SoVote

Context: House Hansard - 256 - Nov/27/23

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

Nov/27/23 3:26:05 p.m.
Watch

Mr. Speaker, I want to touch on something you referenced. You said toward the end of your ruling that indeed other things were said, and you were urging all members to adhere to your statement of a few weeks ago. There is an issue, though. You have now indicated that the member for Miramichi—Grand Lake has to specifically apologize in order to be recognized by the Chair going forward. In fairness, that same standard should be applied to members of the government, who today and last week were making all kinds of terrible insinuations that are on par with calling other members sympathetic to or supporters of Hamas. What I endeavour to do now is go through the blues for today and the transcripts from last week and provide you with specific examples where that same standard should be applied to government ministers. I will then await your ruling ordering them to apologize for their remarks.

158 words

The Speaker

Nov/27/23 3:27:10 p.m.
Watch

I look forward to the hon. member's intervention. I will read it and, if necessary, make a determination. The hon. member for Grande Prairie—Mackenzie.

27 words

Mr. Chris Warkentin (Grande Prairie—Mackenzie, CPC)

Nov/27/23 3:27:26 p.m.
Watch

Mr. Speaker, today in question period, the House leader of the government stood in her place and accused members on this side of being supporters of Putin's Russian regime in the current war; the current genocidal, illegal invasion into Ukraine. As a Ukrainian descendant, it is unbelievable to me that the member, having had a personal conversation with the member who made the accusation about the number of people within my own family who were murdered in the Holodomor, in the years that preceded it and that passed after, would stand in this place and make general accusations that members on this side, including me, would in any way, shape or form be supportive of Putin's illegal, genocidal attack on Ukraine. I would ask that the House leader for the government apologize to members on this side having clearly made the statement today with the intention to be provocative and to elicit a response. The response came from this side in that moment; it caused disorder in that moment.

171 words

The Speaker

Nov/27/23 3:29:08 p.m.
Watch

I thank the hon. member. We have had a number of interventions on this. Are there any new interventions or are they on the same point? If they are on the same point, then I would ask all members to take their seats. The point was very eloquently made by the member for— Some hon. members: Oh, oh! The Speaker: I am going to be very clear to all members. I ask all members to please take their seats. The Chair has heard the interventions that were made on this point. The Chair will review the Hansard to make a determination and will come back to the House if necessary. I thank all members for making very important and thoughtful statements, and I will come back to the House on this matter. I see the member for New Brunswick Southwest rising, I hope on a new point of order.

150 words

Mr. John Williamson (New Brunswick Southwest, CPC)

Nov/27/23 3:30:25 p.m.
Watch

Mr. Speaker, it is. With all due respect, I chair the public accounts committee and, last week, I cut a member off who was trying to make a point of order and I was reprimanded for not allowing the member to speak. Every member here has the right to raise a point of order and be heard to bring in new information and their perspectives. I was in the chamber last week and we heard the point of order from the hon. member from the NDP; we heard several. I would implore you, Mr. Speaker, to do the same. If members feel they have points of order to bring that will inform your decision, they should be given the right to be heard in this chamber before you rule.

129 words

Public

The Speaker

Nov/27/23 3:31:07 p.m.
Watch

I appreciate the intervention from the member for New Brunswick Southwest. On points of order, I really do ask members to please exercise great restraint, so that we can move on with the business of the House. We will listen to new information that is important to raise. The hon. member for Selkirk—Interlake—Eastman.

57 words

Mr. James Bezan (Selkirk—Interlake—Eastman, CPC)

Nov/27/23 3:31:45 p.m.
Watch

Mr. Speaker, I, too, want to say that I am very proud of my Ukrainian heritage. I am a proud Canadian, I am a patriotic Ukrainian, and everyone in the House knows how passionately I have been defending Ukraine for all these years. For the government House leader, the member of Parliament for Burlington, to actually suggest that any one of us of Ukrainian heritage on the Conservative side would at all be supporting Putin in any way, shape or form is incredibly disappointing. It is gutter politics, and she has taken it to a whole new level. I would ask that the member be reprimanded and forced to apologize in this place, because she has offended all Ukrainians and Canadians and especially everybody in our Conservative caucus for making such an allegation.

