Arif Virani

[Business of Supply, May 23rd, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, we must move quickly to pass the bill in its entirety. I would like to remind the member opposite that when this bill went through first reading, I was accompanied by a lady named Carla Beauvais. She is a Black, Afro-Canadian Quebecker who has repeatedly spoken about all the hate she received because she was trying to talk about the George Floyd case, which happened three years ago.

This type of hate needs to be eliminated through a comprehensive bill. It does not just affect children. Online hate and prejudice affects teenagers and adults, like Carla Beauvais. This Quebecker has the right to legal recourse, which is the aim of this bill.

[Business of Supply, May 23rd, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, we listened to British Columbia. We are listening to the hopes and objectives of the Province of Quebec. That is the first thing.

The second thing is to take care not to draw an analogy between the decriminalization of narcotics and requests for exceptions.

[Business of Supply, May 23rd, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, first of all, with respect to medical assistance in dying, I am already listening to the concerns, wishes and hopes of the Government of Quebec.

Second, so far, we have always taken a national approach to medical assistance in dying when it comes to changes to the Criminal Code and laws on murder that are affected by any changes in this area.

I would also like to point out that we already have a panel of medical experts and health care officials who have looked at what needs to be done and what needs to be protected in the case of advance requests.

[Business of Supply, May 23rd, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, my role as minister for the entire country is to collaborate, co-operate and try to better understand Quebec's justice system and legal system. I need to be better informed in order to serve the entire population, both in Quebec and outside Quebec. It is a challenge for someone who comes from outside Quebec, but it is a challenge that I have taken on.

[Business of Supply, May 23rd, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, first, I thank my colleague for his opening comments.

Second, Quebec obviously has a civil law system, which is different. That is very clear in our customs and conventions. That is why there are always three judges on the Supreme Court of Canada who are civil law experts. The court needs that when drafting decisions and ruling on cases from Quebec.

In my younger days, maybe 27 years ago, I myself spent a semester studying law at Université Laval so I could be more conscious of and informed about Quebec's civil law system.

[Business of Supply, May 23rd, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, a priority for any government is keeping the community safe. Our commitment to this remains steadfast in terms of protecting women from intimate partner violence, protecting children from child sex predators, protecting all Canadians from gun violence, protecting people from hatred and ensuring that the sex offender registry is replaced. Our commitment remains steadfast to ensuring that Canadians are kept safe in their communities, and we will continue in that vein.

[Business of Supply, May 23rd, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, the answer to that is an absolute and resounding no. The investments made were at one third of the level of investments that we are making in indigenous communities and with rights holders around this country.

We have empowered national indigenous organizations. We have created permanent bilateral mechanisms. We launched the missing and murdered indigenous women's inquiry. We are responding to calls to action under the TRC and calls for justice under the MMIWG.

My office has created a special interlocutor to look at the unmarked graves and how to address that pressing issue. The work continues apace. The work will take time. It will take many generations to resolve.

However, we are on a path forward that is much more demonstrably palpable in terms of our willingness to collaborate, work in partnership with and, indeed, co-develop legislation with indigenous peoples. That is a hallmark of the way we need to work on the go-forward.

That is a hallmark of our government. We will continue on that path, despite sometimes facing considerable opposition by the official opposition.

[Business of Supply, May 23rd, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, I thank the member opposite for raising this, because I do not think we have talked enough about indigenous reconciliation in the context of this evening's interventions.

What Bill S-13 would do is simply and surgically amend the Interpretation Act, such that all federal legislation would be interpreted so as not to derogate from aboriginal and treaty rights that are protected under section 35 of the Constitution.

Right now, we have a checkerboard, where every individual piece of legislation has to insert this interpretive provision. If we simply amend the Interpretation Act, it would oversee the interpretation of all federal legislation and obviate the need for doing so.

We have consulted on this. We have worked with indigenous leadership on this. We have a bill that has worked its way through the Senate. That bill is something that actually should command unanimous consent in this chamber. I hope we can expeditiously pass it to do right by aboriginal and treaty rights that are constitutionally protected and need to be interpreted in that manner.

[Business of Supply, May 23rd, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, what I appreciate from the member's comments is that he obviously delves into his experience as a past minister of finance in Ontario. He understands, as law enforcement has continuously explained to me, that gone are the days of a teenager off on a joyride, stealing a car from someone's home.

This is an organized effort that is very profitable for international crime ranks. That is what we are dealing with here. In order to address auto theft, we need to address the path of the money.

How are we doing that? There are six measures, and some of them were touched upon by my colleague. We are addressing challenges with prosecuting third party money launderers by amending the money-laundering offence. That is in the fall economic statement that, unfortunately, the members opposite have been obstructing.

Second, we are responding to the rapidly evolving nature of financial crime by adapting the production order for financial data so that it more effectively applies to accounts associated with digital assets. We know what that party thinks about digital assets, because at one point the Conservative leader opined that crypto was the way out of inflation. Thankfully, the Bank of Canada was not listening.

Third, we also know that modernizing provisions related to the search, seizure and restraint of proceeds of crime is critical, which is also in the fall economic statement.

Fourth, there is a provision in the current budget implementation bill that deals with issuing an order to require a financial institution to keep an account open to assist in the investigation of a suspected criminal offence.

Fifth, there is a provision that would allow for issuing a repeat production order to authorize law enforcement to obtain ongoing specified information on activity in an account or multiple accounts.

The members opposite love to listen to law enforcement. I would urge them to do this, at least on this one occasion, because law enforcement is asking for these tools that they are actively voting against.

The last piece is an offence that would explicitly criminalize operating a money service business that is not registered with FINTRAC. That is really critical because that is something that again helps us to track the money.

With the learned knowledge of my friend, in terms of his background in finance, he has applied a critical lens to what we are doing on auto theft. If members think that we can tackle this one at a time, by targeting adolescents who have been deployed by an organized crime ring, and solve the auto theft crisis, the members are sorely mistaken.

In order to do this, we need to operate on multiple fronts, including tracking the money. That is what these auto theft provisions would do. That is why we are behind them and are proceeding with them with pace. We just wish the Conservatives would get on board.

[Business of Supply, May 23rd, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, let me just outline the tremendous courage, bravery and service of people like Constable Pierzchala and Constable Yang. We are in debt, as always, to men and women in uniform who serve in this country. With respect to Constable Pierzchala, his murder started a very important conversation over a year ago about bail reform, which we responded to with pace, in conjunction with law enforcement and with provincial and territorial governments around the country. That produced Bill C-48, which we passed in a short amount of time, ensuring that we changed bail laws in this country.