Françoise Boivin

[Petitions, February 6th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, great minds must be thinking alike across Canada, because I have petitions to present on the same subject. The Conservative government is the only one that does not seem to understand the importance of creating a national transit strategy, which is extremely important to the people of Gatineau.

We have just inaugurated our new transit service, Rapibus, but there is still a lot to do in terms of transportation and infrastructure. I hope that the government will pay attention to all of these petitions signed by Canadians across the country who see the light. The government is refusing to open its eyes. It cares more about time allocation motions than taking action that would be practical and useful for Canadians from coast to coast to coast. I urge the government to respond swiftly to these petitions signed by Canadians from across the country.

[Combating Counterfeit Products Act, January 31st, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for Vancouver Kingsway. I learn so much every time he speaks in the House. I appreciate that, since it helps me understand the bill and understand why we will support it. It also helps me understand the limitations of the bill.

The member spoke about something that worries me a great deal, which is that we are missing a lot of data. This government is not really concerned with that. Ever since it eliminated the long form census, it has been hard to keep track of things. We are less and less knowledgeable about what is going on. The member referred to that in his response to the question from the member for Durham.

Organizations like the OECD have clearly stated that there is a need for better data on counterfeiting. It is not just the RCMP that is calling for this information.

Could my colleague tell me why the government has not managed to gather better data on this issue or to propose some kind of plan to more effectively collect data? The Conservatives want to pass the bill as quickly as possible, but we need to know what we are dealing with. We need to know what this will entail and who will be affected.

[National Defence, January 31st, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, now I know why Canadian airports provide free access to their Wi-Fi networks.

The Minister of National Defence is responsible for Communications Security Establishment Canada. He must take responsibility for this serious violation of the law, and he must explain why the spying pilot project was extended and why the information taken from Canadian Wi-Fi networks is now being shared with foreign countries.

Did the minister ask CSEC for an explanation, and how does he justify this violation of the law?

[National Defence, January 31st, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, on November 28, the Minister of National Defence said in the House:

...the Communications Security Establishment Canada—CSEC—must abide by Canadian law. It is prohibited from targeting Canadians.

My question is for the Minister of National Defence. Can he tell us how monitoring Canadians' activities through Wi-Fi networks and airports is not the same as targeting Canadians?

[The Budget, January 31st, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, in my riding of Gatineau, we have the same priorities in 2014 that we had in 2013. Everyone is telling me that they are having a hard time making ends meet. The priorities for the people of Gatineau are health care, retirement benefits, well-paying jobs, Canada Post, and respect for the public service, seniors and our veterans.

As we approach the tabling of the budget, these master economists, who have been running deficit budgets year after year since they came to power, will be adding to the national debt, which they have already increased by $123.5 billion. I would be very surprised to find a single Canadian, aside from a Conservative MP, who thinks that this government is working for Canadians. The Conservatives hope that if they table their budget in the middle of the Olympics, everyone will forget about their incompetence. In 2015, Gatineau will remember that our region has been abandoned by the Conservatives. Gatineau will fight with me and my NDP colleagues to turf this government and finally put people first.

[Business of Supply, December 9th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to emphasize that no one should ever have to choose between medication and housing or between feeding themselves and feeding their children. People should not have to sacrifice to allow their children to eat and go to school. This is absolutely indecent and unacceptable in our society and in a country as rich in natural resources as Canada.

Whatever decisions must be made, we have to stop quibbling about the smallest of details. We have to stop trying to find out who deserves the credit for introducing what. If it is someone else's initiative, it is not good, but if it is ours, it is great. Let us stop trying to find out whether it was us who brought in this and that in 1962 or whether some other party introduced it in 1965. These are extremely sterile debates. Let us fix this problem once and for all.

In 1989, Ed Broadbent moved a motion to eliminate child poverty that was unanimously adopted. It is now 2013, and no progress has been made on this unanimous motion. For once, let us do the right thing and stop trying to scare people and make them believe that the money is not available. The money can be available—it is a matter of priorities and values.

[Business of Supply, December 9th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate my colleague's long question. I hope I will have just as much time to answer.

It goes without saying that every time members opposite respond, they try to highlight the most dramatic aspect of the situation. What we are saying here today, and what I am hearing from both sides, is that the need exists. I do not believe that the member wanted to say that the need is not there. He talked about small businesses. I was a small business owner as well, and I completely understand what he was saying. No matter the size of the business, they all contribute.

