44th Parl. 1st Sess.
May 4, 2023 10:00AM
- May/4/23 12:31:16 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it is true that I said that the member for Wellington—Halton Hills received multiple defensive briefings, actually.
An hon. member: Oh, oh!
Mr. Mark Gerretsen: He did. He received multiple defensive briefings and it is absolutely true that I have absolutely no idea what he was told.
Some hon. members: Oh, oh!
Mr. Mark Gerretsen: I am trying to address the point. Mr. Speaker, I—
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- May/4/23 12:31:39 p.m.
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Order. Order. I am just going to sit down.
The hon. member for Kingston and the Islands.
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- May/4/23 12:31:59 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I do not know what the briefing was about.
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- May/4/23 12:32:12 p.m.
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- May/4/23 12:32:12 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I do apologize for saying that he—
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- May/4/23 12:32:17 p.m.
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We are done.
The hon. member for Edmonton—Wetaskiwin has the floor.
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- May/4/23 12:32:26 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I will point out that the hon. member, in his defence, mentioned coming in 15 seconds before the member for St. Albert—Edmonton stopped speaking. I will point out that it was the precise moment that chaos descended on this conversation. It was his question for the hon. member for St. Albert—Edmonton that triggered the condescension and mockery among his colleagues over here. It was his question where he talked about the member's being "supposedly affected“, which he apologized for unreservedly but reservedly a few minutes ago, and that was what triggered the other parliamentary secretary to the House leader, though it is hard to keep track of the parliamentary secretaries to the House leader over there, the member for Winnipeg North, who then said to his laughing colleagues that the member is not credible, talking about the member for Wellington—Halton Hills.
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- May/4/23 12:33:29 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it is highly irregular for a member to be able to stand up and then, an hour or two hours later, try to reflect what I might have said from my seat. I would suggest that the member needs to look at what the leader of the Conservative Party was heckling at the Speaker yesterday or at the Prime Minister the day before.
If they want to talk about behaviour and inappropriate language in Parliament, they can look at what the leader of the Conservative Party does on an ongoing basis. That is what one should be ashamed of. If anyone owes an apology, it is the leader of the Conservative Party who owes an apology to the Prime Minister of Canada.
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- May/4/23 12:34:08 p.m.
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I do not know what is going on here. We all have set times in opposition debates and we all have the opportunity to get our thoughts forward. There are members on the list.
All those who wish to speak should have an opportunity to speak and to present their thoughts about the motion being debated.
All members will get to speak if they do not interrupt each other or stand on these points of order for clarification. Maybe we can do that for a little while. Let us try with a few members and see how that goes in this opposition debate today.
The hon. member for Edmonton—Wetaskiwin.
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- May/4/23 12:34:53 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I am splitting my time with the hon. member for Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan.
Let us look at the context of the conversations we are having right now. There is a member of the House of Commons, a colleague who is well respected by members on all sides, whose family has been threatened and who clearly did not know about the situation.
Earlier in the debate, the hon. member for Winnipeg North said that the member for Wellington—Halton Hills knew about it for two years. He then asked if the member had done anything on the issue. How is he supposed to do anything on the issue?
Here is the situation. There was a general briefing. The member for Kingston and the Islands said that dozens of members of Parliament received these general briefings, which highlights the fact it was a general briefing.
The member for Wellington—Halton Hills said that at no point was he ever informed that Wei Zhao was targeting he and his family. Meanwhile, to be clear, this individual, Wei Zhao, has not been expelled by the government even though it has known about this for two years. He was absolutely free to travel across the country and gather information that he could use against the member and his family, and the government has done absolutely nothing about it.
It is not a stretch for us to imagine what that would be like. This is not about any one specific person, because Canadians of Chinese origin across the country have been victims of this. Their families in the PRC have been victims of this. The government, despite the fact it has known about it for two years, has done absolutely nothing about it. Then hon. members have had the absolute gall to stand in the House today and blame the member for Wellington—Halton Hills for this.
It is very rare for members of Parliament from the Conservative Party, the Bloc and the NDP to agree on anything, but it is very clear today that we are in vast agreement on this. I think it is mind-numbing for all of us to think that the government, the party in power that was elected by Canadians, as unfortunate as we might think that is, is not on the same page when it comes to defending Canadians. Rather, it has come into the House today with a very clear strategy of sowing chaos and blaming the member of Parliament for Wellington—Halton Hills.
