44th Parl. 1st Sess.
March 22, 2023 01:00PM
- Mar/22/23 5:30:31 p.m.
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Order. I do believe we are getting a little off topic here.
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- Mar/22/23 5:30:35 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, on a point of order, this is all very erudite, but a member on the Conservative backbench was, I believe, threatening the member from Kingston with his phone. I do not think one can threaten people with their phone, but he was waving it around, at least as a prop or a possible weapon.
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- Mar/22/23 5:30:57 p.m.
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I do not really think people were trying to read it. It is really hard to read at that kind of distance.
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- Mar/22/23 5:31:01 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, on a point of order, nobody was threatening anybody with a phone. The member happened to have it in his hand. That is ridiculous. It is beneath the House for someone to suggest that.
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- Mar/22/23 5:31:13 p.m.
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There we go. Everybody take a breath. Order.
The hon. parliamentary secretary.
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- Mar/22/23 5:31:29 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the member for Timmins—James Bay's pointing that out, but I can assure him that, despite the big game that they talk, there is no Conservative in here who actually threatens me, not successfully anyway.
What I was getting at was that the member for Red Deer—Lacombe actually said that a member of Parliament is an agent of Beijing. He said that in a video, and now they want to laugh and to talk about who is playing politics. Who actually does that? I would like to hear one Conservative who gets up to ask me a question actually address that. I have asked the member for St. Albert—Edmonton, and I have asked multiple times in committee. Nobody will actually address it. The members took the member for Red Deer—Lacombe off the committee, and they did not let him continue to go to the committee, as a result of what he said. That is actually what happened.
Let us get back to this concurrence motion. It is very important that we study this. We have to be careful about the venue in which we do it, and that is the only difference that I have from the NDP on this particular concurrence motion.
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- Mar/22/23 5:32:41 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, our hon. colleague is a good soldier. He goes on and on and quotes lots of things. I would like to quote something from the media that is breaking news, and perhaps he would like to check his phone. The breaking news right now is that a “Liberal MP...secretly advised Chinese diplomat in 2021 to delay freeing Two Michaels”. I would like to ask my hon. colleague for a comment on that.
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- Mar/22/23 5:33:09 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I have been speaking for the last 15 minutes, not including interruptions, and I am unaware of the breaking news that this member is referencing. I look forward to looking into it.
We see, once again, the exact same rhetoric that comes from Conservatives. We see the exact same thing the member for Red Deer—Lacombe was trying to do, when he was walking through an airport and was looking like the hero on his way back to Ottawa saying, “I'm on my way to Ottawa to fight for you and deal with the agents of Beijing.” Come on, that is not what this place is supposed to be about. The rhetoric that comes from Conservatives, including that last question, is intentionally trying to mislead Canadians, and I find it extremely unfortunate.
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- Mar/22/23 5:33:57 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I did not understand the beginning of my colleague's speech, but I understood the end.
This is not the first time that the Liberals and Conservatives accuse each other of partisanship, but I can tell my colleague that, in the Special Committee on the Canada–People's Republic of China Relationship this week, the Liberal members treated some witnesses appallingly.
We were talking about Chinese police stations. Experts came to talk to us about that. There was also Safeguard Defenders, whose studies indicate that there are Chinese police stations in 100 countries around the world. It is believed that there are 233,000 people around the world who have been deported, questioned and brought back to China because of China's interference in other countries' affairs. This NGO has documented evidence. The Liberal members cast doubt on all of that.
Why would Canada, which is average in almost every area, suddenly be better at fighting interference from a world power like China? It is absolutely unacceptable to think that.
Partisanship always comes from both sides, and always from the same place.
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- Mar/22/23 5:35:07 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, we certainly did not dismiss the issue. As a matter of fact, the minister, on a number of occasions, said that he was dealing with it. I find it very interesting that the Bloc today is suddenly coming to the defence of the Conservatives. It is like blue and blue lite. Why do they not just get together?
I realize Conservatives do not believe in climate change. They are nowhere near as progressive as Bloc members are on climate change, but maybe if the Bloc got together with the Conservatives it could impart some of that wisdom, as it relates to climate change, to the Conservatives. I think they would actually make a great party if they got together.
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- Mar/22/23 5:35:44 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, there are going to be a lot of questions regarding the mandate of this special rapporteur nobody asked for. When it comes to a public inquiry, we only need to look at what happened after the Emergencies Act. When the Liberal government refused to co-operate with the parliamentary committee, it took the Rouleau commission to get the answers Canadians deserved.