When we sit down with people and talk to them, it is obvious that they are aware of all this. The future of these people is at stake. People could spend 10, 15 or 20 years below the poverty line, with all that entails. What I have never understood about the Conservatives is that they do not see the consequences of living in poverty. It causes health problems as well as various other kinds of problems, all of which represent significant costs for our society. We should perhaps show a little more compassion about this. For example, during the election campaign, I heard the Conservative candidate answer a question about poverty by saying that they would find jobs for everyone.

This ignores the fact that some people, unfortunately, are not able to work. There are Canadians of a certain age, people aged 58, 60 or 62, who come to see me at my MP office and tell me that they cannot find a job. These people are depending on us and the work we do in the House.

Being only fair does not require bankrupting the country.

[Business of Supply, December 9th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, I am very proud to rise in this House to take part in the debate on the motion moved by the hon. member for Victoria. The motion invites the House to call on the government to commit to supporting an immediate phase-in of increases to basic public pension benefits under the Canada and Quebec pension plans at the upcoming meeting of federal, provincial and territorial finance ministers.

In my opinion, this is probably one of the most important federal-provincial-territorial conferences. It will be held not far from my home, at Meech Lake, a name that may not sit very well with some people. However, for once, if something positive comes from this meeting, the lake could be known as the home of a major vision.

Go ahead and tell me that I believe in Santa Claus. I hope that members of this House, of all parties, will support this motion. No particular numbers are attached to it, though some of our Conservative colleagues do not like that. They have tried to tie us in financial knots. However, that is not what the motion is asking for. It is about an intent. It is about sitting down with our provincial and territorial counterparts in an attempt to solve a major problem.

I have been here all day for all the debates. I have heard comments to the effect that we in the NDP are out of touch, that we cannot count, that the sky is falling and that the country will go bankrupt.

I would like to get back to the real issue to point out clearly what we are asking for and whom it could help. In other situations, I often say something that applies to this one even more. We are talking about the Canada pension plan and the Québec pension plan, not about private schemes. We are talking about basic schemes that, let us admit it, provide peanuts. It is true that it is expensive to add any amount at all, because a lot of people are involved. However, a lot of people depend on these schemes for their livelihood. I challenge anyone in this House to live on that kind of income for many years.

We must sit down and deal with the crux of the issue: why we are here and why the government exists. A government certainly exists to encourage national prosperity, but it also exists to make sure that everyone can benefit from that and that no one is left behind in any respect.

The time is right to ask ourselves those questions. I am sure I am not alone in going to my riding and being constantly asked, not only to attend activities to meet my constituents, but also to take part in collections of non-perishable food items.

Last Monday, I was at the Buffet des continents. I had actually invited all my colleagues in the House to go. Tony Priftakis and Mélanie Gauthier welcomed people to their restaurant for free in exchange for three cans of food to help the most disadvantaged. We collected a record amount of food to help Moisson Outaouais, a food bank that supplies all the food banks in my region. It is located across the river, close to this great city of Ottawa, the capital of Canada, where we still find some pockets of extreme poverty, which include many of our seniors.

Letting these people live in poverty is a reflection of our society as a whole. I do not mean to sound socialist. I come from a business background. I had a business as a lawyer, working with other lawyers. I love life, but I do not like to see children not eating three times a day or seniors who are too embarrassed and humiliated to go to food banks and ask for food.

Last Monday evening, entire families came, because they were able to find three small cans to exchange for a sumptuous free meal.

For them, that was their Christmas dinner. That was Monday. On Thursday morning, everyone here may have been stopped on a few street corners, because it was the media fundraising drive. On this occasion, all the media in the region get together and raise money for food banks and soup kitchens so that seniors can survive and have a decent holiday season.

I was on a street corner with Sister Denise Blouin. She told me that people needed this help all year long, not just during the holidays. The needs are growing. On Thursday, I will see this first-hand. I will be serving meals with the people at the Saint-François soup kitchen. Every year I do this, it breaks my heart.

As a society, we are failing miserably. We are being questioned over $2.25 or $3.25 by the members on the government benches. They are being driven around in limousines, but they are afraid to bring our seniors who need that amount up to a decent standard of living. I find that appalling. Sometimes, I think we forget why we are here.

The Notre-Dame Market had its Christmas party on Saturday. Once again, there were many seniors there. There was a food drive, and a meal was provided. Everyone was gathered together in one place with the simple hope of having a meal. That is absolutely incredible. When one-third of the population cannot survive on the Canada pension plan, we know that something serious is happening.

