Luc Desilets

[Business of Supply, February 25th, 2021]

Mr. Speaker, I will make do with three minutes. It is fine.

Today, the Bloc Québécois tabled a simple, sensible, empathetic and caring motion. Logically, this rational, judicious bill should transcend party stances and party lines. This motion targets a particular segment of the population, the only segment that was neglected during this pandemic and has in fact been neglected for decades.

To sum up, the motion “asks the government, in the next budget, to increase the Old Age Security benefit by $110 a month for those aged 65 and more.”

We have heard a lot about how underfunding is affecting seniors. I would like to take a moment to look at what this means in concrete terms. The $110 a month adds up to $8 billion, but some of that gross amount will be returned to the government in the form of taxes. People who earn more than $80,000 per year pay a lot of tax. Some who currently get the guaranteed income supplement will no longer get it. Essentially, that $8 billion ends up as $4 billion net. That is what the Bloc Québécois's motion would actually cost.

A mere $4 billion for our seniors, hitherto neglected by the government, is not much compared to the flood of subsidies and cash the government has been handing out over the past year. Four billion dollars is a drop in the bucket compared to $400 billion. It is also very little compared to numbers like the one that came out today, Irving Shipbuilding's $57-billion cost overrun. That is a single cost overrun totalling $57 billion, when the Bloc is asking for a mere $4 billion. Our seniors deserve that much.

Given that I do not have much time, I would like to conclude by stating that the Bloc Québécois motion calls for good judgment, consideration of the priorities that we want to have as a society, and respect for these people who today can no longer express their discontent or articulate their needs, much less take to the streets to express what they want.

Today, the Bloc Québécois is the voice of seniors. Today, the Bloc Québécois stands on behalf of seniors. I will leave my colleagues with these three words to guide our vote on this motion: judgment, priorities and respect.

[Business of Supply, February 25th, 2021]

Mr. Speaker, I think it is very easy to understand.

Masks muffle sound. Thicker masks muffle it even more. The interpreters cannot make out the words. It is as simple as that.

It is ridiculous to point out that the two members who raised this issue are from the Bloc Québécois.

[Criminal Code, February 23rd, 2021]

Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his presentation.

I was really struck by and really appreciated one thing he said: Those suffering deserve the best possible care. I completely agree with him, but not necessarily for the same reasons.

He also said that life is a gift. I will expand on that and say that death is not always a gift. Within the past two years, I experienced the death of my father, who received MAID. It was an extraordinary end and departure, despite the pain we were feeling. I also lost my brother, who suffered excruciating pain as a result of cancer.

How does my colleague respond to the extreme suffering some people experience at the end of their journey?

[Business of Supply, February 18th, 2021]

Madam Speaker, I thank and congratulate our colleague.

From the beginning of his speech, I was ambivalent. I heard his reaction to China's flouting of international rights and all of the examples he provided. However, in light of his political allegiance, I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop. At the end of his speech, I was and still am surprised, to his credit.

It should again be noted that the Subcommittee on International Human Rights of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development has determined that China has committed crimes against humanity. They include concentration camps, rape, separating children from their families, slavery, mass surveillance, harassment of Uighurs abroad and mass sterilization. These things are inconceivable in 2021.

Would my colleague be willing to adopt the Bloc Québécois motion to boycott the 2022 Beijing Olympic Games in retaliation against China?

[Business of Supply, February 4th, 2021]

Madam Speaker, I feel bad for my colleague. I was really looking forward to his speech, because I really appreciate his work. Unfortunately, he ran out of time and was cut off right when he was about to talk about energy trade as it relates to the environment, I think.

I would very much like to hear how he reconciles those two aspects. I would also like him to draw a parallel with Bill C-215, which we tried to get passed this week, but unfortunately his colleagues voted against it.

[Léo Major, February 4th, 2021]

Mr. Speaker, last week, Quebec marked the 100th anniversary of the birth of Léo Major, one of the greatest military heroes in Quebec and Canadian history.

On June 24, 1944, he lost his left eye but refused to leave the battlefield. He continued to serve as a scout and sniper, fighting with legendary courage. On October 30, during the Battle of the Scheldt in the southern Netherlands, Léo Major single-handedly captured 93 German soldiers and liberated an entire city.

Nothing could stop this man in the Second World War or the Korean War, where he served again, as did my uncle, Georges Desilets. Not enough people in Quebec and Canada know about this extraordinary man, and we have a duty to keep his memory and all of his acts of bravery alive, just as the Dutch people in the city of Zwolle do every year on April 14.

Sergeant Major, we thank you for your service.

[Canada—United Kingdom Trade Continuity Agreement Implementation Act, January 28th, 2021]

Madam Speaker, I rise on a point of order. I am sorry to bother everyone, but once again there is no French interpretation.

[Canada—United Kingdom Trade Continuity Agreement Implementation Act, January 28th, 2021]

Madam Speaker, let me begin by reiterating to our colleague that the Bloc Québécois is in favour of this agreement between the United Kingdom and Canada.

However, I also want to reiterate what we said some time ago about how the way the agreement was analyzed and studied by the Standing Committee on International Trade is completely unacceptable in a democracy like ours. The fact that committee members did not have access to either a paper or electronic version of the document so that they could analyze and study it is unacceptable. That needs to be said.

I would like to hear what my colleague has to say about one of the concerns of the Bloc Québécois. In the past, the government promised not to make any concessions in the dairy sector, which is already operating at a disadvantage because of previous agreements. I would like to know what my colleague thinks about the agreements when it comes to the dairy sector.

