Hon. Ed Broadbent  Mr. Speaker, I rise today in the House to pay tribute, on behalf of the Government of Canada and the Liberal caucus, to an eminent Canadian who sadly left us earlier this month, the Hon. Ed Broadbent. On January 11, Canada lost a man who for decades had been a fixture of our demo

Public Services and Procurement  Mr. Speaker, on the contrary, senior officials of the Canada Border Services Agency who are responsible for ensuring that all the appropriate contracting practices are followed have appeared before the committee. My conversation in early January with the president of CBSA was to

Public Safety  Mr. Speaker, I have obviously had a number of discussions with senior RCMP officials about the importance of strengthening our position at the border. The integrity of our borders is obviously an issue that the government takes very seriously. I have discussed this with my Americ

Border Security  Mr. Speaker, we obviously share the concerns of all Canadians with respect to the integrity of our borders. My colleague is suggesting that we are going to cut RCMP staff in “C” Division in Quebec to fight organized crime and secure our borders, but that is not quite true. Sinc

Public Safety  Mr. Speaker, the RCMP, with its policing partners across the country, are very engaged with the Sikh community and other communities across the country, which understandably feel an increased threat level with respect to what the U.S. justice department filed in a court in the Un

Public Safety  Mr. Speaker, our government obviously has always taken the safety of Canadians seriously. The Conservatives seem to be laughing and find that funny, but the good news is that tomorrow morning they have a caucus meeting, where Conservative senators will be present. They should per

Public Safety  Mr. Speaker, again, my hon. friend is having some difficulty attaching himself to the facts. It is the Conservative senators who are blocking legislation requested by Conservative premiers and worked on by this government last spring and adopted by this House of Commons at all st

Democratic Institutions  Mr. Speaker, let us keep talking about respect for democracy in the House of Commons. Unelected Conservative senators are blocking the passage of an important gun control bill that passed the House. If our friends across the aisle want to do something for democracy, they should a

Democratic Institutions  Mr. Speaker, once again, as they often do in the House, the Conservatives pretend to be interested in bills that protect Canadians from gun violence, for example, or ensure that bail is truly effective in keeping communities safe, like the Conservative premiers have asked. Premie

Democratic Institutions  Mr. Speaker, speaking of respecting the will of this House, perhaps the leader of the Conservative Party would like to talk to the Conservative senators who sit in his caucus and ask them to pass the bail reform bill that was passed by the House of Commons. The Leader of the Oppo

Public Safety  Mr. Speaker, I think it is important, when talking about issues as serious as a notorious killer like Mr. Bernardo, that we stick to the facts and not mislead Canadians. We saw earlier this week what happens when we talk about a sensitive, concerning matter and use language that

Correctional Service of Canada  Mr. Speaker, I will be very happy to get those exact details and provide them to the member. I can tell him that, as the member of Parliament for Beauséjour, when I visited the medium-security prison Dorchester Penitentiary, I met inmates and CORCAN staff who work on exactly th

Public Services and Procurement  Mr. Speaker, I do not want to disappoint my colleague across the aisle, but no minister was responsible for those contracting practices. Those contracting practices were done by public servants. We have said if committees want to look into these issues, we welcome that examinati

Public Services and Procurement  Mr. Speaker, my hon. friend knows very well that when any irregularity with respect to contracting practices comes to light, the responsible thing for senior public servants who administer these rules to do is to refer it to the appropriate authorities and to establish the facts

Public Services and Procurement  Mr. Speaker, what I am happy to explain to the House is how seriously our government takes allegations of inappropriate behaviour with taxpayers' money and contracting or subcontracting. We are obviously very pleased that the committee is looking into this matter. We are pleased