Jennifer O'Connell

[Questions on the Order Paper, January 29th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, in response to part (a) of the question, the number of stolen vehicles retrieved by the CBSA at the Port of Montreal before being illegally exported from Canada was 1,020 vehicles in 2021, 1,050 vehicles in 2022, and 1,075 vehicles up to December 6, 2023.

In response to part (b) of the question, the CBSA does not have an estimate of how many vehicles have been illegally exported from Canada via the Port of Montreal. The CBSA acts on all referrals received from police of local jurisdiction.

With respect to part (c) of the question, the CBSA assesses the risk of all marine containers, in both the import and export stream, to identify potentially high-risk shipments and determine, on a case-by-case basis, if further examination is required. Risk assessment includes but is not limited to security intelligence, referrals from law enforcement indicator research, and detection tools. The agency also acts on all cases referred to the CBSA by police authorities. To maintain the integrity of its programs and ensure the safety and security of Canada, the agency does not disclose specific data related to examination rates or techniques.

[Questions on the Order Paper, January 29th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, the information below is from April 1, 2017, to March 31, 2022.

With regard to part (a), the items seized through the postal mode are as follows: non-¬restricted firearms, 27; restricted firearms, 272; prohibited firearms, 189; replica firearms, 3,572; antique firearms, 10; the frame of a firearm, zero; the receiver of a firearm, zero; the barrel of a firearm, 11; the upper or slide of a firearm, zero; a cartridge magazine, 79; and ammunition for a firearm, six. Other firearms parts not classified in the preceding items are as follows: 3,060 prohibited devices, including 98 described as parts and accessories and 2,962 as silencers; seven parts exclusively for fully automatic firearms; and 51 firearm parts, accessories and ammunition, not prohibited.

With regard to part (b) as to how many of the firearms are handguns, 147 are restricted firearms and 124 are prohibited firearms.

With regard to part (c) as to how many of the firearms are rifles, eight are non-restricted firearms, three are restricted firearms and 11 are prohibited firearms.

With regard to part (d) as to how many of the firearms are shotguns, zero are non-restricted firearms, zero are restricted firearms and one is a prohibited firearm.

With regard to part (e), an additional 6,309 items were identified in the data pull as firearms or parts but not included in the response provided above, that is, seized outside of postal mode.

With regard to part (f), the descriptions, including quantities, of each item in part (e) are as follows: non-¬restricted firearms, 695; restricted firearms, 1,308; prohibited firearms, 1,946; replica firearms, 141; antique firearms, 41; the frame of a firearm is not applicable; the receiver of a firearm is not applicable; the barrel of a firearm, 15; the upper or slide of a firearm is not applicable; a cartridge magazine, 1,546; and ammunition for a firearm, 139. Other firearms parts not classified in the preceding items are as follows: 174 prohibited devices, including 96 described as parts and accessories and 78 as silencers; 17 parts exclusively for fully automatic firearms; and 328 parts, accessories and ammunition, not prohibited, with no further description available.

As a note, the number of quantities may be reflected in various categories. As to part (e), the items were seized outside of postal mode. Also, some data is not available for various reasons, that is, none seized or reported under that category.

[Questions on the Order Paper, January 29th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, in December 2015, the Prime Minister implemented an independent advisory board that makes merit-based recommendations for Senate appointments. Every new senator since that time has been appointed as an independent. The new independent Senate led to the creation of the Government Representative Office, led by the Government Representative, Senator Marc Gold. He does not sit in or lead a partisan caucus.

Senator Gold’s role is representing the Senate to the government, and vice versa. For the government, he is the first point of contact and holds the responsibility for steering the government’s legislation through the Senate, while also maintaining and encouraging the independence of senators. Senator Gold is a member of the Privy Council. He attends Cabinet when deemed appropriate for facilitating his role in managing the government’s legislative agenda in the Senate, and receives relevant correspondence as needed.

[Questions on the Order Paper, January 29th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, the Centre for Immigration and National Security Screening of the Canada Border Services Agency, or CBSA, oversees the delivery of the Immigration National Security Screening Program, which includes the collection, analysis and review of information and intelligence on foreign nationals to assess their admissibility for temporary or permanent residence and refugee status.