[COVID-19 Vaccine, January 26th, 2021]

Madam Speaker, the first thing I want to say to my colleague is that no serious business or institution could move forward without a clear game plan that has been clearly articulated and laid down. That is what we are really missing.

Any business that wants to survive, especially during a pandemic, has the duty to plan, to predict the unpredictable and to create a game plan. We are not seeing or hearing anything like this from the government. We want to see it develop its projections for the next few months. At present, they are all talk, and voters are certainly not buying their projections. No board of directors would accept that its CEO would govern the way our Prime Minister is currently governing.

My question for my colleague is very simple. As his predecessor stated so well earlier, some countries have not yet started vaccinating their citizens. I would simply like to know why, in his opinion, New Zealand has not started vaccinating its citizens.

[Irish Heritage Month, December 11th, 2020]

Madam Speaker, I thought we were not allowed to sing in the House. In that case, I will make you dance. Just kidding.

Today we are debating a motion placed on the Order Paper last January by our hon. colleague from Etobicoke—Lakeshore. This motion would designate March as Irish heritage month. Here is the text of the motion:

That, in the opinion of the House, the government should recognize the important contributions that Irish-Canadians have made to building Canada, and to Canadian society in general, and should mark the importance of educating and reflecting upon Irish heritage and culture for future generations by declaring the month of March as Irish Heritage Month.

The Bloc Québécois is fully in favour of this wonderful motion, and we support it because it will allow us to highlight the fundamental contribution of the Irish to Quebec society since their arrival in New France.

I remind members that in the 2006 census, more than 400,000 Quebeckers reported being of Irish heritage, and some experts have even claimed that 40% of Quebeckers have Irish blood. That is not nothing. Plus, Quebec has had five premiers with Irish ancestry: Edmund James Flynn, from 1896 to 1897; Daniel Johnson Sr. and his two sons, Pierre Marc Johnson and Daniel Johnson; and Jean Charest.

The first waves of Irish immigrants rolled into Quebec's capital in the early 19th century. In 1833, religious affiliation was almost exclusively tied to language, so the Irish set up their own English-language religious institution. St. Patrick's Church in Old Quebec was different from the churches attended by the British Anglicans and Protestants.

More Irish immigrants arrived in 1840. Many of them died of disease, sadly, or continued on to other cities, such as Montreal and New York. By 1871, Quebec City already had a population of 12,000, and over 20% of those inhabitants were Irish.

Today, their descendants primarily live in the beautiful upper town neighbourhood of Montcalm, in the area bordered by Avenue de Salaberry, Rue de Maisonneuve, Avenue de la Tour and Grande Allée, centring on St Patrick's School, an English-language school. This neighbourhood is the heart of the community, and it is also where the famous parade starts every year.

The City of Montreal's flag bears a green shamrock, the national symbol of Ireland, in recognition of all that the Irish have contributed to the city. The shamrock is joined by a fleur-de-lys, representing the French; a Lancaster rose, representing the English and the Welsh; a thistle, representing the Scottish; and a white pine, representing the first nations.

Irish immigrants quite literally built Quebec. In the 19th century, they dug canals, worked on railroads and built the Victoria Bridge in Montreal, which was inaugurated in 1859. This architectural masterpiece spans the St. Lawrence from Pointe-Saint-Charles to the opposite shore. At the entrance to the bridge on the Montreal side is the Montreal Irish Monument, which commemorates the deaths of 6,000 Irish immigrants, most of whom died of typhus. As a matter of fact, last year, archeologists working in the area for the construction of Montreal's Réseau express métropolitain unearthed some remarkable discoveries.

Since we are talking about the contributions of Irish Canadians, I would also like to remind members of the Montreal Shamrocks, an Irish hockey club that was around from 1886 to 1924 and that won the Stanley Cup twice, in 1899 and in 1900. That happened about 10 years before the Montreal Canadiens hockey team was formed.

We owe the wonderful architecture of Montreal's Notre-Dame Basilica to Irish architect James O'Donnell, who is actually buried in the cathedral's crypt. He gave five years of his life to the building of that cathedral.

A number of quintessentially Quebec surnames that sound French are actually of Irish origin. Take, for example, the last name Dion. It actually comes from the Irish name Dillon. The same is true of the Sylvains, the O'Sullivans, the Bourques, the Duquettes and the Barrettes.

From 1849 to 1980, more than 32 Irish judges sat on the Quebec Superior Court. From 1867 to 1973, 44 Irish Canadian MPs were elected in various ridings across Quebec. From 1867, the year of Confederation, to 1978, no less than 57 Irish Canadians were members of the Quebec National Assembly. Another important contribution made by our Irish friends was the creation of the Laurentian Bank, formerly the Savings Bank, which came about through the efforts of French and Irish Canadians. The boards of directors were made up of Morins, Lafontaines, Papineaus and Cartiers on one hand and Ings, Drummonds, Curans, O'Briens and Wolfmans on the other.

Let's not forget Montreal's famous St. Patrick's Day parade, an annual event dating back to 1824. It is one of the oldest parades of its kind in the country. The first St. Patrick's Day was celebrated in Montreal in 1759 by Irish soldiers from the Montreal garrison, and that was three years before the first edition of New York's famous parade. Montreal's St. Patrick's Day parade draws crowds of 250,000 to 750,000 people every year. National Geographic even ranked it among the 10 most impressive parades in the world.

In conclusion, Quebec loves the Irish and Ireland. Both are proud nations, which may explain our sense of kinship. Perhaps one day, we too, like the Irish, will experience the joys of independence. We hope that day will come soon.

Merry Christmas to all!