An hon member]

Oh, oh!

[The Speaker, Liberal, Greg Fergus]

For the second time, I ask the hon. member for St. Albert—Edmonton to please withhold his comments until he has the floor.

The hon. Leader of the Opposition has the floor.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, it is a choice for the Prime Minister to implement extremist policies that have taken the lives of 2,500 British Columbians every single year. Since the NDP has asked him to reverse course on his and formerly the NDP's radical policy, 22 British Columbians have died of drug overdoses, but he continues to allow those drugs to kill the people in our hospitals and on our public transit.

When will we put an end to this wacko policy by the wacko Prime Minister?

[The Speaker, Liberal, Greg Fergus]

No, that is not acceptable. There are a couple of things going on here today that are not acceptable. I would ask all members to please control themselves.

I am going to ask two things. The first is that the hon. Leader of the Opposition withdraw that term, which is not considered parliamentary.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Carleton, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I replace “wacko” with “extremist”. The Prime Minister is an—

[The Speaker, Liberal, Greg Fergus]

I am going to ask the Leader of the Opposition once again to simply withdraw that comment, please.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Carleton, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I will replace it with “radical”. That is the Prime Minister's policy.

[The Speaker, Liberal, Greg Fergus]

No, I am not asking that it be replaced; I am asking the hon. member to simply withdraw it.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Carleton, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I replace the word “wacko” with “extremist”.

[The Speaker, Liberal, Greg Fergus]

I am going to ask the hon. Leader of the Opposition one last time to simply withdraw that comment, please.