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Jun/23/22 12:59:23 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, my colleague wants to know whether it is reasonable to make this decision today. How would waiting until September to make this decision change any of his rhetoric? It would not change a thing. On the contrary, let us wait and see whether COVID‑19 continues. If it does, we could extend hybrid Parliament for another year. However, if we see that the pandemic is fading away, we could extend the hybrid mode for just six months. We will have some decisions to make, but we have all summer to gather the necessary information to make the best possible decision in September.

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Mr. Gabriel Ste-Marie (Joliette, BQ)

Jun/23/22 1:00:02 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, today, June 23, and tomorrow, Quebeckers will gather to celebrate. I invite everyone to proudly celebrate our national holiday. The large celebrations in Quebec City and Montreal will be held tonight. In my riding, we will be celebrating this evening in Joliette, Saint-Charles-Borromée, Notre-Dame-des-Prairies, Rawdon, Crabtree, Saint-Michel-des-Saints and Sainte-Marcelline. After two years of the pandemic, this national holiday is a very good occasion to get back to proudly celebrating together our love for Quebec and for our national language. The 188th celebration will bring people together and inspire them. This year's theme is “One Language, a Thousand Accents”, which refers to the immense richness that our beautiful language contributes to Quebec culture and identity. Quebec society is vibrant, innovative and open to the future. We want our nation to develop in French. In that regard, I want to quote Michel Tremblay from today's edition of the Journal de Montréal: I looked for a new argument to warn against the danger to the French language in Quebec. It seemed to me that everything had already been said and repeated. Then I remembered the last verses of Émile Nelligan's Vaisseau d’or: What has my heart become, thus set adrift at sea? Alas, that ship has sunk in an abyss of dreams! We must not let the French language sink in an abyss of dreams; we must make it flourish, we must make it prevail. I would also like to take a moment to quote Gilles Vigneault, who was also published in the Journal de Montréal: Language is like a country, both nomadic and sedentary! Words, like its inhabitants, travel around the world. If you recognize them, if these are your words, They are your passport; this is your country! Everyone's country is a strange thing That sleeps through the long winter, like a rose in the garden, only to wake up in the spring, after I'd nearly forgotten about it Creating a garden that is both numerous and singular It is, simultaneously: house, garden, ship, The ocean, the fountain and the tree and the paper. No sooner had these words come off the pen Than I heard the wind. A tacking sail Is inviting me to prepare for a long journey... What do words offer to the entire planet, In space and time, where borders don't matter... Should we leave at night or at daybreak? The smallest window becomes a mirror in the dead of night And reflects back to me the words I need to know myself. At dawn...we have to believe someone is waiting for us, somewhere. Lutetia, Athens, Rome...are they part of my history? The word LANGUAGE, immense and deep territory, will tell me where I come from, where I'm going...so I'm off! Before I quoted those two giants, a few moments ago I said “we will be celebrating” in my riding. However, I probably cannot include myself in that “we”, because we here in the House are likely to be sitting late again tonight. The thing is, in Quebec, local, national and federal elected representatives usually attend the celebrations. It is a perfect opportunity to meet the people we represent. I will not be able to do that this year. We will not be able to do it after two years of a pandemic. We asked the government to wrap things up earlier this afternoon by adopting the Friday schedule, but it refused. The Leader of the Government had zero interest in accommodating our request. Why? Because we have to debate this motion. The government wants to extend the hybrid Parliament by a year. It seems to think this is a pressing issue that we cannot just discuss when we come back at the end of the summer. This government and its leader stubbornly opted to prevent Quebec members from celebrating our national holiday with our constituents. That speaks volumes about the Liberals' respect for Quebec. That is how Canada recognizes the Quebec nation. We will remember this. Throughout the spring, the government has been ramping up the number of gag orders to get bills passed quickly. The House did not have to sit late tonight. However, the government and its leader do not care about my nation. I think it is best to describe this government with bird names, which is about all it deserves: mockingbird, cuckoo, woodcock, dodo, cuckold, chicken, tufted tit-tyrant, little bustard, horned screamer, smew, turkey and vulture. I will stop there, even though it is deserving of more. Their insensitivity is not unrelated to the fact that this session has been marked by a clash of values between the federal government and Quebec, as well as by the ineptitude of a Liberal party that is struggling to keep the government functioning at the most basic level. The Prime Minister has made it official: He intends to attack Quebec's Bill 21 on state secularism, as well as Quebec's Bill 96 on the protection of French. He introduced a bill on official languages that does not protect French in Quebec but instead protects the right to anglicize federal workplaces. He condoned reducing the political weight of the Quebec nation in the Parliament of Canada. This government embodies the clash between the values of Canada and Quebec on every issue. We in the Bloc Québécois will continue our work, which is now more essential than ever, to defend and promote Quebec's interests. This session made it clear just how incompetent the federal government is. If governing means looking ahead, the passport crisis paints a picture of a worn-out government caucus that is struggling to provide even basic services to Quebeckers. The number of Liberal ministers who have been in the hot seat at the end of this session because of embarrassing mistakes is worrisome. This government is incapable of being proactive. It would rather make grand gestures in front of the camera than ensure the sound day-to day management of the country's affairs. What is more, the Liberals seem to have knowingly lied to Quebeckers and Canadians about the greenhouse gas reduction targets and invoking the Emergencies Act at the request of police. We asked for more powers for Quebec in the area of immigration from an unwilling government. We noted the resistance of federal parties to state secularism when we proposed abolishing the prayer in the House. We raised the debate about ideological criteria being imposed on funding for scientific research, which the government refused to consider. The Bloc Québécois voiced the concerns of Quebeckers on gun violence, in particular by introducing Bill C‑279 to create a list of criminal organizations when faced with a federal government that has a lax approach to gun trafficking and organized crime. We also advocated for the environment in a Canadian Parliament that, in the midst of the climate crisis, supports the Bay du Nord oil project. We also continued to fight for increased funding for health care and the abolition of two classes of seniors by increasing old age security for people aged 65 and over. If the Liberals wanted to convince Quebeckers that they have everything to gain by looking after all their public matters themselves, they would not go about it any other way. They used the artificial majority they gained with the NDP's support to oppose Quebec. Quebeckers have taken note. We will remember.

