44th Parl. 1st Sess.
May 17, 2022 10:00AM
Madam Speaker, as always, it is a pleasure to rise in the House of Commons for the people of Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, especially on an issue such as this.
Make no mistake. Heritage is very important to me. When people ask me where I am from, I may say that I grew up in north Kamloops, British Columbia, but my heritage comes from so much farther than that.
Both of my parents came from southern Italy. I recently did an ancestry DNA test that found I was 89% Calabrian, so I am from very far south in Italy. As some in the House may know with regard to the Speaker who ordinarily occupies the chair during question period, my mother's family came from the same small town as his family, so our grandfathers may well have known each other. My grandfather may well have known his father too. They may have become acquainted in that small town of about 1,800 people.
I am proud to participate in my heritage, and two things in which my pride most abounds are my connection to my Italian culture and how I channel that through my Italian cultural centre in Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo. We should all be proud of our heritage. One thing that I really loved about growing up in north Kamloops was the confluence of all the different heritages. I came to realize that this is what really defined Canada.
Part of being proud of our heritage is also being proud of other people's heritage. That is why it is with a source of pride that I stand in this chamber, the people's chamber, in support of this bill. I thank the member for Ottawa South for bringing it forward.
In preparing this speech, I came to learn that our neighbours to the south designated April of last year, 2021, as Arab heritage month. One of the things that I have come to realize in volunteering at my cultural centre is that often people of different heritages come through. I have learned about and seen the pride. As I return back to this point, one thing I really love to emphasize about Canada is the different heritages we have here.
I was at an event not long ago that was put on in my riding by people of African heritage. I was asked to give a few words when I was there. What I reflected on when I was thinking about it was this. What I saw in that room, what I see here in the House of Commons and what I see in Canada is diversity, and it made me very proud, when I was at that African heritage night, to be part of that diversity. I absolutely love it. It is what makes Canada Canada. I was very proud that the neighbourhood I grew up in was very multi-faceted. There were people who spoke different languages, but it did not matter: We all came to appreciate and love one another.
It is within that vein that I recognize the need to support Arab heritage month in the House of Commons. Just as Canada was welcoming to the people of my heritage, I want to be proud of all heritages in this country. Some 42% of Canadians of Arab heritage are under 24 years of age. What a bright future they have.
I was thinking back to my own history, and I can say to those in the House, many of whom do not know me, that I was not political whatsoever. This is essentially my first elected position, and I know there is a very bright future for people of Arab heritage. I am sure they will make all the people in their communities proud. I thank the member for bringing this bill forward.
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Madam Speaker, good evening to you, colleagues and the viewers who are tuning in to this important debate.
After almost 18 years in the House, I know that sometimes there are moments when the House truly comes together. Sometimes there are moments when Parliament can showcase its ability to come together, overcome partisanship and pursue something that I believe all of us here find to be good, fine, worthy of pursuing and timely.
I am very proud of the fact that I was lucky enough to obtain an early opportunity in a random draw to help bring us together in this Parliament through this bill. At a time when there are powerful forces in the House and in Canadian society seeking to pull us apart, and we all know there are many, I hope this bill can serve as a force that pulls us together, because as sure as day follows night, we need that in Canada today.
I would like to thank my Bloc Québécois colleague who gave an excellent overview—in the context of both Quebec and Canada—of the history of North African immigration, student mobility and other elements in Quebec society.
I would like to thank my colleague from the NDP, the member for Windsor West, who talked about how we were hopefully harmonizing our April Arab heritage month here in Canada with the one that was decreed by President Biden in the United States. He went on to explain the involvement of the Arab Canadian population in the auto sector on both sides of the border. He recounted the geographical diaspora and the religious diversity of Arab Canadians, all of which, of course, is true.
I would like to thank the member for Scarborough Centre, who represents a large and proud Arab community. She spoke about trades, professions, restaurants, butchers and grocers, and highlighted the contributions of Syrian refugees, who are so incredibly proud to have reached our shores and become Canadians.
