Charlie Angus

[Criminal Code, February 13th, 2023]

Madam Speaker, I remember being involved in the very first debates, and serious concerns were raised. What kinds of safeguards? What kinds of protections? We were told to pass it and then we would get a review. We never got that review.

What we got was the unelected, unaccountable Senate, whose members are responsible to nobody but themselves, deciding that what we needed to do was rewrite the law so that anyone who was depressed or had any kind of mental depression could be allowed to die. The government accepted that. It did not even throw it back. It accepted it, and we are one week away from this outrageous extension of MAID becoming law because it sat on the Liberals' desks.

Now we have to bring in a law that does not actually deal with that. We are just putting it off. We have never had a discussion as the elected representatives of the Canadian people to decide what is fair, what is right, how we do this and how we ensure safeguards. I would like to ask my hon. colleague about his position on this.

[Criminal Code, February 13th, 2023]

Madam Speaker, when we voted on this legislation, we were told that Parliament would be able to review so we could tell whether or not we had overstepped and whether or not it had worked. We were never given that right. Instead, this was handed over to the unelected senators, who got it into their head that people who are depressed or who have a few problems should be able to die. We have to fix that. We never got to address whether or not these provisions were working, whether or not there need to be proper guardrails in place.

Would it not be better if this bill would just park this, stop it dead, until we can actually find out how this process is working for the people of Canada?

[Criminal Code, February 13th, 2023]

Madam Speaker, I was very surprised listening to my colleague talking about the numbers they have. In 2016 there were 1,200 cases of MAID. That doubled in 2017 and doubled again in 2018. It was over 10,000 in 2021. That is nearly 30 people dying in this country every single day. That is more than double all the deaths from breast cancer or all the suicides in this country. We were promised a process to make sure we were not implementing a regime that was doing this without really strong checks and balances.

I find it staggering that the member could say this thing is working when we see such massive increases, much higher than in Europe or anywhere else, in medically assisted death in this country.

[Business of Supply, February 9th, 2023]

Madam Speaker, I am really pleased we are having this discussion because whether we stand up for the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms or not is something we have to confront. We either have constitutional rights for the protection of minorities or we do not. It is becoming very concerning when we see how laws are being crafted that target Muslim Canadian women, resulting in them being fired. We saw provincial governments using this tool to strip labour rights from low-paid workers, allowing these governments to evade review by the courts and stripping away minorities' rights to actually question whether a law is fair or valid.

I would ask my colleague this: Is the federal government willing to stand up for the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, or is it going to continue to wring its hands and say that it is unfortunate any time a provincial government decides it is easier to just arbitrarily strip away rights out of the Constitution? Are we going to protect the Constitution and the charter, or are we just going to say that what is happening is really not nice?

[Business of Supply, February 9th, 2023]

Mr. Speaker, this is an important discussion, because either we have a charter that protects the rights of citizens or we do not. What we have seen is the willingness of provincial governments to pre-emptively use the notwithstanding clause to target workers and religious minorities and to justify unconstitutional laws, which is deeply concerning. That strips the fundamental rights of citizens and their ability to challenge the provincial governments when they abuse those rights.

In watching the outrageous use of this clause, it concerns me that the federal government has sat on the sidelines and told citizens to defend themselves. Is the federal government going to stand up for the principle of the charter or is the charter just some paper document that can be used, annulled or ignored depending on whatever government is in power in the provinces?

[Labour, February 6th, 2023]

Mr. Speaker, Alberta energy workers are calling on the government to step up with a major financial commitment to meet the challenge of Joe Biden's massive investments in clean tech. In Alberta, that would be 200,000 jobs alone. It is no wonder the Alberta Federation of Labour is calling this the biggest economic shift since the Industrial Revolution.

We know Conservatives do not believe in a clean energy future, but New Democrats do because clean tech would mean good-paying union jobs in Alberta, northern Ontario and across Canada. When will the government end its do-nothing approach and commit to major investments in this budget to ensure a clean-tech revolution for Canadians?

[National Security Review of Investments Modernization Act, February 6th, 2023]

Madam Speaker, I loved the last line about learning from mistakes. This is the same Conservative Party that, when there was warning after warning about Chinese state companies stealing IP from Canadian companies, Stephen Harper was selling off key assets, like $15 billion for Nexen to a state-owned company.

When HD Mining in British Columbia, a Chinese company, announced it could not hire Canadian workers, Stephen Harper gave it 14 years to bring in Chinese workers to exploit Canadian assets. Stephen Harper thought that was so good that he signed a secret free trade deal that allowed Chinese state companies to sue any level of government. Imagine the United States letting Montana or Miami be sued.

Stephen Harper was more than willing to sell us down the river, sell out our assets and sell out our resources, while we warned them about the theft of IP and resources by Chinese state companies.

[National Security Review of Investments Modernization Act, February 6th, 2023]

Madam Speaker, listening to the Conservatives talk about jobs, trade and supporting Canada is like looking into the distortions of a funhouse mirror.

I remember when Stephen Harper sold off $15 billion of the oil sands to a Chinese state company and when he signed a secretive free trade agreement with China that allowed Chinese state companies to sue any level of government in Canada. The Conservatives stood up and told us this was a great thing. Can members imagine the Americans ever allowing Chinese state companies to sue their states or their municipalities? However, that is what the Conservatives did.

When they talk about supporting Canadian mining, it was Tony Clement who allowed two of Canada's greatest companies, Inco and Falconbridge, to be taken over by corporate raiders. The Conservatives would not stand up for Canadian jobs then. It is a little rich to hear the Conservatives suddenly saying that they are going to stand up to China and they are going to stand up for jobs when Stephen Harper sold us down the river every step of the way in order to favour his friends in the Chinese state companies.

[Business of Supply, February 2nd, 2023]

Madam Speaker, the issue of dealing with crime is that we actually need to take the evidence, we need to have the witnesses and we need to put them together in a way that makes sure we actually get the results the public trusts us to get. This is our job as legislators, so I am very pleased that the justice committee agreed to look at bail reform and the serious issues that have arisen from the examples of violence.

The horrific killing of that young police officer in Ontario shocked us all; it should never have been allowed to happen. However, this issue is very different from what the Conservatives are doing, which is having a motion, throwing everything but the kitchen sink into it and demanding that we stand up in the House today and rewrite the whole law without the evidence and without doing the work. I have been here long enough to remember the Harper government days when every one of the Conservatives' crime bills got tossed, with more recalls than the Ford Pinto, because they were not doing the job right.

I would like to ask my hon. colleague about doing this right on bail reform.

[Business of Supply, February 2nd, 2023]

Madam Speaker, I have never seen the level of threat and fear that I see in Timmins and northern communities, which have always been very peaceful, and we know this is directly related to the opioid crisis. I talk to Timmins police, and they say we cannot arrest our way out of this crisis and that they are working in the city to establish a safe site, because this is about keeping people from dying. On top of that, it is about putting supports in place to deal with the homelessness crisis, with opioids and with bail reform, because there are certain offenders who simply cannot be released back into the community again and again to perpetuate violence.

Is my hon. colleague willing to work with us on addressing this issue of bail reform? How are we going to see the government move on the serious issue of the opioid crisis, which is devastating our northern communities?