I think most of us are probably going to change the talking points, notes and speeches we have come here with because of the tone set by the two parliamentary secretaries, two members of the Liberal Party in the Liberal leadership team, who have come into the House with a very deliberate strategy. They have apologized for some of it, but they continue to get up and continue in that same vein.
I hope, from this point on, that the tenor of the debate will change today. I hope I see it in the questions I will asked by the Liberal members during my Q and A. Hopefully, we can move forward, as an entire House of Commons, in solidarity with the Chinese Canadians living in every corner of our country, including several members of the House who have been targeted by the Communist dictatorship in Beijing, regardless of their political stripe, and support this very important motion.
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- May/4/23 12:39:38 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, CSIS is the deciding authority that ultimately determines what is brought to a higher level. CSIS did not make the Prime Minister aware of this until Monday of this week, yet the Conservatives have been accusing the Prime Minister of hiding.
The member is asking for members of this side of the House to apologize. He should look in a mirror. Does he not see the hypocrisy that is oozing? Is the Prime Minister not owed an apology, a collective apology from members of the Conservative Party, for their behaviour on this issue?
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- May/4/23 12:40:26 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, that is one of the most ridiculous questions I have ever heard in the House of Commons. We are talking about a member of Parliament who is serving in the government.
We all wish we were serving in the government, but we are not. There is one government. There is one Prime Minister. All of this has happened under that Prime Minister's watch. The government has known for two years about this situation and it has done absolutely nothing.
That member should be ashamed to get up in the House and ask that question.
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- May/4/23 12:41:07 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. I just rhetorically asked the question, “You only have to tell the truth when you are in government then.” To which the response, through a heckle, was “That's right.”
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- May/4/23 12:41:18 p.m.
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That is not a point of order. It is not something I heard.
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- May/4/23 12:41:28 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, on that point of order, the member said, “It's when the government has to tell the truth” and I said, “You should try that.”
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- May/4/23 12:41:35 p.m.
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No, that's not true. You know it, Warren.
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- May/4/23 12:41:35 p.m.
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I appreciate the clarifications. There is a lot of clarifications today.
The hon. member for Drummond.
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- May/4/23 12:41:41 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to start with a suggestion. Maybe we should reserve a room and shut the Conservatives and the Liberals in it with a bucket of water to slake their thirst until they resolve their issue so we can carry on debating like grown-ups here.
The member who spoke just now said that we all wish we were serving in the government. I beg to differ. The 32 Bloc members do not aspire to be in government. Nevertheless, we do like collaborating when doing so is in Quebec's interest. My question for my colleague is about today's debate on the Conservatives' opposition day motion.
When people come to Parliament Hill to meet with MPs and government members, that is called lobbying. They have to register in a registry. People want to know who is here trying to influence politicians. Why does Canada not have a foreign agent registry like other countries? Our neighbour, the United States, has had one since 1938. Such registries enable officials to identify more quickly people who may engage in dubious tactics, such as opening Chinese police stations.
Why does Canada not have a foreign agent registry like the U.S. does?
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- May/4/23 12:42:56 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I do not normally get this fired up in here. There is a lot of people who get very fired up in here, but usually I try to avoid my hockey side, in a sense.
However, to the hon. member's point, I came in today expecting to discuss a motion that I thought would be unanimously supported. If we take a look at what is in the motion, including the measures on the registry and on closing communist China-run police stations in our country, I thought we would have common agreement here. I did not expect to come in and be heckled and mocked by Liberal members of Parliament, especially members of the Liberal leadership team.
I am hoping, again, that we can move forward with this conversation in a more constructive way and get to the heart of what is a very thoughtful motion that hopefully everybody in the House can support.
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- May/4/23 12:44:06 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, once again, I am going to express my concern that the level that this debate has descended to in the House actually does much of the work of foreign powers that would like to disrupt our democracy.
Instead of focusing on the very good proposals put forward by the Conservatives in their motion today, which I do support, the debate has been of such a calibre that we lose sight of those things and how adopting those measures would help us counter foreign influence from China and other powers.
I would like to give the member a chance to talk about the content of the Conservative motion today, which I fully support.
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