133 words

The Speaker

Nov/27/23 3:32:35 p.m.
Watch

Mr. Speaker, I am obviously not going to make a ruling from the chair on this. I did not hear exactly what the member heard. I will review Hansard. The parliamentary secretary to the government House leader.

37 words

Mr. Kevin Lamoureux (Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons, Lib.)

Nov/27/23 3:33:07 p.m.
Watch

Mr. Speaker, I am very concerned with the approach that the opposition is taking on this issue. When the government made other decisions a year or so ago, all sorts of unfair accusations were being made toward the government. The reality— Some hon. members: Oh, oh! Mr. Kevin Lamoureux: The member needs to calm down.

56 words

The Speaker

Nov/27/23 3:33:39 p.m.
Watch

Order, order. The hon. parliamentary secretary.

6 words

Secretary

Mr. Kevin Lamoureux

Nov/27/23 3:33:47 p.m.
Watch

Mr. Speaker, the Conservative Party en masse last week voted against the Canada-Ukraine free trade agreement. As a direct result of that, there have been all sorts of accusations levelled against the Conservative Party for their behaviour. There is nothing wrong with a government minister or others reflecting on that particular vote.

53 words

Accusations

The Speaker

Nov/27/23 3:34:15 p.m.
Watch

I am being very patient and generous in listening to points of order. I would ask that the hon. parliamentary secretary get right to the point. That would very helpful to the Chair.

33 words

Mr. Kevin Lamoureux

Nov/27/23 3:34:30 p.m.
Watch

Mr. Speaker, the point is that the government House leader was responding to the way the Conservative Party voted and it was very much in line with the parliamentary rules of this chamber, as we have witnessed on many other votes where opposition members and, at times, even government members reflect on the manner in which a political party votes. It happens all the time.

65 words

Mrs. Shannon Stubbs (Lakeland, CPC)

Nov/27/23 3:35:10 p.m.
Watch

Mr. Speaker, on the same point of order, I want to reinforce the comments that Conservatives have made. I represent the highest percentage of Ukrainians of any of the federal ridings in the country, at 25%. We just all turned our attention to the remembrance of the victims of the Holodomor over the last weekend. Edmonton was the first place in the world to erect a monument to remember those victims and to never forget. President Zelenskyy mentioned that in his visit here. I have also married into a family where the Ukrainian side has been settled longer than Alberta has been a province and, as members will know because of the geographical breakdown, where most members of Parliament on the Conservative side come from and represent. There is a very high percentage of Ukrainian Canadians on the Prairies and that is why Conservatives have such a strong record of standing up for the strong ties between Ukraine and Ukrainians and Canada and Canadians. That is why I too, in response to your ruling today, Mr. Speaker, would join the call of my colleague from Yorkton—Melville for her request for clarification and an apology from government members, including the representatives of the Prime Minister, the House's leader's office and their whip, whatever role he has, who just will never miss a chance to stand up and characterize our role—

234 words

The Speaker

Nov/27/23 3:36:57 p.m.
Watch

I thank the hon. member for raising this point. The point was very well made. The hon. opposition House leader has a quotation that he would like to read into the record, and then we will move on to the rest of the business of the House. The hon. opposition House leader.

52 words

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

Nov/27/23 3:37:05 p.m.
Watch

Mr. Speaker, I just wanted to raise these remarks to you, in light of your ruling. Essentially, what you have ruled is that the member for Miramichi—Grand Lake's statement about another political party, the NDP, as being sympathetic to, or supportive of, Hamas, an organization that is inflicting great cruelty on innocent human lives in the Middle East, rises to the level of being unparliamentary. Today, in the chamber, the government House leader, in response to a question, asked, “Is it because there is a group of Conservative members of Parliament who are pro-Russia and anti-Ukraine...?” In the situation with the war in Ukraine, we have a brutal regime led by Vladimir Putin illegally invading a sovereign country, committing atrocities and committing tragic murders of innocent human beings. I would put it to you, Mr. Speaker, that there is tremendous similarity between the parliamentary contexts of the member for Miramichi making a blanket statement about a political party supporting Hamas and the government House leader making an allegation about a political party supporting Vladimir Putin. In light of your ruling, in which you said that the member for Miramichi now has to personally apologize and withdraw those remarks, we would ask you to look at these remarks and apply the same treatment to the government that you have now imposed on the opposition.

