James Bezan

[National Defence, October 18th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, this summer the official opposition held over 50 round tables and received over 700 submissions on the defence policy review. This morning we submitted our findings to the Minister of National Defence.

Canadians said through this process that they are concerned that the Liberals have pre-established their own defence policy. The Liberals have already blindly returned to peacekeeping, pulled out of the combat mission against ISIS, and massively cut the defence budget.

Will the government reverse course today and start listening to Canadians and implement a defence policy that reflects their priorities?

[Business of Supply, October 17th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend from Prince George—Peace River—Northern Rockies for talking about the task force that our party has announced it is going have across this country to ensure that workers, industry, and all of the tertiary businesses that are tied to the forestry industry are having their say in how these negotiations go forward. It is critical that Canadians have a say in how the softwood lumber debate takes place, and how we inform the Minister of International Trade in dealing with the Americans.

I have to say that I continue to be somewhat apprehensive on whether or not the Liberal government will get this job done. We saw how the Liberals walked away from the Keystone pipeline and did not engage in any way, shape, or form in making that happen.

I would ask my colleague to talk about the concerns that he has had on the record that the current government has had in Canada-U.S. relations, especially when it comes to trade.

[Business of Supply, October 17th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, does the member feel there is any chance that the Liberals will get this job done, knowing how they folded and buckled with the Keystone pipeline despite the bromance between Obama and our Prime Minister? They completely walked away from that deal. Does the member feel this will happen on the softwood lumber agreement as well?

[National Defence, October 17th, 2016]

Engagement is appeasement, Mr. Speaker.

Last week, the foreign affairs minister put his hypocrisy on display to the entire world. He took to Twitter to call on the international community to uphold its responsibility to protect civilians from the mass atrocities of ISIS. Canada was a leader in doing precisely that. Our CF-18s took out nearly 400 fighting positions in Iraq and Syria.

If the minister truly believes in the responsibility to protect civilians, why did he pull out our CF-18s? Does he naively believe that his tweets are more effective than Canada's fighter jets?

[Business of Supply, October 17th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, the minister and I share a lot in common. We are both prairie farm kids. We are both proud of our Ukrainian heritage , and we talk often about a lot of those issues.

However, I have to take offence at some of the things she said in her speech today. The idea that the Liberals put the puck in the net on country of origin labelling is laughable. We know the work Conservatives did as the government, especially the member for Battlefords—Lloydminster, when he was the minister of agriculture, who worked tirelessly on actually correcting the country of origin labelling. Essentially, we had to let the Obama administration run out all their legal rights, and time on the clock ran out. It happened because of the hard work done by the previous government.

We are having this debate today because the bromance between the Prime Minister and President Obama is over. We are not having any movement by the government on the softwood lumber debate. Four hundred thousand jobs are at risk right across the country. The government has not even lived up to its own timeline to get this done by October 12.

Where is the actual plan? Why are we not seeing the government sitting down and actually getting this dealt with? Why is it up to the opposition to actually hold consultations across the country to brace the industry for the changes that are about to come?

[Points of Order, October 6th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, I am a little concerned over the debate that just took place over the question that was raised about the gesture by the Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Standing Order 18 is quite clear. It is about the words we speak in here, but at the same time you have responsibilities under Standing Orders 10, 11, and 12 of maintaining order in the House. Our rights and privileges should not be infringed upon by other members by interruption, which includes gestures. If we do not bring into order those individuals who are using the gestures such as a thumbs-down as we just saw from the Minister of Foreign Affairs, I fear that other gestures will then become a common practice here, rather than speaking words.

I urge you, Mr. Speaker, in your responsibilities in maintaining order and decorum in the House, to not allow this to be sanctioned and to ensure that all of us as members in this place are respected, including when we are asking questions, and that gestures will not be used against us.

[Foreign Affairs, October 6th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, a recent report says Chinese peacekeepers failed to protect civilians on a UN mission in Sudan. In the face of the conflict, they abandoned their weapons, leaving behind weapons and ammunition, and turned their backs on over 300 people who were killed, and thousands more were raped.

We learned this week that the Government of China wants to take control of all UN peacekeeping missions. The Prime Minister knew all of this, yet he is still naively pledging 600 Canadian troops to the UN.

Does the Prime Minister believe that the Communist dictatorship in China is qualified to command Canadian troops?

[Foreign Affairs, October 5th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister's hand-picked ambassador to the UN has made no secret that he is willing to play politics to gain a UN Security Council seat. The centrepiece to this horse-trading, of course, is our 600 Canadian troops. China wants to take control of all UN peacekeepers. China's abysmal human rights record and its sabre-rattling in the South China Sea show that it is no partner for peace.

Is a Security Council seat worth putting our troops under the command of the Chinese dictatorship?

[Foreign Affairs, October 5th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, brutal incarceration, torture, and executions are among the regular practices of the Chinese government. China now has its eyes on the UN's top peacekeeping job. It wants to take control of UN peacekeeping and rewrite the rules of the game.

Will the Prime Minister be supporting his favourite dictatorship's bid to take control of UN peacekeeping and, ultimately, command of Canadian troops?

[Paris Agreement, October 4th, 2016]

Madam Speaker, I know that being from Alberta, the member is already seeing much injury happening because of the regressive policies that have been introduced by the Notley government.

I want the member to talk a little more about how this job-killing carbon tax is going to impact the oil patch in Alberta, how it is going to increase the costs for our agricultural producers, but, more importantly, how it will impact on transportation, when we see diesel fuel increased by 14 cents a litre and gasoline by 11 cents a litre because of the Liberal carbon tax.