I would like to thank my colleague, the MP for Saskatoon West, who spoke honestly and earnestly about the personalities and warmth of Arab Canadians in his own constituency and his province. Most importantly, he debunked misperceptions about Arab Canadians, saying the bill can “shine a light on the dark spaces”. That is an important quote because the Arab Canadian community is dealing with racism and anti-Arab sentiments and we will have to wrestle this to the ground together. He spoke about the historical truths, the learning, the hospitals and the inventions, like the clock, all of which were devised by Arab human beings.
I would like to thank my colleague, the deputy House leader, for highlighting the breadth of contributions in every sector in Winnipeg and Manitoba. He talked about more educational opportunities to break down barriers and foster understanding at a time when we really need it in this country. We need to come together because, as my mother used to say to her 10 children, this country is wealthy beyond belief. My mother, who grew up in abject poverty, was never talking about money. She was talking about culture, dance types, food, language, music, literature, dress, traditions, depth and richness. All of this is reflected in the bill.
We are trying to recognize this wealth in the Arab Canadian community, celebrate all of it in the Arab Canadian community, nurture the talent and passion of Arab Canadians and, finally, deploy Arab Canadians on behalf of this country and the rest of the world as we help to continue to build the finest, most inclusive, most accepting and most celebrating culture and country in the world. It is high time to move beyond the notion of tolerating anyone. It is now entirely a question of celebrating each other, and that is what the bill is trying to do.
I am very proud to have the support of 35 Canadian community groups and organizations. I am very hopeful that with the support of all members of the House, we will be able to achieve this on behalf of our Arab Canadian neighbours.
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- May/17/22 6:31:26 p.m.
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It being 6:31 p.m., the time provided for debate has expired.
The question is on the motion.
If a member of a recognized party present in the House wishes to request a recorded division or that the motion be adopted on division, I would invite them to rise and indicate it to the Chair.
The hon. member for Barrie—Innisfil.
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- May/17/22 6:32:07 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I request a recorded division.
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Pursuant to order made on Thursday, November 25, 2021, the division stands deferred until Wednesday, May 18, at the expiry of the time provided for Oral Questions.
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moved:
That, in relation to Bill C-14, An Act to amend the Constitution Act, 1867 (electoral representation), not more than one further sitting day shall be allotted to the consideration at second reading stage of the Bill; and
That, 15 minutes before the expiry of the time provided for Government Orders on the day allotted to the consideration at second reading stage of the said Bill, any proceedings before the House shall be interrupted, if required for the purpose of this Order, and, in turn, every question necessary for the disposal of the said stage of the Bill shall be put forthwith and successively, without further debate or amendment.
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I have the honour to inform the House that a message has been received from the Senate informing this House that the Senate has passed the following bill, to which the concurrence of the House is desired: Bill S-245, an act to amend the Citizenship Act (granting citizenship to certain Canadians).
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- May/17/22 6:35:35 p.m.
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Pursuant to Standing Order 67(1), there will now be a 30-minute question period. I invite hon. members who wish to ask questions to rise in their places or use the “raise hand” function so the Chair has some idea of the number of members who wish to participate in this question period.
The hon. member for Barrie—Innisfil.
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Madam Speaker, obviously I rise disappointed in the government's action. It is only a small thing like amending the Constitution, so why would we have fulsome debate on that and allow members to speak? I think at this point we have only had 10 speakers speak to the bill, but I have no doubt that we will hear indignation from the government House leader and, of course, his partner in the NDP, and about obstruction. We will hear that the Conservatives are obstructing the House. We are actually fulfilling our constitutional obligation of holding the government to account, and for that we are not going to apologize.
Motion No. 11 allowed for the government to extend hours not just to have fulsome debate, but to make sure issues that are important to Her Majesty's loyal opposition, and indeed other opposition parties, are debated in the House. Spare me if I cry crocodile tears for what the government is about to talk about and certainly what its partners in the NDP will be talking about. This is all about democracy in decline. I was very pleased to hear the Minister of Infrastructure agree with that fact.
The other thing I want to point out is that as these extended hours are happening, committees get cancelled, which we saw tonight with regard to the Emergencies Act committee. The whitewashing and the undermining of getting to the bottom of this continue to happen with the cancellation of these committees, and certainly the NDP is a party to it.
