Marco Mendicino

[Anti-Semitism, May 3rd, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, for more than three decades, B'nai Brith has published an annual audit on anti-Semitism to educate and advocate ways to reduce this form of hatred and intolerance against the Jewish community.

Anti-Semitism was widespread and overt in 2015. There were a number of violent, indiscriminate attacks around the world, in various locations such as synagogues, public markets, and the streets.

Here in Canada, there were 1,277 incidents of anti-Semitism recorded, with offenders moving increasingly online as the forum of choice for spreading their hateful message to a wider audience.

Prejudice against one community is prejudice against all communities.

I commend B'nai Brith in playing a vital role in combatting hate through education. I encourage all members to read the 2015 annual audit. It is essential that we see anti-Semitism as a challenge to be overcome together through our shared values of diversity and inclusivity.

[Contributions of Italian-Canadian Community, April 21st, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, the contributions of Italian-Canadians in building up the foundations of this country are well known and a source of great pride for me as a member of that community, as I hope it is for all members of this House.

Throughout the 20th century, Italian immigrants worked tirelessly in the mines of northern Ontario. They also helped build the Ambassador Bridge in Windsor and railways, among other things.

Tragically, it was not just blood, sweat, and toil that was sacrificed: thousands of immigrants lost their lives while labouring in the most arduous of conditions. Thankfully, the community has come forward to commemorate those who fell.

I am proud to announce that a monument honouring the Italian fallen workers will be officially unveiled in my riding at Columbus Centre in Toronto, Ontario, on April 28.

Eleven columns will bear the names of each fallen worker and memorialize them forever.

I would like to acknowledge the efforts of the committee and invite all members in this House to join the ambassador and the consul general of Italy, along with other representatives, to commemorate the grit, resilience, and hard work of the Italian-Canadian community—

[Business of Supply, April 19th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, if my hon. colleague would demonstrate just a tad more patience, I will get to that in a moment.

The minister consulted with the Ethics Commissioner. She has abided by all of the laws and the rules that are set and she absolutely at no time has breached any of them. Why will the hon. colleague across the way not acknowledge the proactive steps she took in consulting with all of the appropriate authorities before she attended this event?

[Business of Supply, April 19th, 2016]

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.

This is about a culture of openness and transparency and our party and our government is committed to making this party and this government as open as possible and setting the threshold higher than it has ever been.

With respect to fundraising—

[Business of Supply, April 19th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, I am going to resist the temptation to provide some suggestions about what my hon. colleague across the way might fetch in the way of a speaker's fee.

We have spent a lot of time today speaking about openness and transparency with respect to fundraising. From our side of the aisle, this is not just about fundraising, this is about stitching together a number of components with respect to achieving that goal.

My hon. colleagues across the way used to introduce bills in an omnibus fashion. They would bury all sorts of policy in their bills and the public would try to unearth some of the essential components of those bills, but it could not do it because they were buried among volumes of pages of legislation. We have done away with that practice.

The past government never published a single mandate letter that was attached to a ministry or a responsible minister. We have done away with that practice. In the spirit of openness and transparency, we are now putting the mandate letters on the website, making them accessible to all.

With respect to the membership fees of our party, the party on that side of the aisle is raising its membership fees. The fee has now been put up to $25 and our—

[Lawrence Park Panthers, April 14th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, during a season when, sadly, all Canadian hockey teams have been shut out, I rise today to provide a bit of good news on the hockey file. I know it is a shame.

I rise today to acknowledge the Lawrence Park Panthers girls hockey team in my riding, who recently won the gold medal for all of Ontario.

This is the first time that a team from Lawrence Park Collegiate Institute has won a medal during an Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations championship.

That makes this a remarkable achievement for this exceptional high school, for girls' hockey, and for the riding of Eglinton—Lawrence.

I want to join with the parents and all constituents in our riding in giving a heartfelt hooray to coach Karen Daigle and the grade 11 and grade 12 players for this huge win. As a father of two girls, I thank them for their perseverance and for being such amazing role models.

As the Prime Minister said on his recent state visit to the United States, there is no doubt who plays the best hockey, and that is Canada.

[The Budget, April 11th, 2016]

Madam Speaker, I listened carefully to my colleague's speech, but I heard nothing about the unemployed.

[Citizenship Act, March 10th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, I think my hon. colleague knows the answer to his question. He would have heard it in the course of my speech.

In my mind, and in the minds of those who have put serious thought into this question, it makes no sense whatsoever to take convicted terrorists to an airport and to deport them to some other place where we will not have the same Canadian capacity to have eyes on them and to ensure they will not continue to radicalize or recruit or to try to find ways to bring harm to our country.

It makes sense that we bring criminal penal sanctions to those who deserve those sentences to ensure they are here and kept under lock, safe and key for as long as necessary.

[Citizenship Act, March 10th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the member opposite and his party for their support of Bill C-6. It is always nice to have support on both sides of the House for the common principle of protecting the equity of citizenship and having just one class.

With respect to his question regarding wait times, as the member well knows, the last 10 years have done no service whatsoever to seeing any of those backlogs reduced. In large part that is because we have seen resources cut to those departments.

I know the Minister of Immigration is working very hard. In fact, no one is working harder than he is to ensure that we have those resources allocated to the departments to get at those applications so we can reduce backlogs and improve pathways to citizenship. I can assure the member that where we are able to be transparent with regard to where those backlogs occur, we will do so.

[Citizenship Act, March 10th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, we have always been a pro-immigration country. What we have seen in the last 10 years are the pathways to citizenship becoming more impeded and more difficult to achieve for those new Canadians and those aspiring to become new Canadians. One of the ways in which we are removing those barriers is to reduce the residency requirements.

This is one of the ways in which we will remain a leading nation for people who want to come to our country in pursuit of a better life. That is what brought my family here. That is what brought many of my colleagues here. I dare to say that is what brought many of the families of those on the other side here. That is why we are standing up for this policy.