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Ms. Kristina Michaud (Avignon—La Mitis—Matane—Matapédia, BQ)

Feb/20/22 9:14:12 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague for his speech. Ironically, this morning I received an Instagram notification, which reminded me of what happened exactly two years ago, specifically the rail blockade of—

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The Deputy Speaker

Feb/20/22 9:14:27 a.m.
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I am going to interrupt the member because there is a second conversation going on at the same time, which is preventing me from hearing the member’s speech and question. The hon. Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons, on a point of order.

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Mr. Mark Gerretsen

Feb/20/22 9:14:46 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the member for St. Albert—Edmonton has referred to me as a despicable human being. I am pretty sure that is not parliamentary language. I would ask that you ask him to withdraw those comments, please.

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The Deputy Speaker

Feb/20/22 9:15:03 a.m.
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I did hear that as well. I did see the exchange that was happening there. I did hear the member. I wonder if the member would want to maybe retract that. I am looking at the member who did say it.

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Mr. Michael Cooper

Feb/20/22 9:15:29 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the hon. member claimed that I was taking a photo with swastikas and that is an absolute—

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Mr. Mark Gerretsen

Feb/20/22 9:15:38 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. Our parliamentary rules say that we cannot call an individual names. Again, this member called me a despicable human being. He is required, under our proceedings, to apologize and withdraw that comment. I would ask you— Some hon. members: Oh, oh!

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The Deputy Speaker

Feb/20/22 9:15:58 a.m.
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Order, please. The hon. member for Saanich—Gulf Islands.

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Ms. Elizabeth May

Feb/20/22 9:16:05 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I lament that we are here on a Sunday morning when, on a normal Sunday at 9:15 a.m., I would be at church. Right now, this is the opposite of any place that I have ever worshipped. The air is toxic. Mr. Speaker, it is certainly for you to rule, but I wanted you to know that all of us in this corner heard the member for St. Albert—Edmonton say distinctly and clearly, “You are a despicable human being.” I think he would want, reflecting on where he usually is on a Sunday morning, to decide, in his own heart, to withdraw those remarks as completely inappropriate.

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Mr. Michael Cooper

Feb/20/22 9:16:46 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I withdraw the comment.

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The Deputy Speaker

Feb/20/22 9:16:47 a.m.
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Let us all take a deep breath. I know it is early. I agree with the member for Saanich—Gulf Islands that normally we would be doing something different this morning. I know we have already been at it for three days now. We have today and tomorrow still to go to make sure that everybody has an opportunity to speak to this important motion. The hon. member for Avignon—La Mitis—Matane—Matapédia has the floor again and may start over.

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Ms. Kristina Michaud

Feb/20/22 9:17:09 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I see that tempers are flaring. I will change my question because I want us to get back to the debate. We are talking about the Emergencies Act, an act that has never been invoked since it was passed in 1988. There is a reason for that. I think that there are other tools that could have been used before we got to this point, which brings me back to my question. Two years ago, the Wet’suwet’en were protesting the Coastal GasLink project. It did not take long before the RCMP was sent in. There was a court injunction. Clearly, other tools could have been used. There was no need for the Emergencies Act. What does my colleague think about that?

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Mr. John Barlow

Feb/20/22 9:17:46 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, my hon. colleague is exactly right, which I think is the impetus of many of the speeches over this weekend and probably going into tomorrow. There are other tools that law enforcement has in their tool box that would have addressed all of this. It addressed the illegal blockades at the borders previous to the Emergencies Act, but certainly to that specific case two years ago. That was where protesters were blocking critical infrastructure across the country for more than 17 days and the Liberals put out every minister possible to talk to those folks. They sent out the RCMP to dismantle those blockades. Did they do any of that this time? Did a single member of the Liberal Party go out across the street and speak to a protester and hear what their concerns were? Did a single one do that? I do not think so.

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Mr. Matthew Green (Hamilton Centre, NDP)

Feb/20/22 9:18:40 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the hon. member completely failed to address the previous important question posed. He painted a picture of Coutts only being about holding hands and singing O Canada. This hon. member's denialism of what happened at Coutts is completely in line with his party's ongoing denialism of the extremist white supremacist threat to our Canadian democracy. There have been 13 people charged with conspiracy to commit murder after finding firearms and a cache of ammunition. Why does this hon. member continue to downplay the clear and present threat of highly organized and violent elements within this extremist movement by wrapping it in the Canadian flag?