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Ms. Lindsay Mathyssen (London—Fanshawe, NDP)

Jun/23/22 1:07:37 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the hon. member talked about events in his riding that he will not be able to attend now because the House is sitting. However, I would argue that this is the beauty of a hybrid Parliament, that members would be able to attend and also do their job here in the House. I was impacted by that, as June 6 was the first anniversary of the death of the Afzaal family in London, Ontario. I was able to go and be with my community, mourn with my community and commemorate this incredible family, yet I was also able to give a statement in the House to commemorate them via hybrid Parliament. Maybe the member could talk about the actual realities and the incredible opportunities that this provides us as members of Parliament to be able to do both jobs, in our communities and in the House of Commons.

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Mr. Gabriel Ste-Marie

Jun/23/22 1:08:38 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for her remarks, but I do not agree with her assertion. The Bloc Québécois believes the hybrid Parliament is for when people have COVID‑19 or are in contact with people who have it and could be contagious. We can use the hybrid model until the pandemic is over. We see no urgent need to adopt this motion today, June 23, when everyone in Quebec is celebrating our nation. When there are important events to celebrate in our ridings, the hybrid model certainly enables us to be there, and my heart goes out to my colleague regarding the events she mentioned. However, what we are talking about right now is every single MP from Quebec, who should all be in their ridings. It is important to distinguish between rules and practices. The rule says we must sit, but common practice is to adjourn early or not sit at all. The Leader of the Government has no desire at all to accommodate the Quebec nation. We will remember that next time he asks us to be accommodating so the Liberals can adjourn early for the Liberal Party convention, as is the practice. We will remember that the Liberals are no more important than the Quebec nation.

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Mr. Mark Gerretsen (Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons (Senate), Lib.)

