44th Parl. 1st Sess.
February 21, 2022 07:00AM
- Feb/21/22 8:05:07 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, the member's party and the Bloc continue to talk about the Ambassador Bridge and the corridor being safe, but now the Jersey barricades have been moved to among the community. He talked about listening to constituents, but I do not understand why those parties continue to propagate the fact that things are okay.
In fact, right now we are dealing with a bomb threat to the mayor in his house, and a person has been arrested. I would like the member to respond to that. Since this has been going on, the mayor has had to take leadership down here. Since the situation has escalated so much, he has now actually received a bomb threat to his house and to his family, and a person has been arrested.
Would he speak specifically to that? That is happening right now.
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- Feb/21/22 8:05:53 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, obviously nobody ever deserves to have a bomb threat to their house for simply trying to stand up and do their job. The mayor is doing what he can to best serve his constituents.
Part of the question was about things not being okay. The member is right that things are not okay. People all across this country have felt disrespected for far too long. They have felt like they have been vilified and divided on purpose, for only political gain.
Constructive dialogue needs to happen. The Prime Minister had a role to play. If the Prime Minister had done his job, I feel that the tensions would not be where they are down in Windsor West and the surrounding ridings. For things to have gotten to a point that somebody has done something so unfathomable and unthinkable as to offer up a bomb threat is ridiculous.
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- Feb/21/22 10:44:16 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, absolutely, and I would like to thank my colleague for bringing that up.
Our infrastructure was under threat and continues to be under threat in this country. That is why it is so important to make sure that we vote in favour of the implementation of this act today. This is a time-limited act. It is targeted to where it is needed. Therefore, I think it is absolutely the best measure to have in place to be able to curtail what is happening in our country today.
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- Feb/21/22 10:45:27 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, I would say to my colleague and to the House that we have received lots of warnings, and we are continuing to receive warnings, from our security and cybersecurity experts that Canada and many democratically elected governments are under a real threat. We have seen proof of that here within our own borders. Weapons and armour have been seized. Plots have been revealed. That should be enough to wake us all up.
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- Feb/21/22 12:53:36 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I am in support because I feel it is very important that we must continue to protect our democracy. I sincerely feel that our democracy is under threat. We have seen this through the media, through social media and through the comments that have been made in the House. I have seen the foreign interference that has infiltrated the minds of Canadians.
Qujannamiik.
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- Feb/21/22 2:44:14 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague for highlighting one of the ongoing risks we face, which is the threat to our borders and our trade corridors. They are so critically important to keeping Canadians at work and our economy rolling. That is why we continue to listen very carefully to the advice we are getting from our police services, which say that the Emergencies Act was instrumental in addressing the blockades at ports of entry and continues to be instrumental in preventing them.
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- Feb/21/22 2:45:27 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, what happened in Coutts, Alberta, is unprecedented. The Conservatives in the House are downplaying the severity of what is happening and are pretending that the threat is over.
There was a plot to murder RCMP officers by dangerous extremists. Millions of dollars are still coming in from foreign sources to fund these hate groups. When will the government bring forward legislation to halt all—
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- Feb/21/22 2:57:58 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the Emergencies Act is intended to be a last resort to deal with a clear, imminent threat. It is not a sledgehammer to deal with some future unknown crisis. There is no security threat. The streets are empty and the blockades are gone. There is no threat to our democracy. We are here in the House of Commons, with the world watching, about to have a critical vote.
If there is no threat, will the Prime Minister end his abuse of the Emergencies Act, or is this just a ploy to ensure that the infringements on Canadians' charter rights and our bank accounts are permanent?
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- Feb/21/22 4:04:19 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, three of the safeguards that have been put into the act are the three criteria that the government must meet in order to trigger a public order emergency.
The first is a threat or the actual use of violence to achieve a political, religious or ideological objective. The second is a threat to the health, safety and lives of Canadians that is beyond the capacity of a province to deal with, or alternatively that there is a threat to the sovereignty, territorial integrity or security of this country. The last is that there is no other law in Canada, federal or provincial, that could effectively deal with the situation.
Those three criteria are safeguards in preventing intrusions into civil liberties.
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- Feb/21/22 4:52:40 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague. I am very impressed by his courage.
I think we now have a real emergency situation. I believe that the threats to Canada's security are real, consistent with the definition of threats to the security of Canada found in the Canadian Security Intelligence Service Act. Unfortunately, that definition has not been included in the Emergencies Act, although it does refers to that other act.
That is why foreign-influenced activities threaten Canada. Activities that are not foreign-influenced are hidden. Does my colleague think that foreign activities pose a threat to our democracy?
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- Feb/21/22 4:53:57 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I am pleased to see the hon. member for Saanich—Gulf Islands again.
I do not believe that that aspect meets any of the four possibilities in the definition of security threat in the Canadian Security Intelligence Service Act, for the simple reason that foreign interference would require a state actor. That does not appear to be the case at the moment.
In that respect, all Canadians who donate to organizations like Human Rights Watch or Amnesty International for advocacy in other countries could find themselves—
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- Feb/21/22 5:04:38 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I want to thank all the law enforcement officials from around the country, including the OPS, who have done such an incredible job in terms of what has ended outside of this very building.
I listened intently to the member opposite, and I think we have a very different perspective on the threat. He basically indicated that the threat of insurrection was not real. I would simply point him to the fact that we have documented evidence calling for the overthrow of the government. We have instances of weapons being found from other blockaders, including at the Alberta border, and we are investigating links between the hate group called Diagolon and what is happening here. When the arrests were actually being effected by those brave law enforcement officials whom I know this member supports, there were attempts made to dislodge their weapons. That, to me, is proof positive that this kind of legislation is required.
Would the member agree with me and with the interim chief, Steve Bell, who said that this legislation is exactly what was needed in order to effectuate the cleanup of the occupation that was occurring outside?
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- Feb/21/22 5:07:26 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, my colleague has a very good question.
That speaks loudly to me and says that the Prime Minister continues to be afraid that his leadership is threatened. He knows he overstepped his boundaries and his grounds, and he knows his leadership is fragile, so much so that he has to put that veiled threat out there so that his colleagues and his MPs, whether here or in his coalition with the NDP, know that if this vote fails, it could mean another unnecessary election.
It is just shameful that the Prime Minister would actually take that step. Let us not make any bones about it. He knows exactly what he is doing when he puts that out in a press conference. It is a threat, a shot that he is sending across the bow at any MP who is considering voting against him.
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- Feb/21/22 5:34:34 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, the borders are open. Those at Coutts, Emerson, Surrey and Windsor are open. That happened before the Emergencies Act was even invoked. In Ottawa, the trucks have been removed, the streets are clear and there is no threat of violence or disharmony. Most of the charges that have been laid involve mischief or maybe trespass, not exactly terrorism.
How does the member opposite, along with his colleagues, justify the continued use of the Emergencies Act going forward?
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- Feb/21/22 6:20:30 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I would just politely point out some confusion. The member talks about leaders seeking political advantage, when it was the interim leader of the opposition who actually emailed her entire caucus to say that political advantage should be sought by not discouraging the blockades. That was on day four.
We have heard from many Conservative members about the threat having abated, but I will ask the member, when we have illegal protesters who have been removed from outside this building, but are staging 30 kilometres away; when we have a blockade that was attempted at Windsor on February 16; when we have a blockade that was successfully reinstalled in Surrey on February 18; and when we have an investigation into a hate group that was at the Coutts border, in his very own province, and the investigation into links between that group and what is happening here is still ongoing, would he agree with me that there is still an ongoing threat to the safety and security of Canadians that needs to be addressed through this legislation?
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