Justin Trudeau

[Telecommunications, April 9th, 2019]

Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to point out that we appointed a minister for rural communities who is responsible for ensuring that the entire country has access to affordable, high-speed Internet services. Along with the private sector, we will continue to make investments across the country to provide all Canadians with this vital access to services that have the quality and speed to meet the demands of the future.

[Justice, April 9th, 2019]

Mr. Speaker, we have always been very clear about this issue from the beginning. We are going to do two things at once. We will always stand up for jobs for Canadian workers across the country and we will respect our institutions and the rule of law. That is exactly what we did.

We have a great deal of respect for the work that our parliamentary committees do and we also respect the Ethics Commissioner, who is looking into the matter. We will always participate in investigations because we know that we, on the government side of the House, are defending our institutions.

[Justice, April 9th, 2019]

Mr. Speaker, as everyone well knows, we spent many weeks working to try to find a positive resolution on this issue. This is something that we understand had very strong opinions on multiple sides and we wanted to work forward and demonstrate that we truly believed that differences of opinion and diversity was a source of strength and resilience for an organization and for our country. That is what we worked very hard on. Unfortunately, we could not get to that place. The will of caucus was clear that those individuals could no longer be in caucus. At the same time, we are going to continue focusing on what matters to Canadians.

[Justice, April 9th, 2019]

Mr. Speaker, we put the Conservative leader on notice because the truth is important. The truth is that, after being asked whether he would condemn white supremacist movements yesterday, the Conservative leader not only refused to do so, he refused to even say the words. We will give the Conservatives another opportunity to condemn white supremacist movements.

Will they denounce them and apologize for sharing a platform with those who hold such beliefs?

[Justice, April 9th, 2019]

Mr. Speaker, here is what I have to say about the truth: We put the Leader of the Opposition on notice because he was making false statements and misleading Canadians.

The opposition leader and his party have a history of making false and defamatory statements. In December, he had to retract statements he made online about the Minister of Innovation. He has done this repeatedly and now pretends that it is somehow virtuous for him to mislead Canadians. Misleading Canadians, as the opposition leader has done, is never virtuous.

[Justice, April 9th, 2019]

Mr. Speaker, after being asked directly to condemn white supremacists yesterday, the Leader of the Opposition not only refused to do so, but refused to even say the words.

I will give him another opportunity to do so today through his deputy leader. Will he denounce white supremacy, the alt-right movement and finally apologize for sharing a platform with it?

[Justice, April 9th, 2019]

Mr. Speaker, putting the Conservative leader on notice is something we did because the truth was important.

Here is the truth. After being asked directly to condemn white supremacists yesterday, the Leader of the Opposition—

[Justice, April 9th, 2019]

Mr. Speaker, as I said, he has been forced to retract or cease making defamatory statements against members of our government repeatedly. The reason we put him on notice is that he is doing so again.

Members of the opposition should not have to mislead Canadians in order to make political points. They should stick to the facts. That is what Canadians deserve.

[Justice, April 9th, 2019]

Mr. Speaker, this is not the first time the Conservative leader and his party have misled Canadians with false and defamatory statements. As I have said, he has been forced to retract or cease making—

[Justice, April 9th, 2019]

Mr. Speaker, we put the Leader of the Opposition on notice because he was making false statements and misleading Canadians.

The opposition leader and his party have a history of making false and defamatory statements. In December, he had to retract defamatory online statements he made against the Minister of Innovation.

He has done this repeatedly and now pretends that it is somehow virtuous for him to mislead Canadians.