230 words

The Speaker

Nov/27/23 3:38:48 p.m.
Watch

I thank the hon. House leader for reading that statement and I will take that into my consideration. I will come back to the House.

25 words

Mr. John Williamson (New Brunswick Southwest, CPC)

Nov/27/23 3:39:39 p.m.
Watch

Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present, in both official languages, the 34th report of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts, entitled “Emergency Management in First Nations Communities”. I believe there will be a dissenting report coming from the official opposition in one moment. Pursuant to Standing Order 109, the committee requests that the government table a comprehensive response to this report.

65 words

Mr. Kelly McCauley (Edmonton West, CPC)

Nov/27/23 3:40:22 p.m.
Watch

Mr. Speaker, I rise to table the Conservative Party's dissenting report to the Auditor General's report “Emergency Management in First Nations Communities—Indigenous Services Canada”. I have to congratulate the Minister of Indigenous Services and the department for probably the worst Auditor General's report since Mr. Michael Ferguson's 2017 report on the “incomprehensible failures” of the government. The emergency management report would, I think, be better called “Incomprehensible Failures 2”. It says, “We found that Indigenous Services Canada spent 3.5 times more on responding to emergencies than on supporting First Nations communities to prepare for them. We...found [Indigenous Services has] not addressed problems with preparedness and mitigation that we identified...a decade ago, when we audited this topic in 2013.” The absence of tangible and immediate actions has jeopardized the lives of indigenous people. Therefore, the Conservatives members of the committee recommend the following. Recommendation 1 is for the Government of Canada to immediately cease all bonuses to every executive who has failed to address the concerns with emergency management in first nations communities. Recommendation 2 is to “[fire] the Deputy Ministers who failed to provide support for First Nations communities to manage emergency services.” Recommendation 3 is that “[t]he Government take immediate action to complete the necessary infrastructure projects for emergency management”. Recommendation 4 is to “establish mutually agreed-upon evacuation service standards in the jurisdictions that lack such standards”. Recommendation 5 is that the approach of emergency preparedness must be proactive and funds must be allotted likewise. This is correctly meant to rectify the department's spending of three and a half times more money on responding to and recovering from emergencies than actually supporting the communities to prevent or prepare for them. Recommendation 6 is that “Indigenous Services Canada should work with First Nations to implement a risk-based approach to inform program planning and decisions on where to invest in preparedness and mitigation activities to maximize support to communities at highest risk of being affected by emergencies.” Recommendation 7 is to “[a]cknowledge that it is in Canada's best interest to implement effective Emergency Management in First Nations Communities—Indigenous Services Canada and that it is a priority of this government.” Recommendation 8 is that “[t]he Government identifies and holds a singular government department accountable for the [failures] outlined in the Auditor General's report entitled “Emergency Management in First Nations Communities—Indigenous Services Canada”. To summarize, stop the photo ops, stop the empty rhetoric and get the bloody job done.

448 words

Mr. John Williamson (New Brunswick Southwest, CPC)

Nov/27/23 3:43:34 p.m.
Watch

Mr. Speaker, I believe, if you seek it, you will find unanimous consent for the following motion. I will point out to all members that the motion was passed unanimously by members in the public accounts committee. The motions reads, simply: That the Thirty-Second Report of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts, presented to the House on Thursday, November 9, 2023, be amended to substitute the name of the organization “CATSA” with “The Canadian Transportation Agency” on page four of the report in English, and “ACSTA” with “Office des transports du Canada” on page four in French.

106 words