Bill Blair

[Royal Canadian Mounted Police, October 23rd, 2025]

Mr. Speaker, throughout my nearly four decades of policing, I was always inspired by the fact that one of Canada's most enduring national symbols was a police officer on a horse, a Mountie, a member of the RCMP.

The RCMP's motto is “Maintiens le Droit”, which means maintain the right and uphold the law. The RCMP is perhaps the most trusted institution in our country, and it is a source of national pride.

The basis of that trust is the fact that Canada is a rule-of-law country, a country where the police are independent from all political interference in their operations, investigations and prosecutions. In Canada, the police are not subject to the dictates of some feckless politician who would seek to compel the police to lock up his opponents without evidence or legal basis.

That is why Canadians were so shocked to hear the Leader of the Opposition so casually call the RCMP “despicable” for maintaining the right and upholding the law. I now know he denies saying what we all heard him say, but I would ask every member of the House to reflect on the impact that such scurrilous remarks can have.

[National Defence, December 12th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to begin by thanking the member for Sudbury for her hard work on our very hard-working defence committee.

As we head into the holiday season, I would like to take this opportunity to express our sincere gratitude to all members of the Canadian Armed Forces and to the entire defence team. They have answered the call to serve and defend their country, and they have our confidence, our pride and our gratitude. I also wish to extend our thanks to their families and all those who support them in this essential work.

I wish all members of the Canadian Armed Forces happy holidays and a happy new year.

[National Defence, November 26th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, we also remember that when the conflict in Afghanistan ended, the Conservatives gutted the defence budget, taking $2.5 billion away from it, and reduced it, for the only time in our history, to less than 1%.

I have had many conversations with members of the Canadian Armed Forces and they have never told me that what they need is another vacuous slogan. What they say is they need real investment in ships, in planes, in infrastructure and, most importantly, in our people. Every time we have come before the House and asked for money for those investments and those people, Conservatives have voted against it.

[National Defence, November 26th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, all of us remember the last time the Conservatives talked about a Canada first defence policy, and we also remember what they did. They gutted the defence budget, reducing defence spending to less than 1% of our GDP for the first and only time in Canada's long history. In the last nine years, as we have doubled defence spending, the Conservatives have voted against every single dollar, just as they voted against support for Ukraine. Standing up for the Canadian Armed Forces may require the Conservatives to stand up to their leader.

[Public Safety, November 25th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, I personally believe that it is shameful that anyone would speak of the violence that took place on our streets here in Canada in political terms for purely partisan political intention.

I believe it is all of our responsibility to stand up to such hatred and to condemn it in the strongest possible terms, unequivocally and on behalf of all decent Canadians.

[Public Safety, November 25th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, let me be very clear, what was on display in Montreal just this past weekend was criminality. The violence, the hatred and the anti-Semitism that took place in Montreal is completely unacceptable, and everyone in this House must condemn it in the strongest possible terms.

[National Defence, November 21st, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the member for Saanich—Gulf Islands for her strong advocacy. Canada has long been a proud and significant contributor to United Nations peace operations. Most recently, we pledged $85 million over three years in continued support of global peacekeeping and peacebuilding. We have also extended and expanded the Elsie initiative to increase the participation of uniformed women in peacekeeping operations. We have renewed our commitment to providing tactical airlift support to UN peace operations, and we are exploring opportunities for a Canadian contribution of a quick reaction force.

It has been a great source of pride for all Canadians that the Canadian Armed Forces has always answered the call for peacekeeping operations. That is why—

[Veterans Affairs, November 19th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, I will withdraw it due to the fact that the falsehood was perhaps not deliberate.

[Veterans Affairs, November 19th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, first of all, I want to thank the member for raising this important issue because there is no greater obligation for all of us than to express our solemn remembrance and our respect for the service of all members of the Canadian Armed Forces. They have sacrificed so much. Many of them have lost their lives, and others chose to serve and survived. For someone to take the opportunity, on that particular day, to try to score some cheap political points with a deliberate falsehood is a real shame.

[Foreign Affairs, November 19th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, this is a very important question. For 1,000 days, the Ukrainian people have paid a terrible price for brutal Russian aggression, and throughout that time, Canada has been steadfast in its support for Ukraine and the Ukrainian people in the face of Russia's unjustified and illegal invasion.

Just yesterday, the supplementary estimates were tabled in the House, and these supplementary estimates contain $763 million in military aid to Ukraine. That is money for munitions, training and the tools Ukrainians desperately require to win. I hope that this year, unlike last year, every member of the House can find the courage to support this desperately required funding.