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Mr. John Barlow

Feb/20/22 9:19:20 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I love the fact that the NDP is trying to paint itself out of the corner it put itself in by supporting the Emergencies Act, when their party was founded on protecting the civil liberties of Canadians. Its members are going against the very foundation of their party by trying to make this whole issue about white supremacy. My constituents who live around Coutts and were down there are certainly not armed thugs and white supremacists. Did a group infiltrate that movement? Absolutely. Did they do everything they possibly could to purge it? Absolutely. This is a ridiculous argument by the NDP trying to defend the indefensible, which is supporting the Emergencies Act.

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Ms. Iqra Khalid (Mississauga—Erin Mills, Lib.)

Feb/20/22 9:20:09 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the member asked if anyone on the other side had talked to any of the protesters. I did speak to one of my constituents when she came back from Ottawa, and we had a very good conversation. Is it okay, based on his speech, that a couple of hundred people can take over a city that inhabits tens and thousands of people and terrorize them, inconvenience their lives and harass their movement? Does he think those hundreds of people speak for all those tens of thousands?

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Mr. John Barlow

Feb/20/22 9:20:47 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I am really happy with how the member asked that question. Does she think a few bad apples in a group speak for everyone? Is the constituent she met, which is her constituent, a racist, a misogynist, the fringe, unacceptable or taking up space? I would like to know what her perspective on her own constituent is.

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Ms. Heather McPherson (Edmonton Strathcona, NDP)

