- Mar/30/23 7:23:07 p.m.
- Watch
Madam Speaker, if I were to sum up my speech in just a couple of paragraphs, it would be very difficult, because I had to list off so many places where we cannot trust the government. That is what my speech was about: the track record of the government and its failure to exhibit trustworthiness. We cannot trust it with this bill.
62 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Mar/30/23 7:22:09 p.m.
- Watch
Madam Speaker, the member asked if I would apologize if I am wrong, but I truly believe I will not be wrong. I hope he will do the same thing when he finds out that Canadians are being censored improperly. The Liberals are so afraid that people will put the truth out there and hear the truth that they are doing everything they can, as they have done tonight, to end debate on this bill.
75 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
Madam Speaker, this harassment from the parties that simply do not want to hear the truth is incredible, especially from the member for Winnipeg North, who is known for rambling on and on in debate in this House. His speeches have become less and less relevant over the years. I look forward to tying this all together so that we can understand what I am speaking about.
It is not just that we are speaking for Canadians who are concerned that their access to what they view online may be restricted by the government. It is about an even greater concern over what the government will do to hide its backroom deals, corruption and scandals if Canadians are not able to share and view things online without government censorship. The Liberals' track record, which I just laid out only a portion of, shows that they cannot be trusted to do what is right and what is ethical.
Bill C-11 is a piece of legislation that would impact every single Canadian who has a cellphone, a television or a computer in their home and who enjoys online streaming and viewing and listening to content online. Through this piece of legislation, the government is about to give itself the ability to control what Canadians have access to, can listen to online or can watch online. Instead of viewers deciding what they want to watch, the government would control the algorithms, which will put things in front of them that the government determines it wants them to see. People go online to see what they want to see, not what the government wants to see.
I have been asked to do all I can to stop this bill and I will. However, in turn, I ask Canadians to do what they can by contacting members of the Liberal-NDP government, MPs and senators from the other House to voice their concerns with Bill C-11, and join us as we fight on their behalf to maintain freedoms in Canada. They should tell the government that what it is doing is wrong. For the government to take control over what people can post online, view online and promote online is wrong.
I have trust in Canadians to do what is right more than I trust the government. The government has shown a propensity to hide the truth. I have given many examples of that this evening, even though members tried to shut me down with their point of order interventions. I trust Canadians to do the ethical thing, but we cannot do this alone. As Conservative members in this House, we will lead the charge. I hope Canadians will fall behind us in leading the charge to end this bill and this draconian measure.
461 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Mar/30/23 7:14:12 p.m.
- Watch
Madam Speaker, these interruptions are absolutely another example of the egregious actions of the Liberal-NDP government. That is what I will get to in this speech, if they quit interrupting me and allow me to finish.
Further to these attempts to limit what Canadians can see, we just heard yesterday what appeared to be more evidence of a government that wants to control and censor what Canadians see, share and read. The government has appointed an interim Ethics Commissioner with family ties to the Liberals.
This may not sound bad enough at first glance, but upon further examination, it is not just a connection of a Liberal family. It is the same Liberal family that was involved when the former fisheries minister was found in breach of conflict of interest rules for approving a deal that could see a Liberal family friend reap big benefits. The deal was clam scam. The former fisheries minister issued a licence worth $24 million to a company that was run by his wife's cousin. Now it is the same Liberal cabinet minister's sister-in-law who has been appointed the watchdog of a corrupt Liberal government.
195 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Mar/30/23 7:12:53 p.m.
- Watch
Madam Speaker, the members will see, as I conclude my speech, how all of what I am saying is very much relevant.
More recently, we heard news about the foreign influence that happened in the 2019 and 2021 elections, but the Liberals were not going to tell anyone about it until the news broke in the media. Then they appointed a friend—
63 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Mar/30/23 7:11:41 p.m.
- Watch
Madam Speaker, it is obvious the government does not want to hear the truth. It is going to try to push beyond the time allocation on this vote because it does not want to hear the truth. This is what it is trying to hide from Canadians and that is what I am trying to get at here.
We heard about the ethics breaches of the Prime Minister that he tried to hide, and how about the WE Charity scandal when the Liberals shut down Parliament?
I was beginning to speak about the Minister of International Trade, Export Promotion, Small Business and Economic Development, who hired a company co-owned by a close friend. This was another ethics breach.
How about a housing minister who granted $133,000 to a group whose—
133 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Mar/30/23 7:10:31 p.m.