We know this is a very serious issue. Does the hon. member agree that, should the special rapporteur come back and finally call for a public inquiry, he would finally allow that to happen, at that point at least, rather than continue the delays, the filibusters, and all the theatre and shenanigans that the hon. member is used to?
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- Mar/22/23 5:36:30 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I really wish he had listened to my speech, because not only did I say I would accept it, but the Prime Minister also said he would accept it, when he announced this. We have already made it very clear that we will accept any recommendation that comes back from the expert who is looking into this on behalf of Canadians, a former governor general. We will implement what those recommendations are, including if it is a public inquiry.
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- Mar/22/23 5:37:13 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I sat in PROC with the hon. member during this, and time and time again, we saw the Conservatives ignore the fact that it was actually under our government, in 2019, that NSICOP first tabled the report on foreign interference. Does the member agree that the Conservatives were asleep at the wheel and they are only waking up to this issue now?
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- Mar/22/23 5:37:40 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, when the Conservatives were in government, they did absolutely nothing, and we have done a number of things since then. We brought in NSICOP. We brought in a special panel that oversees elections. We brought in Bill C-76, which tightens up foreign interference and which they voted against.
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- Mar/22/23 5:38:03 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I will continue on from where my colleague and friend just left off.
I think it is important for us to recognize that from the government's perspective and, I would like to think, that of parliamentarians in general, there should be zero tolerance for international foreign interference in our elections. Ultimately, I would suggest this should be done in an apolitical fashion.
The Conservatives, for a wide variety of reasons, fundraising being one of them, have chosen to politicize this issue. It is indeed very unfortunate, because they do a disservice to an issue that is very serious.
Canadians are looking for responsible leadership. We see what the Prime Minister and the government have been able to accomplish over the last number of years in dealing with the issue, and we see a huge vacuum of leadership—
Some hon. members: Oh, oh!
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- Mar/22/23 5:39:10 p.m.
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I want to remind hon. members that they do not have the floor and it is not their option to speak at this point.
The hon. parliamentary secretary.
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- Mar/22/23 5:39:17 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, what we have witnessed is a huge vacuum of leadership coming from the Conservative Party of Canada.
Mr. Todd Doherty: As soon as you guys got into Parliament.
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- Mar/22/23 5:39:26 p.m.
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I just mentioned to members, one of whom is sitting right beside me and I am sure heard me properly, that there is no option to speak when somebody else has the floor.
The hon. parliamentary secretary.
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- Mar/22/23 5:39:39 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I am trying to make a fairly simple point here. If we take a look at actions on this issue, we see it is not new. Not only is it not new, but it affects many countries, not just Canada. We can talk about the U.S. We can talk about some countries over in Europe. There are other democracies where we have witnessed and seen international foreign interference in elections. That has been happening for years now.
In fact, when Stephen Harper was the Prime Minister, we all know that a report went to him at that time. Ironically, the minister who was responsible for democratic reform is the current leader of the Conservative Party. It is safe to say that while he was the minister of democratic reform under Stephen Harper, they did absolutely nothing when they were made aware of the issue.
We can fast-forward to the 2015 election, when there was a change in government. We saw a number of changes by the Prime Minister and parliamentarians back in 2015 that made substantive changes in a wide variety of ways. There were legislative changes that, for example, saw Canada complying with what our other Five Eyes countries were doing by implementing a parliamentary committee of the House, which also has participation from the Senate, with the security clearance to investigate this issue in every possible and imaginable way.
As we have seen, our independent agencies, like Elections Canada and CSIS, and the top security adviser to the Prime Minister have given opinions in regard to the issue of the 2019 and 2021 elections. The conclusion has been very clear: Any interference has not affected the outcome of either one of those elections. The Conservative Party is aware of that, yet its members choose to continue to flaunt the issue and ratchet it up in the hopes that they can get Canadians even more upset with the issue. When I hear of issues such as foreign interference, I ask what they hope to achieve. They hope to achieve interference, cause problems and confusion, and cause the public to lose confidence. That is what these agents from abroad are hoping—
Some hon. members: Oh, oh!
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- Mar/22/23 5:43:23 p.m.
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Order. Again, I want to remind members that unless I have asked for questions and comments, there is no option for them to be speaking at the moment and mentioning people by their names. Members should wait for questions and comments, because there will be five minutes of questions and comments for the hon. member.
The hon. parliamentary secretary.
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