We are not going to be lapdogs like the NDP is to the government. We are going to continue to push. We are going to continue to make sure that we hold the government to account and make sure that we are not just an audience, as the Prime Minister and certainly the government House leader would like us to be. We are going to be an effective and loyal opposition to Her Majesty.
That is all I have to say. Here comes the indignation. It is going to be good. Hang on to your seat, Madam Speaker. Go ahead.
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Madam Speaker, I think members will find it ironic that we are getting lectures on indignation in that Oscar-winning performance on the other side of the aisle. We should never underestimate our Conservative friends' ability to manufacture outrage and indignation, and talk about loyal opposition and democracy.
We think that Bill C-14, which is the subject of the discussion for the next 25 minutes and not the fabricated outrage of my friend on the other side of the aisle, is about ensuring that every province, including the Speaker's province of Quebec, maintains the electoral representation and the number of seats it had in the House of Commons in 2021. In other words, no province should see a reduction in its representation in the House of Commons.
I was very encouraged, when this bill was first debated, that the Conservative Party showed support for this legislation. Members spoke in favour of the bill as an important gesture recognizing the unique position that the province of Quebec occupies in the Canadian federation, and recognizing that every province should be able to benefit from a grandfather clause, similar to what former prime minister Brian Mulroney did in 1985. We are suggesting in this legislation that the House of Commons and the Senate approve a similar amendment that would allow us to have a 2021 grandfather clause.
That is the subject of this conversation. The Conservatives say they want to support the bill, but they do everything they can to vandalize the legislative process and make sure that Parliament cannot actually proceed to a vote. What we are saying tonight is that it is time for members to stand in their places and vote on this legislation, and we are very confident that the Conservatives, who manufactured this outrage, will in the end stand up and vote for this process. We are making this possible for them tonight.
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Madam Speaker, I think that the substance of Bill C-14 is worthy of further debate. It is not simply a matter of the number of seats; however, I am not going to debate Bill C-14 here. I think the debate deserves to continue in a truly democratic fashion.
I have a question about the gag orders that are being used week after week. Normally a gag order would be something out of the ordinary in this form of government, but we are seeing them come up repeatedly. Is this by any chance related to Motion No. 11, which we had shoved down our throats?
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Madam Speaker, I agree with my colleague from Thérèse-De Blainville that this bill deserves to be debated. That is precisely what we tried to do last night. However, we saw the official opposition, the Conservatives, move bogus motions to force 30‑minute bells and votes to ensure that there would be no debate, even though they said they wanted to have one.
The best way to continue to debate is to ensure that there are no endless procedural games that prevent Parliament from discussing and debating this important issue, as my colleague from Thérèse-De Blainville indicated.
We look forward to seeing the debate continue, for example at the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs or even when Bill C‑14 comes back, I hope, to the House of Commons at report stage and third reading. We will then have many opportunities to hear our colleagues debate this bill.
I think that our colleague from Thérèse-De Blainville understands full well that this has absolutely nothing to do with Motion No. 11; rather, it is a way to ensure that the provinces in our federation, including her province of Quebec, keep their number of seats. I know that the Bloc Québécois is in favour of maintaining the 78 seats for the Province of Quebec. That is what we are trying to do, in due course.
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Madam Speaker, I think never has the House leader of the official opposition spoken truer words than when, in referring to the Conservative Party, he talked about the decline of the democracy.
We have now seen over the past six months, ever since we passed unanimously the ban on conversion therapy and there was a revolt in the Conservative backbench, that Conservatives have blocked every single piece of legislation. In Bill C-9, teachers and farmers were looking for supports and Conservatives refused to let it through. They are now blocking Bill C-14.
The reality is as we saw it last night. The House leader of the official opposition referred to vigorous debate. What Conservatives wanted us to debate, at a cost of tens of thousands of dollars last night, for hour after hour, was which Conservative MP would speak. We had vote—
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- May/17/22 6:43:23 p.m.
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I apologize for interrupting, but can we stop with the imitation of animals in the House please?