People go to the Centre de pédiatrie sociale de Gatineau because they cannot go to a hospital. There is so much suffering. They mayor's breakfast took place on Sunday in Gatineau, and Mayor Maxime Pedneaud-Jobin honoured a 23-year tradition. A reporter asked me if I thought it was important to be there. I said yes, but that I hoped that someday we would not need that kind of event anymore.

I find it appalling that we are celebrating the 23rd year of an event that is designed to collect Christmas hampers for people who do not have enough to eat. Meanwhile, we are talking about economics, which is very important, I agree. However, the motion moved by my colleague calls on us to work with our provincial and territorial counterparts to address a pressing issue. No one is asking that it be fixed by tomorrow morning. The government needs to stop fearmongering and making people think that we will bankrupt the country. That is not the issue.

There needs to be a firm commitment from federal, provincial and territorial partners to make this a viable system so that people no longer live below the poverty line, as is becoming increasingly common.

I would like to bring to the members' attention the fact that poverty among seniors affects mostly women. Many single women who are 65 or older live on a meagre income. Once again, we need to go and speak to these people.

On November 15, we met with representatives of the Federal Superannuates National Association. They talked about their concern that the government is doing all kinds of things to scare them because it is unilaterally making changes to legislation and agreements without consulting them.

Peoples' pensions are not protected when companies that have received all kinds of major subsidies from the government go bankrupt. Who pays the price? The people who worked their entire lives and contributed to those pension plans.

I was very proud when my colleague introduced Bill C-331 to protect them. These kinds of measures will allow people to have a decent life and to keep the economy going, as my colleague for Parkdale—High Park said.

Thus, the Conservatives should not pass really inappropriate measures, although it might not be such a bad thing. Perhaps there would be someone else like Solange Denis, who said in 1986, if I am not mistaken, “Goodbye Charlie Brown.”

[Holiday Thanks, December 9th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, as this is the last opportunity I will have this year to give a member's statement in the House—although this is not my last speech for 2013—I would like to dedicate these few seconds to the extraordinary people of Gatineau.

I thank everyone in Gatineau for being involved in the riding's civic affairs throughout the year. I thank them for welcoming me and for their constant feedback, which allows me and the members of my team to serve them properly and to help them with their concerns. I thank all House of Commons' employees, who make my job easier. I thank all government employees, who are disliked by the Conservative government, and who, every day, perform miracles with ever-dwindling means.

In closing, I give special thanks to all those who provide very necessary community services in these times of disengagement by the heartless Conservative government.

Best wishes to all my constituents for a holiday season filled with happiness and peace, and much health in 2014. My wish for the Conservative government is that it will return in 2014 with a bit of heart.

[Criminal Code, December 9th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, I always feel privileged to rise in the House to participate in a debate on a bill that is being introduced. There are two reasons for this.

The first is that I take very seriously our role as legislators, which is vested in us as elected members. In this role, I also act as justice critic. Every time a new bill has to do with my responsibilities, I study it carefully to learn its objective.

Then, when we gather the entire caucus of the New Democratic Party to discuss it—we do not really need democratic reform legislation to do this—I make a recommendation based on consultations that I make a point of conducting religiously and rigorously.

This sometimes leads to rather vigorous debate within our caucus, for example, with regard to why we support sending to committee bills at second reading that have me shaking my head. These are most often bills from the Conservative side, whether they are introduced by the government or a backbencher. I try to understand their reasons.

It is often the title of the bill that makes me realize that the Conservatives want to introduce some sort of bumper sticker legislation that is nothing but showy advertising, without any real content below the surface. We cannot be too careful. Sometimes, when we take a close look at something we can see there is nothing to it.

On this matter, I made a point of contacting people in the field of law whom I respect a great deal and who are often more knowledgeable than I am on matters of criminal law, including law experts at the Barreau du Québec. The president of the Barreau du Québec sent a response regarding Bill C-526, whose fancy title is the “Cracking Down on Organized Crime and Terrorism Act”, as I was saying to the member who introduced the bill in the House. The Conservatives are laying it on a little thick, but when you scratch the surface, there is very little to this bill. Here is the reply from the president of the Barreau du Québec.

The Barreau du Québec questions whether it is really necessary to expand the list of aggravating factors for the various offences in the Criminal Code, since we do not believe that this will help prevent the commission of the offences targeted in the bill.