Feb/20/22 9:21:13 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, as always, it is a deep honour to stand in this place and represent the people of Edmonton Strathcona. Today we gather to debate the enactment and bringing forward of the Emergencies Act. It is the enactment of legislation that has never been used before. I deeply feel the gravity and the responsibility of the work that we are doing in this place. I recognize the serious situation that we as parliamentarians, indeed we as Canadians, find ourselves at this pivotal time. I hope that every member in this place has spent time over the past several weeks thinking about our role as leaders in this country and the responsibility we have to make difficult decisions for the benefit of our constituents and for the benefit of Canada. Before I share my thoughts on the implementation of the Emergencies Act, I want to take a moment, if I can, to acknowledge the staff and the security working on the Hill today. I want to thank all of those who have had to walk across a blockade to get to work. I want to thank all of those who are not spending the Family Day long weekend with their families because they are helping us in the House today, as well as the pages, as my colleague reminded me. I want to thank the law enforcement officers as well. I walked home from this place last night in the dark, protected by the police officers who held the line so that I could get to my apartment in Centretown, the police who have put themselves at risk today and for the last several days to make the city safe again for the people in Ottawa. I want to thank them. Finally, I want to thank the journalists, who, in frigid temperatures for days on end, have brought information to Canadians. They have been sworn at. They have been spat at. They have been assaulted. They have been threatened. They have stood on the streets of Ottawa to tell this story every day. That is a cornerstone of our democracy and every Canadian should be thankful that we have members of an independent media that will tell the story and share the information that needs to be shared with Canadians. Where we find ourselves as a nation is heartbreaking. What we have collectively witnessed over the past three weeks makes it crystal clear just how crucial it is that we do what we can to restore order in our country and to clear our borders of blockades and the illegal siege of Ottawa and the threats and intimidation directed at those who live and work here. More importantly, as parliamentarians we need to make sure that this cannot happen again. I want to be very clear. I am not happy with where we find ourselves. I am angry that our country has come to this. The deep failures of our municipal and provincial governments and, yes, the failures of our federal government, have put us in a position where we are required to use extraordinary actions to go forward. Today and every day, I use my voice and I use my role in this place, in this chamber, to fix the issues that have led to the use of the Emergencies Act. I will use my role so that it never has to be used again. We need to take a close look at policing in this country. We have seen obvious, systemic racism across the police force on an almost daily basis. There are far too many examples of unnecessary and excessive uses of force directed at Black, indigenous and racialized individuals and against the unhoused and others who are living in poverty. We have seen vicious attacks on these individuals' bodies and belongings, yet we know that the RCMP can exhibit incredible care and restraint. We have seen it. We saw it demonstrated in Ottawa, in Windsor, in Emerson and in Coutts. We saw incredible restraint and a refusal to act from our police forces play out, not over minutes and hours but over days and weeks. As I stand in this place, I want us all to try to imagine how it must feel to be an indigenous land defender and watch white blockade members in Coutts, Alberta hug the RCMP. I want us to think about how it must feel for an unhoused person in Toronto who has been brutalized by police to watch the Ottawa police employ unbelievable gentleness with the illegal occupation in Ottawa. In Alberta, we have a law that I deeply dislike. It was the very first law that was put in place under Premier Kenney: Bill 1, his first legislation. It was so that blockades could not stop our major infrastructure. It was to protect our major infrastructure from being clogged up. However, that law has not been enacted. If we ever needed something that proved to us that Bill 1 was never intended to be used against white people, that it was never intended to be used against the premier's friends, this is proof. That legislation was put in place to hurt indigenous people. It was put in place to stop environmentalists. It was never intended to be used against Jason Kenney's friends, who have shown who they are, who have shown that they are white supremacists, who have shown that they have attempted murder. This is an armed insurrection on the border in our country, and the legislation was not used. We also need to fully examine and strengthen our federal hate crime legislation to make sure that it can address the white supremacist and neo-Nazi extremism that is threatening our society. I was happy to second the bill put forward by my dear friend, the member for New Westminster—Burnaby, to ban symbols of hate, symbols like swastikas and Confederate flags, symbols we have seen in our nation's capital during the illegal occupation. However, we cannot only ban the symbols of hate; we must counter the radicalization of Canadians that is happening online and over our public airwaves, like the trash radio that radicalized the man who killed six worshippers at the Quebec City mosque, like the online hate that radicalized one of the men arrested in Coutts, Alberta, who was accused of participating in a plot to murder an RCMP officer. According to his father, this man was radicalized online by a far-right extremist group known as Diagolon, a group that seeks to overthrow our government through violence. The Liberal government has promised to table legislation to stop online hate, and it has failed, as of yet, to act on that. In fact, we see misinformation on our radio waves; we see Russian misinformation happening with CRTC licensing. This is something we can and need to fix now. We have to review and update our money laundering laws to combat the funding mechanisms that fund hate groups and that hate groups use to bankroll their activities. We need ongoing measures to prevent the funding of hate groups, not Emergencies Act legislation. We need ongoing support for that. As my friend, the member for Hamilton Centre, said yesterday, none of this is new. None of this is things that we have not heard before. We have known that these are things that have to be fixed, and we have not done it. We find ourselves in an emergency situation because those steps have not been taken. COVID has been incredibly hard for all of us. We have all had to deal with the lockdowns, the restrictions, the protections put in place for years. It has been a challenge. I am a mother. I have watched my children be challenged and I have seen the things they have missed. I am a daughter, and I have elderly parents whom I worry about every day. I have seen people in our community lose loved ones, and I have seen them lose livelihoods. I have seen the impacts of the opioid addiction crisis, the unsafe drug supply crisis in my province. However, we do not end pandemics with illegal blockades. We do not end pandemics with sieges and occupations. Viruses do not care if we are done with them; they are not done with us. That is not how it works. The only way to end a pandemic is through public health measures that are based on science. If we allow bullies to intimidate us out of protecting public health, as we have seen in Alberta, we are surrendering to injustice. We are allowing those with the strongest voices, the largest vehicles, the loudest horns to rule. We are capitulating to mob rule, and we are sacrificing our democracy and our own values. The speaker before me made it sound like this is not what is happening in Alberta. However, we are seeing the worst of it in Alberta. Thirteen armed men are directing our public health policy in Alberta. Think about that for a moment. Today, we are debating the Emergencies Act to deal with illegal activities that the province and the police forces have not had the will to address, but the government must also address the underlying cause of the alienation that many people feel in our country. Over the past two decades, we have seen the wealth and well-being of ordinary Canadians decline, while wealth and power have accumulated to the top 1% in our country, the billionaire class. Costs continue to rise. Electricity and heating costs, grocery costs and housing costs are all rising, while incomes are staying stagnant. The urge to lower taxes that has obsessed our governments over the past 20 years may, on the surface, look like a solution, but upon closer examination, it actually contributed to the problems we are facing. Taxes for the wealthy corporations have been slashed dramatically, while the tax burden has shifted to low- and middle-income Canadians. It is not fair, and it is not working. We have a housing crisis in this country. We have an opioid poisoning crisis in this country. One in 10 Canadians lives in poverty, and more than half of those are seniors. We have more Canadians working more hours with less job security than we have seen since the 1970s. This is not a sustainable plan. This is not a sustainable way for our country to go forward. When a crisis comes along, when a global pandemic threatens the life and livelihood of nearly every Canadian, we should not be surprised that some Canadians start to feel alienated and left out. We should not be surprised that they turn to false prophets and misinformation and turn on those who govern. In the just over two years that I have been sitting as a member in the House, it is true that we have worked together through this pandemic, but we have not worked together to address the underlying issues, the root causes of the alienation and dissatisfaction that so many Canadians feel now and the sense of hopelessness that pervades. We do not know when this pandemic will end. No one in this House knows when this pandemic will end. We do not know how many times the virus will mutate. We do not know how many variants still await us or how many waves we may face. Yet, the government has been so anxious to cancel COVID support programs and so hesitant to address the underlying economic and social problems that the pandemic has laid bare and that have led to the sense of hopelessness so many Canadians feel. We have so much work to do here, together, to create a better, fairer and more just Canada. We know why we are here today. Ottawa has been under siege. Our borders have been blockaded. Our democracy has been threatened. We have witnessed some of the greatest failures of leadership our country has ever seen. Where was the coordination between the federal government, the province and the City of Ottawa? Why did it take so long for the Prime Minister to act? So-called leaders, like Doug Ford and Jason Kenney, have completely failed their provinces. They have failed to act, they have failed to lead and they have failed to protect their citizens. They have failed to protect jobs and the economy. They have failed to protect health care workers. They have failed to even address the racism and violence that undermine our democracy. A government member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta in my province joined the illegal blockade at Coutts. Another Conservative MLA in Alberta actually urged police officers not to follow the orders of their superiors. They have encouraged lawlessness. They have taken selfies with extremist leaders. Imagine what it feels like to be a racialized Canadian and to see the Conservative member of Parliament for Cypress Hills—Grasslands posing with Pat King, proclaiming his support for Pat King, the notorious leader of the convoy, the famous racist, the anti-Semitic and Islamophobic person who told us this thing would not end until bullets start flying. Imagine what it feels like for people who live and work in Ottawa to not be able to go to their job, not be able to make an income, and to see the MP for Carleton handing out coffee and donuts to those who torment them. Canadians have had enough of Conservatives playing footsie with radical extremists, with racists like Pat King and violent hate organizations like Diagolon. Canadians are fed up with the mob mentality of the Conservatives, and I would ask the Conservatives to apologize in this House. I accept the profound responsibility that the Emergencies Act entails. I will do everything I can, alongside my colleagues in this House, to ensure that the government does not abuse the powers granted to it by this act. We and other parties in the House have the power to stop the emergency declaration should that become necessary. We will not hesitate to use that power if the government exceeds the authority necessary to deal with this emergency. My Canada is filled with kind, caring, intelligent people who care for their community. My Canada has frontline workers, doctors, nurses and health care workers who have literally risked their lives for years to protect us. My Canada has teachers who have worked every day despite all the challenges COVID-19 has thrown at them. However, it is also very important that we acknowledge and recognize that my Canada also has racists. It also has anti-Semites. It has violent, hateful people, and until we acknowledge that part of our Canada, we will not be able to move forward. We have work to do in this country, and that task belongs to all of us. We need to work together, even when we disagree, to heal this country. I honestly believe that every member in this place wants a stronger, more resilient Canada. Despite our differences and the disagreements we have on how to move forward, we must, as Canadians, work together. It is the only way to protect our democracy. It is the only way to protect our freedom.