Jun/23/22 1:09:51 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I want to congratulate the member for London—Fanshawe for pointing out the rich hypocrisy with respect to the argument from the Bloc. Yes, those members could be in their ridings and, using hybrid Parliament right now, could still participate. More importantly, if this member and his colleagues would just stop speaking, I am sure that we would see a vote on this, and we would be done. I am not aware of any other government business, so he could be home in time to participate in the festivities that he has planned. The only people who are really talking about this right now are the Conservatives and the Bloc. In the interest of allowing us to get to a vote, would the member be willing to stop talking so that we can do that?

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Mr. Gabriel Ste-Marie

Jun/23/22 1:10:39 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, he says that while standing up, taking the time to ask a question and prolonging the debate. Then he calls us hypocrites. It is unbelievable. That is it, cut the debate short. There is nothing else to say.

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Mr. Gérard Deltell (Louis-Saint-Laurent, CPC)

Jun/23/22 1:11:04 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I am completely flabbergasted that the government member does not want to have a debate. That is the antithesis of what we are supposed to do here. He must have misspoken, and I am certain he will stand up, apologize and withdraw his words. I liked the member for Joliette's comments, as always, but not all of them. I found his Captain Haddock approach of attacking people by calling them bird names a bit strange. I have nothing against birds, but I am not sure why he was using bird names for people who, in my opinion, do not deserve that much respect. As a Quebecker, as someone who has to celebrate Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day, how does it feel to be here in the House of Commons today?

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Mr. Gabriel Ste-Marie

Jun/23/22 1:11:49 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, yes, we would have preferred to be in our ridings to celebrate our national holiday, but as elected representatives, obviously we have a duty to be here in Parliament to debate. We would have preferred that this debate on extending the hybrid model take place at another time. There was no need to rush this motion through. We could have had this debate in the fall, especially since the work was going smoothly. The less debate there is in the House, the better off the government is, because it is not held to account. However, that is not why we are here. As for the bird names, they are often considered insults in French.

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Mr. Jean-Denis Garon (Mirabel, BQ)

Jun/23/22 1:12:42 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the party of the hon. member for Kingston and the Islands throws a motion in our face on Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day, while also saying that if the debate goes on too long, it will be our own fault because we talk too much. I would like to know whether the member for Joliette would prefer that the member for Kingston and the Islands speak a little less once in a while.

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Mr. Gabriel Ste-Marie

Jun/23/22 1:13:01 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague, but I do not share his opinion. I think that, despite his verve and bombastic style, the member for Kingston and the Islands has a lot to offer to this House. We are in favour of having debates in the House, but perhaps not on the eve of Quebec's national holiday, when everyone in our ridings is celebrating.

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The Deputy Speaker

Jun/23/22 1:13:21 p.m.
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Since no one else wants to speak, I want to take this opportunity to wish everyone a happy Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day. Have a great summer to members who may not be here later on. Is the House ready for the question? Some hon. members: Question. The Deputy Speaker: 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.

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Mr. Gérard Deltell

Jun/23/22 1:14:21 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I request a recorded division.

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The Deputy Speaker

Jun/23/22 1:14:27 p.m.
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Call in the members.

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Call

The Speaker

Jun/23/22 1:59:53 p.m.
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I declare the motion carried.

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Mr. Chandra Arya (Nepean, Lib.)

Jun/23/22 2:00:10 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, 37 years ago day, Air India Flight 182, operating on the Montreal-London-Delhi-Mumbai route, was blown up mid-air from a bomb planted by Canadian extremists. It killed all 329 passengers and crew members, including 268 Canadian citizens. The bombing of this Air India flight is the largest mass killing in Canadian history. It was the deadliest act of aviation terrorism in the world until 9/11. Canada is a pluralistic country, and we honour the fallen. In this National Day of Remembrance for Victims of Terrorism, my sympathies are with the families of the victims, who still experience pain.

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Hon. Judy A. Sgro (Humber River—Black Creek, Lib.)