The hon. member for New Westminster—Burnaby.
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Madam Speaker, this is the overall decline of Conservative morals and scruples. The Conservatives were willing to have the entire Parliament of Canada subject to a debate within the Conservative Party on which Conservative MP should speak. This was a complete, colossal waste of the time of the House of Commons. Every single Conservative MP participated in what was a travesty. Instead of debating legislation, we were debating which member, which faction, in the Conservative Party would actually speak, and they held us up for hours on that absolutely irresponsible evening.
My question to my colleague is simply this: What has happened to the Conservative Party? Why do the members show such complete disrespect for the legislative process? Why do they waste taxpayers' money hour after hour with these procedural, childish games of having all members of Parliament decide which Conservative MP should speak?
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Madam Speaker, I want to thank our colleague for New Westminster—Burnaby for his comments and his question.
As colleagues know, the member for New Westminster—Burnaby is a senior member of the House. He has served the Province of British Columbia and the citizens of New Westminster—Burnaby well for a long time. I had the privilege to work with him when I was an opposition House leader, and when we sat on the Board of Internal Economy and other bodies of the House. We have worked well together.
I think that our colleague for New Westminster—Burnaby identifies a fundamental challenge. When members of the Conservative Party say that they oppose, for example, this necessary measure to bring this legislation to a vote, of course they will oppose it, but at the same time they are not interested in participating constructively in debating the legislation. Our colleague for New Westminster—Burnaby identified what I think was a shambolic and appalling performance last night when, with 30-minute bells and vote after vote, the House of Commons was pronouncing on which Conservative member would make a speech. It was all designed to ensure that legislation, which the Conservatives will ultimately support, does not actually come to a vote.
If we are looking for a reason to point to dysfunction in the House of Commons, we can think about this: The official opposition supports a particular piece of legislation, but is desperately trying to make sure that it actually does not come to a vote so that it might be adopted. The legislation would preserve, for example, the seat allocation in the province of Quebec and other provinces. However, at the same time, the Conservatives insist on having vote after vote to decide which Conservative will make a speech, which is designed to delay the legislation coming to a vote. It is unfortunate that it has come to this.
I think that the government House leader has taken his responsibility seriously, and we hope that parliamentarians in the Senate and in the House of Commons can discuss this legislation, consider it in committee, and debate it at report stage and third reading. We think it is important as well to allow the electoral boundaries commissions, which have been set up under law and are operating right now, to have clarity in terms of what will be the number of seats for provinces, which is why it is somewhat urgent that Parliament have a chance to pronounce itself on this legislation.
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Madam Speaker, I am flabbergasted by the indignation of the Liberal side on this debate. The member speaks about dysfunction in the House. It is their House, as government, to manage, and it is obvious that they are so dysfunctional in managing the House that they cannot get legislation through.
Last night, the Liberals adjourned the House two and a half hours early, after cancelling committees so that we could have interpretation services available and other House services that were required. They sent those people home early and sent the whole House home two and a half hours early after they had scheduled it to sit until midnight last night.
We have to really question what is behind this determination to serve time allocation notice on the bill before us. What is coming behind it? We have seen previous legislation, such as Bill C-10 now Bill C-11, which will be coming through for debate. Is this an effort to get things out of the way so that they can push that forward through time allocation as well?
I hear NDP members rail against the procedural tools that we have to hold this government accountable. For years, in Parliament after Parliament, they railed against time allocation votes. Here they are, after this marriage of the NDP-Liberal government, now joining in with the Liberals in supporting time allocation votes. I question what really is behind all of this rush to get legislation through and to silence the opposition that we are here to provide, having been elected by the people that we represent.
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Madam Speaker, far from wanting to silence the official opposition, we are actually trying to help the members have an opportunity to vote on this legislation. We are trying to help them out of the dead end they found themselves in last evening, as our friend for New Westminster—Burnaby pointed out, where they were using a series of absolutely ridiculous measures to ensure that the House was voting on which Conservative member would repeat a speech that was generated the previous time this legislation was brought before the House.