In our opinion, forcing judges to conclude that there is an “aggravating” factor simply because three people committed a crime together, as opposed to any other number, is pointless in terms of the bill's objective, which is to protect the public.

This very simple reply goes directly to the question I asked my colleague regarding whether a Criminal Code provision already stipulates that terrorism and criminal organization offences are considered aggravating factors when someone is found guilty. This bill introduces the notion of a serious aggravating factor, and I have to wonder about this, since it is a concept that does not exist in the Criminal Code and could cause some problems.

However, there will be an opportunity examine it more closely. Given that our debates here are often limited, at committee is usually where we can do a more thorough examination and hear from experts who point things out to us that we may not have considered in a more superficial study at second reading.

I find the bill somewhat pointless overall. I am talking about it because this is perhaps one of the last “law and order” bills we will have the chance to look at before we break for the holidays.

When I have the honour of rising in the House, it is also because, above all, I respect my primary role, which is to represent the people of my riding of Gatineau. When I go into the community to speak with them, they talk to me about the justice system. The government is determined to blame the courts for everything that goes wrong, but the government itself is often at fault. Introducing small bills that serve no real purpose will not address certain issues.

I want to share with my colleagues a letter I received that deeply touched me because of my role as a legislator and as justice critic. However, I think that justice concerns us all, no matter what our role in our respective party.

Eric and Jill Faulks, grandparents who live in British Columbia, wrote to me as the NDP justice critic. They also wrote to the Minister of Justice. This is what they said:

Our 18 year old grandson, Travis Hurlbert, was killed in an automobile collision in Edmonton on July 24th, 2013.

It is hard for our family to consider this less than murder under the circumstances. We understand that the alleged perpetrator had a DUI against him in 2006, was fined 3 times in 2010 for driving while disqualified, and charged again in May 2012 but did not show up for his court date in July 2012. Police then issued a warrant for his arrest. A year later with his address apparently known, he was still free to kill.

That is a real-life situation. It relates to our daily lives. That is the kind of scenario that makes people, taxpayers, Canadians and Quebeckers question the justice system.

The justice system has several components. For example, one component consists of bills such as this one, which claim to address this and that. At the end of the day, they solve nothing. Laws exist, but there is a problem, and that problem is not the sentences being handed down.

Hon. members will recall that at one point this summer, the RCMP told us how long it takes to add offences to an individual's criminal record. That information was provided by the provincial justice departments. Even if an individual is sentenced to 12 years in prison, if the sentence and the fact that he was found guilty are not recorded in his criminal record, we can create every law imaginable and it will not do any good.

We have to give our police officers resources and put more officers in the field to make sure that a sickening individual like that cannot hurt anyone. He did not even bother to show up in court. There was a warrant for his arrest. He was not allowed to drive and was told so three or four times, but there he was behind the wheel again. If our society cannot do something about that, there is a problem somewhere.

I am not trying to downplay the importance of Bill C-526 and the kind of offences it is trying to cover, but there are more serious issues.

On the one hand, we have this bill, even though an aggravating circumstance already exists for the same kinds of offences, and the sponsor wants to bring in something new that will give lawyers an excuse to go on ad nauseam. On the other hand, on the ground, I need answers for the people who contact me as justice critic and ask me what I am doing with this. They want to know what we politicians are doing as Christmas approaches and they have to live without their grandson. I cannot fathom how they manage to sleep at night. I feel that they have failed dismally.

This letter is worth reading because it conveys beautiful ideas about life. These people could have wanted that man to die. Who would blame them? They lost their 18-year-old grandson, who missed out on doing all kinds of things. He had his whole life ahead of him. He was slain by a sickening man who should not even have been there, but who was because society failed dismally. Those people say that after the first offence, the offender needs help and society should try to reintegrate him properly. The second time around, people start asking questions. Whatever happened did not work because the person did not learn.

Yes, we will support Bill C-526 at second reading, but I would like everyone to think about something. Instead of fixating on this or that and paying people to come up with slogans and all kinds of bills, how about putting money where it is really needed? How about more police officers and more services to crack down on repeat offenders when we know that is what they are?

Judges can do everything in their power, but if they do not know that the person before them has already committed a crime, they cannot give the most appropriate sentence taking into consideration the fact that it is a repeat offence.

Shame on us for not really taking care of business the way it should be.

Merry Christmas.