Alistair MacGregor

[Labour, May 24th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, more than 9,000 border workers have voted for a strike mandate. The Liberals keep asking more of these workers, like cracking down on stolen cars being smuggled out of Canada, but will not give them the resources they need. Our CBSA workers deserve better. They deserve a pension, better working conditions and respect. Canadians depend on these workers to keep them safe, but the Liberals are turning their backs on them.

Will the Liberals admit that, by failing to provide a fair retirement to these workers, they are setting the stage for unnecessary disruptions this summer?

[Business of Supply, May 23rd, 2024]

Madam Chair, yesterday the House of Commons voted to defeat Bill C-381. There is obviously no evidence that mandatory minimums work as a deterrent. This was in the case of extortion in the Criminal Code. There is even evidence that they might hinder the work of a prosecutor to use plea bargaining to obtain evidence for the arrest of other members of a criminal organization. However, there are legitimate fears among the South Asian community regarding the increase in extortion from criminal organizations.

How the minister is dealing with this particularly sensitive issue? How will he be directing his department's resources to address these growing fears?

[Business of Supply, May 23rd, 2024]

Madam Chair, members from all sides of the House have supported the creation of a new offence in the Criminal Code for coercive and controlling behaviour. Bill C-332 is scheduled to return to the House for report stage and third reading next week.

Can the minister tell me when the government will act and implement the changes to the Criminal Code that are urgently needed to protect survivors, families and children who are at risk of coercive and controlling behaviour and escalating threats of harm and violence?

Is the government committed to fast-tracking the implementation of the legislation, given the all-party support?

[Business of Supply, May 23rd, 2024]

Madam Chair, there is nothing precluding the minister from setting out certain expectations. I think that is very well and good to be established, and still keeping an organization within the Justice Department at arm's length.

I want to move on. Today I subbed in at the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights, which is currently looking at the issues of anti-Semitism and Islamophobia. It is quite obvious that Jews across Canada are reporting a terrifying increase of hate directed toward them as an identifiable group.

One of the recommendations that emerged at today's meeting was to ban symbols of hate. My colleague, the NDP member for New Westminster—Burnaby, has introduced Bill C-229, which would amend the Criminal Code to broaden the provisions related to hate propaganda by making it an offence to publicly display visual representations that promote or incite hatred or violence against an identifiable group. Can the minister comment on this particular initiative and whether the Government of Canada will support it?

[Business of Supply, May 23rd, 2024]

Madam Chair, will the minister personally instruct the war crimes division of Justice Canada to conduct enhanced human rights due diligence for all real estate transactions made in Canada or by Canadian citizens that involve illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories?

[Business of Supply, May 23rd, 2024]

Madam Chair, with respect, the minister is been quite evasive. I am not talking about the Minister of Foreign Affairs. I am not talking about Israeli settlements abroad. I am talking about Canadians who may have broken the law here in Canada regarding the purchase of properties in the occupied Palestinian territories being done here on Canadian soil. I would like a specific answer to that specific question. That is not under the purview of the Minister of Foreign Affairs. That is under the purview of the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada.

[Business of Supply, May 23rd, 2024]

Madam Chair, I understand that very well. That does not preclude the minister from issuing broad statements about what the government expects.

Again, I would like to hear an answer from the minister.

[Business of Supply, May 23rd, 2024]

Madam Chair, I want to know what work the minister is personally doing to make sure that there is an investigation and potential prosecution of people in Canada who are facilitating the purchasing of property, investments or businesses in illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory.

[Business of Supply, May 23rd, 2024]

Madam Chair, that is all very clear, but I am looking at the investigation of the particular potential sales that happened here on Canadian soil. I would like the minister to comment on that specifically. I think Canadians have a very deserved right to know.

[Business of Supply, May 23rd, 2024]

Madam Chair, in March there were several events in Canadian communities in which real estate sales of settlement homes in occupied Palestinian territory were promoted and real estate was potentially sold. There was a real estate tour called the Great Israeli Real Estate Event, which was held in Montreal and Toronto.

Israel's far right government has been expanding and authorizing illegal settlements at a rate that exceeds those of all previous years. Settlements are illegal under international law, and under Canadian policy they are an impediment to peace. They should be a priority of the department, given that this is illegal under domestic law and also given the increasing settler violence in the West Bank, which the minister's government acknowledged last week when it imposed sanctions on extremist settlers.

Has the minister's department investigated these illegal sales that may violate the Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act, which lists population transfer by occupying powers as a recognized war crime under domestic law?