Income Tax Act  Mr. Speaker, I have a hard time squaring the government's rhetoric on helping the middle class and the reality of how its tax plan would actually work. It would be of absolutely no benefit to people making less than $45,000 a year. The government is going to do away with the $1

Foreign Affairs  Mr. Speaker, this weekend over 80 people were killed by Boko Haram in Nigeria, including a number of children who were burned alive. Canada's Office of Religious Freedom is part of a project in rural Nigeria that created a network of Muslim and Christian leaders, who have been wo

Holocaust  Mr. Speaker, today is Holocaust Memorial Day, a day when we remember the six million Jews and many others who were killed by the Nazis. Many of my relatives were among the victims. My grandmother, a half-Jew living in Germany at the time, survived but not without suffering the

Resumption of Debate on Address in Reply  Mr. Speaker, I congratulate the member on her remarks. We have heard a number of members of the government talk today about the importance of helping the vulnerable and the middle class, and I would very strongly agree with that. However, there is a disconnect between the words

Resumption of Debate on Address in Reply  Mr. Speaker, the member talked a bit about the middle class and I want to ask a specific question about that. The government has significantly cut back on the amount individuals can contribute to their tax-free savings accounts, in spite of the fact that all data shows that thos

Foreign Affairs  Mr. Speaker, last week leaders from the Jewish, Sikh, and Muslim communities wrote to the Minister of Foreign Affairs indicating their strong support for the Office of Religious Freedom. They wrote that the office “has proven an effective advocate...raising our country's profile

Resumption of Debate on Address in Reply  Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the member about his perspective on the energy east pipeline. There is virtually no mention in the throne speech of the importance of the energy sector. The energy east pipeline would create jobs and opportunity in my region, as well as his, so wh

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, the member has some very good points. I come back to the point that we have something happening right now, and training and humanitarian support are important for the long term. Of course, training is important in not just the long term but the medium term, and what

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, the hon. member and the government are trying to offer us false choices. We, of course, agree that there is an important component of training, but the troops on the ground have said, our Kurdish allies have said, that the firepower we bring to the fight is criticall

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, we all understand in this place that it is a very complicated region. Certainly, foreign interventions have failed. There are plenty of cases where a western power coming in to help those in need has in fact succeeded in bringing about genuine transformation. There a

Business of Supply  Madam Speaker, I have been listening with great interest to today's debate, and it is a real honour to be able to contribute to it as well. I want to outline what I see as the three principle arguments as to why the motion should pass and why our involvement in the bombing miss

Foreign Affairs  Mr. Speaker, members of the media are telling us that they have been unable to get hold of the ambassador for religious freedom since the new government was sworn in. The ambassador has previously been a highly effective advocate internationally, earning widespread acclaim and ac

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, I congratulate the member on his speech, but I want to get some clarification on this. The government is saying that the Liberals' way is more effective. I want to ask them this: more effective according to whom? We had in the last two weeks a representative of the

Business of Supply  Madam Speaker, some of the comments the member is making just make me concerned that she may not understand even the basic nature of Daesh as an organization. It is not like Al Qaeda, which simply exists as a type of cell-based organization. It is an organization that has effecti

Manmeet Singh Bhullar  Mr. Speaker, our Alberta Conservative family has lost a giant. Manmeet Singh Bhullar was a big man with a big heart. In what turned out to be one of the last causes he ever took on, Manmeet championed the cause of Afghanistan's increasingly desperate religious minorities. At on