Ethics  Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister keeps telling us that the rules for appointing senators have been clear for 150 years. However, when he appointed Mike Duffy to be a Conservative senator, Mr. Duffy had been living in Ottawa since 1971. He had an Ontario driver's licence, and his passport indicated that his permanent residence was in—you guessed it—Ottawa.

Ethics  Mr. Speaker, this may surprise you but I agree with my colleague. Indeed, for 150 years, the rules for appointing senators have been clear: it is the responsibility of the Prime Minister. That is what we are saying. Even government lawyers agree with us on this. Why was it so important to break the rules in order to appoint Senator Duffy?

Public Safety  Mr. Speaker, despite all the criticism we have heard regarding the lack of oversight and the erosion of our freedoms, the Conservatives are ploughing ahead and will pass Bill C-51, which jeopardizes our rights. The Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness even wanted to celebrate by attending an event featuring a draw for a rifle.

Ethics  Mr. Speaker, that is kind of hard to follow. We recently learned that no fewer than 40 senators are now under investigation by the Auditor General. The Senate has essentially become an all-you-can-eat buffet where Liberal and Conservative cronies feast at taxpayers' expense. Conservative Pamela Wallin is accused of fraud with respect to her personal travel.

Zero Tolerance for Barbaric Cultural Practices Act  Mr. Speaker, this is a very sensitive and complex topic. Obviously, nobody here is in favour of barbaric practices that do not respect freedom. No one is condoning crimes or murders. My wife and I have two daughters, and we would obviously not want them to be forced into marriage.

Petitions  Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise in the House to present a petition signed by some young activists from Development and Peace I met with a few weeks ago. They are quite concerned about small farmers, especially in the south, being able to use their own seeds. These farmers are up against industrial companies that are patenting all kinds of things.

Ethics  Mr. Speaker, things are not going well at all for the Conservatives. Allow me to summarize. The subpoenas are piling up on the Prime Minister's doorstep in the Mike Duffy affair, the former public works minister has been found guilty of patronage and conflict of interest because she did the Prime Minister's dirty work, the RCMP is investigating 150 suspicious invoices from Pamela Wallin, and to top it all off, now we learn that the Conservatives are punishing the people of Maniwaki because they did not vote for Lawrence Cannon.

Anti-terrorism Act, 2015  Mr. Speaker, it is important to point out that a parallel can indeed be drawn between the current situation and the October crisis in 1970. In both cases, the NDP was the only party to stand up in this House to defend people's rights and liberties and defend civil liberties, unlike the other parties that were in power in 1970 or are in power now.

Canada Post  Mr. Speaker, the community mailboxes being forced on communities are a disaster—and some might say a nightmare. Canada Post is not following through on its promises. These much-touted boxes are surrounded by garbage, covered in graffiti and are often not cleared of snow. That is not all.

CBC/Radio-Canada  Mr. Speaker, in an interview yesterday, the Prime Minister said that Radio-Canada employees “hate” conservative values. The Prime Minister is mistaken. It is not the majority of Radio-Canada journalists who dislike his party's policies, it is the majority of the population. When he said that Quebeckers support his party's values, he did not point out that Quebeckers cast 10 times more votes for New Democrats than for Conservatives in the last election.

Rail Service Resumption Act, 2015  Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Windsor West for his excellent question. This Conservative government really deregulated a huge number of sectors. Companies now have to inspect themselves and send their own reports about how nice they are and how well they treat everyone to the federal government.

Rail Service Resumption Act, 2015  Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague from Nickel Belt for that great question. Indeed, getting rid of the Conservatives is a good place to start. After that, we have to have an NDP government that will be able to respect the unions. The 4 million people in the country who are members of a union make unions the greatest strength of civil society and the largest democratic movement in the country right now.

Rail Service Resumption Act, 2015  Mr. Speaker, there are very many misconceptions on the Conservative side. It is terrific. Only someone who knows almost nothing about labour relations and collective negotiations could say things like that. Oh, my God. The member said that the workers have negotiated for three months and that is long enough.

Rail Service Resumption Act, 2015  Mr. Speaker, I see where my colleague from the second opposition party is going with his question. However, the issue today is that the Conservative government is taking a stance against the rights of workers to negotiate and engage in free collective bargaining. That said, he raised an interesting point, which is that the Conservative government could have been proactive and ensured that there were good working conditions in the rail network.

Rail Service Resumption Act, 2015  Mr. Speaker, it saddens me once again today to rise in the House, in the Parliament of Canada, to oppose a bill. I rise as a member of the official opposition to represent the values of the NDP, which is opposing a back-to-work bill for the seventh time since the Conservatives took power in 2006.