Sylvie Boucher

[Veterans Affairs, September 21st, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, it is unacceptable. Christopher Garnier was found guilty of murder and interfering with a dead body in the death of Constable Catherine Campbell. He is getting benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs to treat his PTSD, when he never served in the Canadian Armed Forces.

In their answers yesterday, none of the Liberals mentioned the police officer who was the victim of this barbaric act.

Will the Liberal government reverse this appalling decision and side with victims instead of criminals for once?

[Member's Staff, September 21st, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, we often make no mention of the people who help make us who we are. Today, I want to take this opportunity to thank them.

Since my return to Ottawa in 2015 and in the ensuing years, these people have become my second set of eyes and my second voice. They support me in what I do and they guide me. Without them, I could not give the best of me. I am referring to my assistants and to my associates.

I want to thank Denis, Guylaine, Thomas and Suzanne, who do fantastic work in my riding. Here, closer to my day-to-day work, Isabelle and Mikhaïl guide me through the grinding business of Parliament every day. I thank them. I would also like to thank my entire Conservative family and my leader, who inspire me to fight even harder against this Liberal government of failures.

I want to thank all these people for being there for me.

[Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, September 20th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague.

We are in the inner sanctum here tonight. We are basically the only ones here, as my colleague said.

I understand the difference between someone who enters the country legally and someone who is seeking refuge in Canada. However, I am talking about illegal immigrants. We need to distinguish between the two, and that is where the problem lies. People do not understand that.

On August 25, 2018, in a letter to the Canadian Bar Association that was published in a newspaper, the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship admitted that the number of refugee claimants far exceeded what the current system can handle.

The National Post noted that the letter's tone was unusually strong for the minister in question, who often describes Canada's immigration and border control system as strict and efficient. The article talks about two different realities.

I personally have been asking for quite some time—

[Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, September 20th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, we have been asking questions about asylum seekers and Roxham Road in Quebec for months now. Quebec has asked us to be proactive. Many asylum seekers have been coming to Canada since the Prime Minister's tweet, and we need to know how to differentiate between illegal migrants, refugees and legal immigrants. Everyone seems confused about this. We are talking here about illegal migrants, those who enter Canada illegally at a breach in the border.

On television—more so on French television than on English TV—we have heard that people are flying from Haiti to the United States and then crossing into Canada at Roxham Road. That is a problem. We know that the members opposite will tell us that fewer people are doing that now. That may be true, but there are still people crossing the border illegally and that is causing problems in ridings like mine. Allow me to explain.

At the beginning of the summer, a family in my riding was reunited. An immigrant who settled in my riding 15 years ago separated from his wife and she moved to England. They are both African. This summer, he called me in a panic. He and his wife share custody of their daughter who comes to Canada every year at the end of May to spend the summer with her father. However, this year, she was denied a visa because she had not been back to Canada for a year. That was only natural because her mother had legal custody and all the papers.

In short, at Roxham Road, I asked the following question a number of times. Given the unprecedented crisis created by this infamous tweet, does the Prime Minister think it is acceptable for people to break the law by crossing the border illegally?

[Ethics, September 20th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, what a wonderful summer we had. It was filled with warmth and good spirits, but they were cut short. It was the end of sunny ways: a summer of failure and broken Liberal promises.

We would all have applauded a memorable G7 that brought about meaningful economic spinoffs, but that is not what happened. Many economic players in my riding suffered because of it, not to mention the legacy project to install cell towers that do not work. What a failure.

A month ago, the government rejected my leader's request for an emergency debate on free trade, but now, the Prime Minister sees it as critically important. We were prepared to come back, but not him. What a failure.

I also want to talk about this government's loose ethics. It creates rules, gets caught by the commissioner, and never learns from its mistakes. What a failure.

The biggest travesty is that this government—

[Justice, September 17th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, I am really fed up with the Liberals' empty rhetoric. I am tired of hearing party lines and talking points. We are not talking about petty thieves here. We are talking about people who have been charged more than once, but the court process took five years and so they are released.

Perhaps the government has appointed judges, but we are not seeing a difference on the ground. Quebec has been calling for judges. I am going to repeat the question and I want a real answer, not just ministerial talking points. I want the member to speak from the heart.

Does he think it is right that there are still delays for serious crimes, that criminals are being released back onto the streets, and that Canadians are not being protected?

That is the real question.

[Justice, September 17th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to be back in the House asking questions. I am not actually expecting answers, but I keep asking the same questions because, after all, dreams are free.

More than four months ago, I asked the Minister of Justice a question about notorious alleged gang leader Nick Chan, a notorious criminal. All charges against this dangerous man were stayed because of delays. Longer and longer delays have been a headline issue for the past year and ever since this government took office. In the wake of the Jordan decision, Quebec's Minister Vallée called for a resolution to this issue.

In 2016, the Supreme Court of Canada established a framework to determine whether a criminal trial had been unreasonably delayed. Wait times are too long and there are not enough judges. We asked a lot of questions to find out when new judges would be appointed, but we never got a clear answer. We are still waiting for this government to protect Canadians from serious criminals.

Today, in question period, the members opposite were repeating ad nauseam, in answer to all sorts of questions, that they are here to protect Canadians. The reality is that they never gave ordinary Canadians clear answers.

When major criminals who are brought up on serious charges are released because it took too long for them to be brought to trial, it jeopardizes the safety of Canadians. However, with everything that is happening on the other side of the House, I can understand why the Liberals may not want the justice system to work too well, since they, too, might have to face justice.

I would really like an answer to this question: When will the minister take her responsibilities seriously and appoint judges so that justice can finally prevail and Canadians can be protected?

[Questions on the Order Paper, September 17th, 2018]

With regard to individuals returning to Canada, since November 4, 2015: what is the number of High Risk Returnees who entered Canada, broken down by month?

[Questions on the Order Paper, September 17th, 2018]

With regard to the government’s plan to send officials to Nigeria in an attempt to dissuade individuals from illegally crossing the Canadian border: (a) what is the total budget allocated for this campaign; (b) what is the budget, broken down by (i) airfare, (ii) other travel expenses, including accommodation, (iii) other expenses, further broken down by type; and (c) does the government have any projections regarding how many illegal crossing the trip to Nigeria will prevent and, if so, what are the projections?

[Ethics, September 17th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, the Liberals broke their own fundraising rules. They allowed lobbyists to pay for access to ministers on more than one occasion.

Ministers and the Prime Minister are being caught by the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner, they keep rolling out the red carpet for lobbyists, who keep influencing their decisions, and I could go on. The laws are for everyone else, but never for them.

Why are the Liberals so corrupt? Why are they carrying on with their summer of failure?