Canada's Contribution to the Effort to Combat ISIL  Mr. Speaker, after 2003, the Americans spent billions of dollars in Iraq trying to train Iraqi security forces. When ISIS came, the forces folded like a cheap tent. These forces are not going to be effective if one-half of the population simply does not trust them. The problem

Canada's Contribution to the Effort to Combat ISIL  Mr. Speaker, that is a very good question from my colleague, and it goes to the heart of what I am saying. The motion before us is blurring the lines even further. I think it is a bunch of smoke and mirrors. We are simply seeing the old Conservative mission changed somewhat. We

Canadian Heritage  Mr. Speaker, the arts and culture sector employs 150,000 Canadians and contributes $8 billion to our economy. Conservative cuts damaged the sector and threatened good jobs. After pledging $150 million for the CBC, and $25 million for Telefilm and the National Film Board, the Libe

Petitions  Mr. Speaker, I am honoured to stand today in the House to present a petition from voters in my area who want to ensure that Canadians have a fair electoral system. The petitioners recognize that our current system produces false majorities and that the seat count of each party i

Employment Insurance  Mr. Speaker, I am really glad that the minister has joined us in the chamber today. It is always nice to have a member of the executive branch of the government. The Liberals have a less than exemplary record on employment insurance. When they were last in power, they raided the

Employment Insurance  Mr. Speaker, I will be splitting my time with the hon. member for Windsor—Tecumseh. I am proud to stand in the House to speak to this NDP motion, which calls on the government to urgently act on ensuring that benefits are available to help Canadians who have lost their jobs. Job

Employment Insurance  Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the question from my colleague across the way. I believe I did make reference to that aspect of the program in my speech, when I said we supported a proposal that would allow workers to choose which system benefited them individually. What we have befo

Employment Insurance  Mr. Speaker, I am not going to take any lessons from the Conservatives on how to balance budgets or present fiscal responsibility; that is for sure. What we need to keep in mind here is that we are talking about the employment insurance fund. This is not something for general go

Justice  Mr. Speaker, yesterday the member for Scarborough Southwest bizarrely accused opposition members of confusion around marijuana laws, before he stirred the pot, once again, by saying: “the only control that is in place is the current criminal sanction for the production and traffi

Canada Labour Code  Mr. Speaker, we have heard a lot from the Conservatives in this House. They comment that some members are attacking the sanctity of private members' legislation. On the contrary, what we are attacking is when government legislation masquerades as a private member's bill. My hon.

Canada Labour Code  Mr. Speaker, I listened to the response to the parliamentary secretary's question, but I did not hear an answer. Therefore, I will pose it again. Why did the previous bill not include chambers of commerce, religious organizations, and professional associations? Why did it only si

Canada Labour Code  Mr. Speaker, we have certainly heard a lot of questions from the Conservative side about Bill C-525 and how we are not supporting secret ballots and all that, but what I do not hear from that side of House is discussion of Bill C-377. In my mind that was the more onerous piece of

Navigation Protection Act  moved for leave to introduce Bill C-252, An Act to amend the Navigation Protection Act (Shawnigan Lake). Mr. Speaker, it gives me great pleasure to rise in the House to introduce this bill today. This bill adds Shawnigan Lake to the scheduled list of waters protected under the N

Citizenship Act  Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague, the member for Newmarket—Aurora, for his fine speech, and I would like to congratulate the Liberal government for bringing forward this bill. There are a lot of provisions that we, in the NDP, can support. However, there is one th

Citizenship Act  Mr. Speaker, I would like to express my thanks to my colleague for his well-received speech in this House. I took some time to go through the Criminal Code of Canada, specifically section 83. It is a very lengthy part of the Criminal Code. For those who are not aware, that is th