- Watch
Madam Speaker, I expected that the Liberals might wonder what I am getting to. What I am getting to is the fact that they cannot be trusted, so why should we trust them on this bill?
As I was mentioning, the list of egregious actions by the government just continues to grow. I spoke about the ethics breaches, how that was dragged out—
64 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
Madam Speaker, it is an honour once again to rise in the House as the representative of the awesome people and beautiful area of the North Okanagan—Shuswap.
I rise today to debate Bill C-11, what has become commonly known as the Liberal government's censorship bill. I rise on behalf of a long list of people who contacted me by email, social media, handwritten letters and on the streets, asking me to do all I can to oppose this draconian bill that would control what they will see online and what they can post online, all controlled by a government deciding what government wants them to see and post, not what users choose to see and post.
As I rise today, the government has already taken other steps to limit what Canadians can say about this bill. Today, the government has decided to further censor open debate on Bill C-11 by forcing closure of debate on the bill and, in doing so, deny any further debate in the House today and force a vote on it tonight.
More and more Canadians are realizing the government cannot be trusted. Its actions are becoming more egregious on a weekly basis and Bill C-11 is just one more example, yet it expects Canadians to believe it, to trust it. It is no wonder we, as His Majesty's official opposition, as well as Canadians en masse, simply no longer trust the government.
When we look at the government's track record on transparency, or lack thereof, the examples are becoming too numerous to mention. I will mention a few, but there are so many instances of the government censoring the information Canadians deserve to receive, that the trend of excessive censorship is very clear.
The first significant issue was during the controversy of the SNC-Lavalin scandal, the removal of a justice minister, and the attempts to hide the truth from Canadians. That minister chose to speak truth and the Prime Ministerchose to silence her. Then there was the Prime Minister’s ethics breach with his trip to the Bahamas, when he refused to answer questions until the truth was dragged out and he was found guilty of that ethics breach. There was also the WE Charity scandal that eventually lead to the proroguing of Parliament because the government did not want the facts to come out, so it censored what could be heard by shutting down Parliament.
We also learned other facts the government would have preferred to kept secret from Canadians, that the Minister of International Trade, Export Promotion, Small Business and Economic Development—
440 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Mar/21/23 2:06:21 p.m.
- Watch
Mr. Speaker, elections in Canada are for Canadians to decide, not to be influenced or decided by foreign interference to suit foreign interests or agendas. If our elections have been interfered with by foreign entities, Canadians deserve to know who is responsible, what actions have been taken against them and what is being done to prevent it from happening again, and yet the Prime Minister and his Liberal-NDP government are blocking attempts to get to the bottom of how Beijing operated interference networks to affect our 2019 and 2021 elections.
Canadians want and deserve a public inquiry into this election interference and they deserve to know why the Prime Minister and his NDP friends are doing everything they can to prevent this from happening.
What does the Prime Minister know, when did he learn about it and what did he do or fail to do about Beijing's election interference? These are questions from Canadians and the people of North Okanagan—Shuswap. What does the Prime Minister have to hide?
172 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Mar/9/23 10:07:04 a.m.
- Watch
Mr. Speaker, I would like to mention that the Conservative Party of Canada has appended a supplemental report to this report from the standing committee, which is on science issues. The title of the supplemental report is “Crisis of Trust in DFO Science”.
For eight years, Liberal fisheries ministers have failed to deliver on their mandates. They have not ensured decisions were based on science, facts and evidence. It is now common practice for the minister and her department to announce decisions without citing scientific reasons. This has directly undermined the trust that Canadians had in the Liberal fishery ministers and in DFO.
Canadians cannot wait any longer for the government to start making decisions to uphold the public's interest, and this includes conservation. I sincerely hope the minister will take this report to heart and take the actions necessary to restore the science required to inform her decisions and those of her department.
157 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Mar/8/23 7:22:12 p.m.
- Watch
Madam Speaker, again we have a non-answer from the Liberal government. The Liberals claim to be helping. One-time payments will be swallowed up with half a month's rent because rent has gone up to $2,000 in 10 of our major cities. Grocery costs are rising 10%, and I do not believe that is an accurate number. I just spoke about a case of cauliflower for a restaurant going from $35 to $40 to $140 per case. Those one-time payments the parliamentary secretary talks about are going nowhere, and they are not helping seniors. The government continues to fail.
103 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Mar/8/23 7:14:52 p.m.
