Mr. Speaker, all that remains for me to do is to thank my colleague for his words of wisdom and, as always, commend him for the quality of his French. It is impressive. I would like to thank him.
House of Commons photoLost his last election, in 2025, with 35% of the vote.
Instruction to the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs Regarding Bill C-14 June 2nd, 2022
Mr. Speaker, all that remains for me to do is to thank my colleague for his words of wisdom and, as always, commend him for the quality of his French. It is impressive. I would like to thank him.
Instruction to the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs Regarding Bill C-14 June 2nd, 2022
Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the hon. member for his question. Yes, there are guarantees. In particular, there is the senatorial clause, which gives Prince Edward Island four members instead of one, and the grandfather clause. It is true.
That precedent is the reason we are proposing a new clause. Since there are already several clauses, we simply want to add a “Quebec clause” to make sure that Quebec always has 25% of the number of seats in the House of Commons.
That is in line with the remarks of my colleague from Winnipeg North.
Instruction to the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs Regarding Bill C-14 June 2nd, 2022
Mr. Speaker, my father always said that good things come to those who wait, and my colleague will have to wait. I am sorry that my voice does not carry far, but my colleague was told that this motion would be moved and that I would speak for four or five minutes. Since my time has not yet expired, he should pay close attention. He may learn something.
There were two parts to the motion. The number of members from Quebec cannot be reduced, and the proportion of Quebec members in the House cannot be reduced. Those were the two aspects to this motion, and the vast majority of members voted in favour.
Bill C-14 is a step forward. The number of members from Quebec will not be reduced. Confucius said that even the longest journey always begins with a first step. The is the first step.
What we are asking for is the second step. That is obvious. Everyone here, or almost everyone here, has said that they cannot allow Quebec, which is a nation with French as its common language, to have its relative political weight in the House reduced.
The point of this motion of instruction is to allow the Bloc Québécois to table an amendment to Bill C‑14 so that we can finally carry out the mission provided for in the motion tabled in March. That is the bare minimum. The House needs to finally understand that we are not talkers, but doers. That is what I am asking the House to do.
Instruction to the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs Regarding Bill C-14 June 2nd, 2022
moved:
That it be an instruction to the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs that, during its consideration of Bill C-14, An Act to amend the Constitution Act, 1867 (electoral representation), the committee be granted the power to expand the scope of the bill in order to amend the formula for apportioning seats in the House and include provisions that maintain the Quebec nation's political weight, as the House of Commons recognized on March 2, 2022.
Mr. Speaker, Bill C-14 originally provided that no province would lose any federal ridings in the next electoral redistribution. Let us not forget that the future configuration of Parliament threatened to remove one riding from Quebec, which would have seen its number of seats in the House drop from 78 to 77. The Bloc Québécois obviously let it be known that this was outrageous.
We are now moving this motion of instruction for the following reason. It is true that we do not want to see a decrease in the number of members from Quebec in the House, but we want to go even further by asking for an end to the relative decrease in Quebec's political weight, which has been happening since the start of the 20th century.
Since this bill is already too restrictive to allow for these kinds of amendments, we are forced to propose amendments through a motion of instruction to ensure that it is in order. In this way, Bill C‑14 would become embedded in the parliamentary journey we set out on in June 2021.
Allow me to recap. Last year, in June 2021, we moved the following motion:
That the House agree...that Quebeckers form a nation, that French is the only official language of Quebec and that it is also the common language of the Quebec nation.
This motion was adopted by the vast majority of members in the House, which was the first step in this legislative journey.
Since that first step, Quebec has not been seen as a province like the others. It is seen as a nation, which we have known for a long time. However, if Quebec is a nation, it should have the same powers afforded to nations. We must therefore take action to protect the Quebec nation, whose common language is French, which is something that a very large majority of members recognized.
The second step was taken in March, when, once again, a large majority of members in the House adopted the following motion, which I will read because it is very important:
That, in the opinion of the House:
(a) any scenario for redrawing the federal electoral map that would result in Quebec losing one or more electoral districts or that would reduce Quebec's political weight in the House of Commons must be rejected...
Prevention of Government-imposed Vaccination Mandates Act June 2nd, 2022
I apologize, Mr. Speaker.
We were supposed to be able to introduce a bill from my colleague, the member for Rivière-du-Nord. It seems that the Chair did not call his bill, and I am wondering if it would be possible to do that.
Justice June 1st, 2022
Mr. Speaker, Quebeckers want to reinforce state secularism where we live, in Quebec. That is for us to decide.
Quebeckers are not telling Canadians what to do in Canada. If the people of Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, want the state and religion to go hand in hand, that is not our problem. They can go ahead and tattoo “In God We Trust” on their faces if they want. We could not care less. It is none of our business.
Quebeckers want state secularism. That is what we voted for. Why would Quebeckers allow Canadians to force religion back into our state affairs?
Justice June 1st, 2022
Mr. Speaker, yesterday the Prime Minister said that he wanted to challenge Quebec's legislation on the secularization of the state “given the vast implications for all Canadians across the country”. However, there are no implications for Canada. That is pure nonsense.
This concerns Quebeckers and Quebeckers alone. Quebec's state secularism law is the will of Quebeckers, was passed by Quebec members of Quebec's National Assembly and applies only in Quebec. I think it is quite clear. Canadians have nothing to do with it. It is none of their business. What does the Prime Minister not understand about that?
Business of Supply May 31st, 2022
Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for her question and her effort to speak French. It is wonderful.
Perhaps I was not clear.
Whenever my students did not understand something I had said, I would never tell them that they had misunderstood. I would say that I had misspoken.
I never said that we need to maintain the barriers that women face when trying to teach or do research. On the contrary, I want to break down these barriers. Women make up half of Quebec's population. There should be no barriers to entry for students, regardless of the type of barrier.
I have three daughters, and I do everything I can to make sure that they do not put any barriers in their way to do what they want to do in life. I work very hard on that. I raise my children to know that there are no barriers to their ambition, and I would like to see that everywhere.
Business of Supply May 31st, 2022
Madam Speaker, I would like to thank the hon. member for his question. However, to be honest, I do not really understand it.
Let us talk about job postings for research chairs. When hiring researchers, nothing is more important than qualifications. That is what universities should focus on. I do not even want to know who discovered the coronavirus vaccine. I got my shot, and those people have my gratitude. That is science.
Business of Supply May 31st, 2022
Madam Speaker, I would like to thank the hon. member for her question. The root of the problem is access to university. That is it exactly.
For whatever reason, these people do not have the same access to university as most other people, and that is what needs to be addressed. Is it a financial problem? If so, there should be grants or scholarships to help them go to school. Is it because they live in a remote area? Going to university can be more difficult for first nations people. We need to work on that and find solutions. We must provide these people with access to university. That is what we need to do. We must make services more accessible to the public and allow these people to go to school. They should not be impeded by a lack of income or accessibility.
That is how we should be working. We need these people. They need to be integrated so that we can all work together.
When I was teaching, I liked walking into a classroom filled with people from around the world. It made for extremely interesting debates. It is a way for us all to prepare for the future together.