Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, I get the impression that the hon. member was not here when my colleague from Longueuil—Saint-Hubert replied to his speech saying that the reason there is a need for financial support during this pandemic is the federal government's negligence when it comes to transfers to the provinces.

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, my learned colleague from Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie can correct me but, as far as I know, neither the federal Liberal government nor the Quebec government has any intention of deporting anyone who has helped care for people during this pandemic. In that regard, I believe that the answer is clear.

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my wonderful and brilliant colleague from Salaberry—Suroît for her compliments. Fortunately, I was wearing my mask. Otherwise everyone would have been able to see me blush. As members no doubt know, red does not suit me very well. It is not part of my usual colour palette, although, as I often say, it is better to wear or drink red than to be subject to it.

Business of Supply  Madam Chair, we do indeed need to pull together. We certainly do not need to be lectured. The minister talked about the armed forces being brought in. I agree with her. We should be very grateful to the armed forces. However, Quebeckers pay for these armed forces, and it is only logical that when the need arises, as it does overseas, the armed forces are there to help.

Business of Supply  Mr. Chair, I am very pleased to participate in this debate. I want to commend our health critic, the member for Montcalm, who is undoubtedly here and following our work very closely. I want to thank the Minister of Health for being here this evening. She is here to get grilled, so to speak, until late tonight.

Foreign Affairs  Mr. Speaker, the G20 summit hosted by Saudi Arabia starts on Saturday. This is a unique opportunity to call for the release of Raif Badawi so that he can return to his wife and children in Quebec. Historically, the Saudi Arabian kingdom has shown mercy by freeing prisoners during events of significant importance.

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, I said at the beginning of my speech that, in a way, western governments had created a monster. In the early 1990s, the People's Republic of China was an economic Eldorado because of its low manufacturing costs. Everyone wanted to do business in the People's Republic of China.

Business of Supply  I will be very brief, Mr. Speaker. I think that our colleague is touching on a very interesting point. As I said at the beginning of my speech, the Conservatives made choices in their motion. They chose to focus on two specific issues. I mentioned that we could have discussed any number of other issues, but that the Conservative motion limits us to these two.

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, I thought I had answered that question in my speech. Let us summarize what I said in greater detail. Is the 30-day deadline reasonable? The government says that we should not pick dates out of a hat, and that we should act “as soon as possible.” I agree with my colleague that “as soon as possible” is not in six months or a year and a half.

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, I have full confidence in our national security agencies. The problem is that the pandemic makes it possible to do a lot of things in the name of national security. That is why we need oversight mechanisms in a democracy, including parliamentary oversight. Parliament, however, was suspended for months, then prorogued, so it was unable to perform its oversight function.

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, in an ideal world, I would imagine that the government would already be prepared and in a position to speak to its policy on these two issues. In an ideal world, it would be unthinkable that the government would not be prepared and that it would not be ready to respond to these issues.

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to take part in this debate after the speeches from my Conservative colleagues and the Minister of Foreign Affairs. This is another motion similar to what we have come to expect from our Conservative friends. It is a motion that I would say is coming out of left field.

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, there is an expression in French about a flood of words in a desert of ideas. Obviously this expression does not apply to the Minister of Foreign Affairs because he has a lot of ideas and is generous with them, so I do not think that that applies here. That being said, in his very dense speech, he told us that he was concerned about the security of Canadians, whether it be with regard to the undue influence of the People's Republic of China or with regard to Huawei.

Terrorism  Mr. Speaker, I hope the Prime Minister took advantage of his conversation with French President Emmanuel Macron to offer his condolences, albeit a few weeks late, for the attack on Samuel Paty and the attack in Lyon. Members will recall that the National Assembly of Quebec and the Premier of Quebec strongly defended freedom of expression.

Terrorism  Mr. Speaker, two weeks to the day after the savage attack on Samuel Paty, the Prime Minister had this to say about freedom of expression, and I quote: “I think there is always an extremely important, extremely sensitive debate to be had on possible exceptions”. As we saw with his position on academic freedom, the Prime Minister supports a limited, naive and inoffensive form of free speech.