SoVote

Decentralized Democracy

House Hansard - 192

44th Parl. 1st Sess.
May 8, 2023 11:00AM
Context: House Hansard - 192 - May/8/23
Mr. Peter Julian (New Westminster—Burnaby, NDP)
  • May/8/23 2:32:31 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, CSIS informed Canadians and the government that multiple members of this House have been targeted by foreign interference. All parliamentarians need assurance that their safety, their families' safety and their freedom of expression are not threatened. Canadians need to know that their vote counts and that our democratic process is free of foreign interference. The government needs to assure Canadians that it is acting on these serious allegations. Let us start with some transparency. Have all MPs impacted by interference been fully notified by the government?
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Context: House Hansard - 192 - May/8/23
Mr. Luc Berthold
  • May/8/23 5:11:49 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I will try to answer my colleague in English. Transparency is what works all around the world. We can identify the foreign agents in our country and make sure the diaspora knows who they are. Transparency is the best cleaner or sunlight. I do not know how to say that in English, but I think the member understands what I mean. We need a government that will be transparent and that will really act, answer real questions and give real answers to those people who came here to benefit from our freedom, our principles and our values. We should give them the opportunity to say what they know and to protect themselves, and we should help to protect them. With respect to police officers and CSIS, we should make them work for these people and not for the government.
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Context: House Hansard - 192 - May/8/23
Mr. Michael Cooper
  • May/8/23 6:04:38 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, the member does raise a point, but I would submit that, under the government, the pendulum is way over on the other side: no transparency and no sunlight. The advice of CSIS to the Prime Minister has been that in order to combat foreign interference, there needs to be transparency and sunlight. We have a situation so serious that a member of Parliament was being intimidated because of a position they took in this House and how they voted, and that their family was being threatened and sanctioned, potentially in Hong Kong, by an accredited diplomat in Canada. The member for Wellington—Halton Hills should have been made aware of it, the Canadian public should have been made aware of it and the Beijing diplomat should have been sent back to Beijing then, not two years after the fact.
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Context: House Hansard - 192 - May/8/23
Hon. Mike Lake
  • May/8/23 11:37:56 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague for that important question, because I do think this is critical. One of the four elements in the motion from last week that we voted on today was the idea of having a public inquiry. There is a real power to transparency. There is a real power to us coming together as 338 members of the House and agreeing on behalf of our constituents across the country, all of our constituents, that this type of intimidation is not okay. We were elected to stand up for the interests of all of our constituents, and we need to be free to do that. The only answer right now is to have a full public inquiry, something that members of the Conservative Party, members of the Bloc, members of the NDP and members of the Green Party support. I hope we will soon see the government come around to that as well.
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