John Brassard

[Government Business No. 13—Proceedings on Bill C‑22, June 17th, 2026]

Mr. Speaker, this goes back to April 2025, when Canadians elected a minority government to provide oversight, accountability and transparency so that the opposition parties could hold them to account and provide that oversight. What we have seen since this manufactured, transactional majority is that this heavy-handed hammer has come down on this place, which has limited all other parties' ability, as an opposition, to do that.

I am wondering if the hon. member would speak to the impact this is having, not only on our parliamentary democracy, but on the decline of democracy in general.

[Government Business No. 13—Proceedings on Bill C‑22, June 17th, 2026]

Madam Speaker, the way the Liberals are acting tonight, it is almost like the arsonist who sets a house on fire and then we expect him to put the fire out. It is almost the same thing.

I want to go back to the issue of the Privacy Commissioner. One of the things that I saw, and the member was there when I was there, was that the briefs that were submitted to the committee did not arrive and were not sent to committee members until the day they were sitting around the table to question the Privacy Commissioner and other witnesses who had submitted briefs, eight days later. I know the hon. member brought this up. He was quite concerned, as were other members sitting around that table, including the Bloc members.

How much of an impact did not having those briefs have on the member's ability, as a member of this committee, to scrutinize this piece of legislation?

[Government Business No. 13—Proceedings on Bill C‑22, June 17th, 2026]

Madam Speaker, the hon. member for Oshawa does not even know this yet, but there is breaking news that the Liberal government is actually standing down on some of the contentious parts of the bill, namely the retention of records. They are talking about reducing it from one year to six months now. There are other things they are talking about with respect to adjusting this piece of legislation.

Again, like everything else they do, is this not an admission of failure that the bill is completely flawed?

[Government Business No. 13—Proceedings on Bill C‑22, June 17th, 2026]

Madam Speaker, the member for Whitby heckled that democracy is a waste of time. This is the prevailing attitude of the Liberal government. It is interesting to hear this—

[Government Business No. 13—Proceedings on Bill C‑22, June 17th, 2026]

Madam Speaker, I thank the hon. member for what I thought was a very thoughtful speech on a very concerning bill. It is not just the NDP or Conservatives who are concerned, but civil liberty organizations and other stakeholders. The Privacy Commissioner himself has significant concerns about the privacy aspects of this legislation.

Earlier today, Conservatives moved an amendment to separate the bill into Bill C‑22A and Bill C‑22B. By doing that, we could work with and allow the police the tools they need for investigations of serious crimes and other matters, but it would also put on pause the ultimate concern of this bill, which is part 2, and allow the Privacy Commissioner and others to come back in further reflection on this bill.

Does the hon. member agree with the amendment that we put forward?

[Government Business No. 13—Proceedings on Bill C‑22, June 17th, 2026]

Madam Speaker, I was at the committee meeting the day the Privacy Commissioner was there, along with other witnesses representing social media platforms. Before the meeting, all the witnesses indicated that they had submitted their briefs to the committee. However, members were not able to see them because they had not received them.

Did the member not find it frustrating that we did not receive the briefs before the meeting, not only from the Privacy Commissioner but also from the other witnesses?

[Government Business No. 12—Proceedings on Bill C-30, June 15th, 2026]

Mr. Speaker, we would like a recorded division.

[Government Business No. 12—Proceedings on Bill C-30, June 15th, 2026]

Mr. Speaker, does this mean that the Speaker's ruling will censor the parliamentary secretary for the rest of the current Parliament? Am I hearing this correctly?

[Government Business No. 12—Proceedings on Bill C-30, June 15th, 2026]

Mr. Speaker, I am really glad that the hon. member brought up the Snowbirds, because this past weekend, the Barrie Airshow was held. There were 150,000 people who attended the air show. I was fortunate that I had the member for Moose Jaw—Lake Centre—Lanigan come to Barrie, because he has been leading the fight to keep the Snowbirds flying. He heard from a lot of people how disappointed they were that the Snowbirds have actually been cancelled. The main concern is that this five-year hiatus may turn to six years, to 10 years and then to their never returning.

I am wondering what the hon. member would do to keep the Snowbirds flying.

[The Economy, June 15th, 2026]

Mr. Speaker, Canada's decline did not start last April. It was catalyzed six years ago, when the current Prime Minister was Trudeau's economic adviser. The Prime Minister's fingerprints are all over the failed policies that have caused Canada to be the only G7 country in a recession. While well‑connected Liberals and corporate buddies are doing well, the crumbs the Liberals feed to families, seniors and young people cannot mask the fact that 60% of Canadians feel anxious about their finances, 40% are losing sleep, 38% have food insecurity and 2.2 million Canadians visited food banks last year.

Does that sound like everything is working well?