For the purpose of responding to this question, the CBSA interpreted “memorandums or directives provided to government officials” as referring to any formal written direction provided to CBSA personnel by, or on behalf of, the Minister of Public Safety or the President of the CBSA. No memorandums or directives, as defined earlier, have been identified since January 1, 2019.

[Questions on the Order Paper, January 29th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, the Government of Canada takes terrorist threats against Canada and its citizens seriously. Security and intelligence agencies are continuously monitoring entities that could pose such a threat and taking appropriate action.

One of the underlying objectives of the Criminal Code list of terrorist entities is to ensure that terrorist entities do not use Canada as a base from which to conduct terrorist activities, including fundraising, and to prohibit individuals from supporting terrorist entities. Assessing entities for possible listing under the Criminal Code is continuous. The process is rigorous, thorough and involves inter-departmental consultations. Pursuant to section 83.05(1) of the Criminal Code, if there are reasonable grounds to believe that an entity has knowingly carried out, attempted to carry out, participated in or facilitated a terrorist activity; or has knowingly acted on behalf of, at the direction of, or in association with, an entity involved in a terrorist activity; then the Minister of Public Safety may recommend to the Governor in Council, or GiC, that it be added to the list.

The government cannot comment specifically on the activities of groups or what groups are being assessed, or considered for listing.

[Questions on the Order Paper, January 29th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, the RCMP’s National Child Exploitation Crime Centre, NCECC, receives disclosures from the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre, FINTRAC, related to online child sexual exploitation and abuse. The information contained in the disclosures may be used by the NCECC to help support investigations by law enforcement, including where the RCMP serves as police of jurisdiction.

The NCECC also receives reports pertaining to online child sexual exploitation from various Canadian and international sources, such as law enforcement agencies; cybertip.ca, Canada’s public reporting tip line; and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, NCMEC, in the United States. The NCECC also receives reports from various service providers, such as social media applications and online gaming platforms. The NCECC assesses and triages all reports received, prepares investigative packages for all actionable reports and distributes the packages to the police agency of jurisdiction for further investigation.

The RCMP undertook an extensive preliminary search in order to determine the amount of information that would fall within the scope of the question and the amount of time that would be required to prepare a comprehensive response. The level of detail of the information requested is not systematically tracked in a centralized database. The RCMP concluded that producing and validating a comprehensive response to this question would require a manual collection of information that is not possible in the time allotted and could lead to the disclosure of incomplete and misleading information.

[Carbon Pricing, December 12th, 2023]

Mr. Speaker, I find it interesting that the member opposite brings up the misery in the world, and part of that is what Ukrainians are facing right now defending their democracy.

Let me read from Trump's “America First”. It says, “we will no longer use American military might to construct democracies in faraway lands, or try to rebuild other countries in our own image.”

Is that why Conservatives vote against the Canada-Ukraine free trade agreement, because they are taking their lessons from Donald Trump and do not support the rebuilding of Ukraine and democracies around this world?

[Carbon Pricing, December 12th, 2023]

Mr. Speaker, if they want to talk about food affordability, we should talk about Ukraine as the breadbasket of the world. What I found interesting is something that the Leader of the Opposition said today in response to the Prime Minister's calling out the Conservatives' vote against Ukraine. He used the term “faraway lands”. That reminded me of something: “We will no longer use American military might to construct democracies in faraway lands”.

Donald Trump said that. Why are Conservatives repeating MAGA lines?

[Canada-Ukraine Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act, 2023, December 12th, 2023]

Madam Speaker, my hon. colleague spoke about the obsession that the Conservatives have around pricing pollution, which will actually take money out of the pockets of his constituents. He also spoke about the influences from the Trumpist MAGA Republicans in the U.S. Is the member at all concerned that the Conservatives seem to be advocating for the far right in this country, which supports Russia, as well as big oil instead of constituents?

[Canada-Ukraine Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act, 2023, December 12th, 2023]

Madam Speaker, on the same point of order, I would point out that the Conservatives often make false claims about associations and such—