Our Conservative colleague asked what is behind this. I will be very clear on what is behind this. This is about allowing the House of Commons to pronounce itself on Bill C-14, which we think will enjoy broad support in the House, and then allowing the bill to proceed to committee, where our colleagues in committee can hear from witnesses, can debate the legislation and can make amendments if they decide it is necessary. The bill can come back to the House of Commons in the normal legislative process with which we are extremely familiar. Then, finally, our friends in the other place will have an opportunity to study the legislation as well.
The urgency, as I said, is constitutional and under legislation. Every 10 years, after a census, there is a redistribution process that takes place in every province, allowing an independent commission chaired by a justice or a judge from that province, appointed by the chief justice of the province, to look at the question of electoral boundaries and to adjust electoral boundaries for movements in population and for increases in population in some provinces. In this case, if this bill is adopted, we will provide a floor for the number of seats every province will have in this House of Commons. It is particularly important to our friends from the province of Quebec who, under the formula, would have stood to be diminished by one seat, losing one seat in the House of Commons. We think it is important for Canadians and for Quebeckers to know that the representation in 2021 will be the representation used by these commissions in determining the appropriate electoral boundaries. In your great province of Quebec, Madam Speaker, that would be 78 seats.
We wish the Conservative Party would support us in passing this so the commission could do its important work.
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Madam Speaker, what is disappointing this evening is the sad spectacle put on by the Liberals and the Conservatives.
The Bloc Québécois will always oppose muzzling opposition parties and taking away their powers. Yesterday, the delay tactics had consequences not just for the House, but for committees as well. A committee on medical assistance in dying was scheduled to discuss two fundamental matters yesterday: the protection of people with disabilities and the issue of mental illness as the sole underlying condition for medical assistance in dying. Witnesses were waiting. We upended all that and had to make people wait, when this committee does not meet very often as it is.
At present, a minister is telling us that what the Conservatives did was appalling. The Liberals themselves, when they were in opposition, used the same tactic and will continue to use it. Neither party is all that credible. At some point, common sense must prevail, and we must act according to our cherished principles of the exercise of parliamentary democracy.
What we are hearing from the minister and from the official opposition will do nothing to convince the people watching that this place is not a circus. Then, they act surprised that people are cynical about the work that we do here in the House. The Bloc Québécois feels that Bill C‑14 offers barely half of what we were asking for. That is another story, but we need to stop acting like this is the place for theatrics.
I would like to see more dignified behaviour here. Instead of telling the Conservatives that what they are saying is appalling, it would be better to tell them that it is more important we keep working. There is no problem with working until midnight. However, members' ability to do so should not be taken away.
We must denounce what the Conservatives did because, if we have a repeat of yesterday's nonsense, the people watching us will wonder what the heck is going on. However, this pretext is being used here to muzzle us. I would like to call for more respect for parliamentary democracy. Otherwise, democracy will rise from the streets.
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Madam Speaker, I disagree with our colleague from Montcalm when he says that democracy happens in the streets. I do not share his pessimism.
However, I appreciate the fact that he mentioned what happened last night. The repeated calls for votes showed a lack of respect for our colleagues who sit on House of Commons committees. I am thinking in particular of the Special Joint Committee on Physician-Assisted Dying, which is very important. I am thinking in particular of the witnesses, people who often travel quite a distance to discuss a sensitive, difficult and very important subject. The study of this issue has already been postponed for some time.
We believe it is important to allow this committee to do its important work. It is in the interest of all Canadians that the issues raised by my friend from Montcalm be studied, that they be discussed and that we hear from witnesses with different perspectives and often professional experience in the field. We are well aware of what happens when the Conservatives organize a series of ridiculous repeated votes, like they did last night.
I may not agree with my friend from Montcalm on the second point. The Liberal Party has been in opposition too. We too have sat on the other side of the House, where our Bloc friends are now seated. When we were in opposition, we never sought to sabotage the legislative process with a series of procedural motions to deprive MPs of the opportunity to speak.
Frankly, I think it is time for the House of Commons to vote on Bill C‑14 and study it in committee. I am eager to work with our colleagues of all stripes to get this important bill passed as soon as possible.
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