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Decentralized Democracy

House Hansard - 193

44th Parl. 1st Sess.
May 9, 2023 10:00AM
Context: House Hansard - 193 - May/9/23
Mr. Denis Trudel (Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, BQ)
  • May/9/23 2:40:19 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, we are in the midst of a housing crisis. It is virtually impossible for people in Quebec to find affordable housing. Three weeks ago, the National Housing Council stated that, although the federal government has built 115,000 units, Canada has lost a jaw-dropping 550,000 affordable housing units over the past 10 years. We are moving backward, not forward. For every new affordable housing unit, we lose five. Before any talk about tripling the population, is there a single MP on the government side who has thought about where all those people are going to live?
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Context: House Hansard - 193 - May/9/23
Mr. Denis Trudel (Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, BQ)
  • May/9/23 9:49:41 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, the debate on foreign interference is a strange one. It feels as though we are floating. It is as if we are all wearing rose-coloured glasses when it comes to Chinese interference, especially the government. This has been going on for months. An elected official in the House and his family were harassed by the Chinese state, but that was just the tip of the iceberg. Over the past few months, Chinese balloons have been seen flying over North America. It was never clear what became of that. TikTok, which was installed on the phones of every member of the House, was banned. There was a case of spying in Quebec, at Hydro-Québec, which is a major corporation. We learned that a Chinese spy was working there. We also learned that there were Chinese police stations. How can we tolerate community centres where the Chinese state can put pressure on Canadians who have family there? The situation is really very serious, but it seems that the government on the other side of the House does not realize it. Does my colleague agree that we are all wearing rose-coloured glasses with respect to the possibility of a state as powerful as China intervening here in Canada?
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Context: House Hansard - 193 - May/9/23
Mr. Denis Trudel (Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, BQ)
  • May/9/23 11:16:00 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I mentioned earlier that I think this is a really important debate. The situation is quite serious. There was an article in the Journal de Montréal a few weeks ago about the election of a city councillor in Brossard who may have been assisted by individuals working for the Chinese state. Those individuals were sending messages in Mandarin on the WeChat platform controlled by the Chinese state to people in Brossard's Chinese community. Their candidate was elected. The mayor of Brossard has launched an investigation, and it has been documented in the newspaper. This is something that happened in Canada. The Special Committee on the Canada–People's Republic of China Relationship heard from representatives of Hong Kong Watch. They have been documenting this kind of Chinese state interference in municipal and provincial elections for 30 years. It has yet to be proven, but they suspect it is happening in federal elections as well. This is a very serious matter. What we have seen over the last few weeks and months could be just the tip of the iceberg. I am a bit disappointed that our Liberal friends are completely absent from tonight's debate.
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