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Ms. Julie Dabrusin (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Natural Resources and to the Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Lib.)

Feb/20/22 9:41:33 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I really would like to thank the member for speaking so eloquently and forcefully. We often disagree on many things, but I did appreciate that she held her hand out to talk about how we need to address some very fundamental issues going forward. I appreciate the tone she has brought to this debate. Earlier today, we heard from the member for Windsor West talk about how people in his community are still being impacted by people who continue to try to close the Ambassador Bridge. Could the member speak to the ongoing importance of making sure these important routes are protected, so people can access the things they need?

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Ms. Heather McPherson

Feb/20/22 9:42:23 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I am going to talk from the perspective of being an Albertan and what has been happening in Alberta. I am the daughter of a truck driver, and the truck drivers that sat around my kitchen table while I was growing up, they got vaccinated. They care about their community. They care about the people they work with, and they want to get to work. They want to be able to make a living. Truck drivers do not make a living if they are not driving their truck. When their truck is parked, they do not make a living. What I see in Coutts, and what I see when these major throughways are impacted, is the fact that these guys cannot get to work, and they cannot make an income. That is so unfair, to say nothing of the fact that the blockade, which was in place for 18 days, cost over $40 million a day to the Alberta economy. If we cannot think about the truckers who are trying to do their job, we can think about the economic impacts on Albertans.

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Mr. John Williamson (New Brunswick Southwest, CPC)

Feb/20/22 9:43:36 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I have two questions. First of all, is the member at all concerned that today's top bar for using the Emergencies Act will become the threshold going forward, that a future government could look upon other protesters or other challenges and invoke the Emergencies Act? Second, has the member, and other members of the NDP, considered denying the government's use of the motion on Monday, since it will already have been in effect and will have permitted the government to do what had had to be done, but saying that it could go no further and that it needs to end on Monday?

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