Jun/23/22 2:01:29 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, today I want to acknowledge the tremendous work of representative Winston Wen-yi Chen, the tenth representative of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Canada since it was established in 1992. He is a friend of many parliamentarians. Representative Chen assumed his duties in Ottawa four years ago, and it has been a fruitful partnership ever since for both Canada and Taiwan. Representative Chen is now assuming a new post, and I would like to thank him for his friendship and his dedicated work in nourishing and promoting Taiwan-Canada relations. Representative Chen has been serving in various roles in Canada for over 10 years. He helped launch the exploratory discussions on the Canada-Taiwan foreign investment promotion and protection arrangements. He also facilitated timely and generous donations of masks and gowns from Taiwan to Canada in response to the pandemic. These are just a few highlights. I know that for representative Chen, Canada has become more than a job. It has also become his family. He was married in Canada, and his children were born here. He fell in love with both our land and country. I thank representative Chen on behalf of all of us, as part of the friendship group, and wish him the best of success and many more years of service to come.

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Hon. Andrew Scheer (Regina—Qu'Appelle, CPC)

Jun/23/22 2:02:54 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I too would like to pay tribute to trade representative Winston Chen from the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Canada. He is leaving his post after four years. We will all miss his dedication, thoughtful ideas and sense of humour. Mr. Chen worked hard to strengthen the already robust ties between Canada and Taiwan. In addition to over $6 billion in bilateral trade every year, Taiwan is a democratic country that shares many of the same values and goals on the world stage. In an increasingly unstable world, developing closer ties with like-minded peoples is all the more important. Mr. Chen really came through for Canada during the pandemic when he and his team helped with the donation to Canada of over 500,000 masks from Taiwan to Canada. His dedication to Taiwan’s participation on an international level was impressive, as well his work on establishing more resilient supply chains. These will serve both our countries, as well as many others, in the years to come. We thank Mr. Chen for his hard work improving the relations between Canada and Taiwan, and we wish him all the best in his future career. Zhù ni wèilái hao yùn.

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

Jun/23/22 2:04:04 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I want to acknowledge and congratulate all of my young constituents in Avignon—La Mitis—Matane—Matapédia on the end of their school year. On the eve of Quebec's national holiday, thousands of students are filing out of school for a well-earned vacation. Their heads are filled with new ideas, and their hearts are filled with magnificent plans. High school graduates can finally celebrate together at prom to mark the end of this important chapter of their lives and the beginning of something even better. I encourage these dear friends to savour every moment. Their worlds are opening up, and opportunities abound. I want them to have new experiences, live life, show off their new knowledge, be proud of who they are and, most importantly, of where they come from. Our beautiful region is bursting with all kinds of talent. I want them to keep doing us proud, as I know they can. I wish them a happy national holiday and a great summer vacation.

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Mr. Sameer Zuberi (Pierrefonds—Dollard, Lib.)

Jun/23/22 2:05:05 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to an important leader and friend who will soon be leaving our community. Rabbi Mark Fishman has served as Beth Tikvah's rabbi since 2013. Our synagogue in Dollard is home to one of the most vibrant Jewish communities in Canada, a community I am honoured to serve. Whether he was organizing family fun programs, such as the Purim carnival, bringing the synagogue's hanukkiah to the homes of the celebrating, delivering sermons and programs online during COVID, or recently travelling to Poland to assist Jewish refugees fleeing Ukraine, Rabbi Fishman's contributions and legacy are numerous. I would like to thank the rabbi for his service to the West Island Jewish community and society at large. Our community is losing a great leader. I am looking forward to working with his successor, but I will miss our thoughtful conversations. I thank him for his years of service, and I really wish Mark and his family the very best.

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Hon. Rob Moore (Fundy Royal, CPC)

Jun/23/22 2:06:04 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, there is cause for celebration in my riding of Fundy Royal this week as our communities come together to congratulate the class of 2022. I want to extend my sincerest congratulations to all of the graduates as they celebrate this milestone with their friends and family. They can proudly reflect on the last few years they have spent learning lessons both within and outside of the classroom. These lessons have formed a strong foundation for them to now build their futures upon. From here, they will take what they have learned and go off to make their mark on our communities, our province, our country and indeed the world. I look forward to seeing their many great accomplishments. I send my congratulations once again to the class of 2022.

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