- Watch
Madam Speaker, it is always an honour to rise in this House as the representative of North Okanagan—Shuswap. It is such an honour to have this opportunity to circle back to a question that I did not consider got an adequate answer when asked the first time and seek a response that would give hope to seniors, those struggling under the inflationary policies of the government.
On February 16 of this year, I put the following question through the Speaker:
...after eight years of the Liberal Prime Minister's inflationary policies, seniors cannot afford food. Barry told me that 40 out of 120 attendees at the mission he works at were seniors. People who used to donate to food banks are having to go to one because they cannot afford groceries.
Will the Prime Minister take responsibility for seniors going without food, or will the Liberals get out of the way so the Conservatives can fix what they have broken and restore seniors' dignity?
The response to the question was shameful, claiming that the government has been there for seniors. The way the government has been there for seniors has been to allow its out-of-control spending to contribute to inflation rates that we have not seen in 40 years. Food prices are climbing so fast that so many seniors are going to food banks because they cannot afford groceries.
Another example of how the government has not been there for seniors came to light last week for me while talking to a restaurateur at home in the Shuswap. While talking to this restaurateur, I asked if she had been affected by rising food prices. The owner took a step back and gave me a look. She did not have to say anything. I knew what the answer was. She went on to tell me how she had built a lunchtime clientele from scratch by building the business for seniors. She built that business around seniors who often preferred a meal out at lunchtime so they did not have to drive at night or it was better for their digestive system than eating at night. She told me that lunchtime seniors clientele was drying up because of increasing food costs and because of the costs that she had to pass on to customers, prices like a case of cauliflower that used to cost her business $35 to $40 per case now costing $130 to $140, prices like green beans being $8 per pound, and these are wholesale prices. We are seeing even higher prices on grocery store shelves.
For the government to say it has been there for seniors is truly shameful. What we have seen in the past eight years from the Prime Minister is that the price of a home has doubled and average rent prices soared above $2,000 in our 10 biggest cities. Nearly half of all Canadians with variable mortgages will no longer be able to afford those mortgages in nine months. Canadians are grappling with 40-year-high inflation. A quarter of Canadians cannot cover an unexpected cost of $500.
Will the Prime Minister take responsibility for seniors going without food, or will the Liberals get out of the way so the Conservatives can fix what they have broken and restore seniors' dignity?
552 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to take this debate from coast to coast. I live on the west coast, and I thank the member for Coast of Bays—Central—Notre Dame for presenting from the east coast.
Recently, we had a cyber-attack on Okanagan College in my riding of North Okanagan—Shuswap. It is always an honour to rise as the representative from that area.
Does my colleague for Coast of Bays—Central—Notre Dame think that this bill will address the concerns that were obviously brought to light there, when the college was basically shut down for weeks after the Christmas break? Students could not access their files. Basically, the entire college system was shut down.
If this bill is needed, I wonder if the member has a comment as to why it has taken the government seven and a half years to address this, when our party brought to its attention the potential issues with Huawei and its activities in Canada. Maybe the member would like to comment on that.
179 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Feb/16/23 3:04:55 p.m.
- Watch
Mr. Speaker, after eight years of the Liberal Prime Minister's inflationary policies, seniors cannot afford food. Barry told me that 40 out of 120 attendees at the mission he works at were seniors. People who used to donate to food banks are having to go to one because they cannot afford groceries.
Will the Prime Minister take responsibility for seniors going without food, or will the Liberals get out of the way so the Conservatives can fix what they have broken and restore seniors' dignity?
86 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Feb/7/23 10:05:42 a.m.
- Watch
Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to rise today to present a petition from 213 Canadians that refers to the medical assistance in dying changes. Medical assistance in dying risks normalizing suicide as a solution for those suffering from mental illness, and Canada should focus on increasing mental health supports and improving access to those supports instead of offering medical assistance in dying for those with mental illness.
Therefore, the 213 Canadians, mostly from North Okanagan—Shuswap, my riding, present this petition asking for the stoppage of medical assistance in dying for those with mental illness.
97 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Jan/31/23 5:50:05 p.m.
- Watch
Madam Speaker, I would request a recorded vote.
8 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
Madam Speaker, as always, it is an honour to rise in this House as the representative of the great people of North Okanagan—Shuswap as I make some final comments on Bill C-291.
Bill C-291 proposes to change the term in the Criminal Code from “child pornography” to “child sexual abuse and exploitation material”. I would like to acknowledge and again thank my colleague, the member for Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, who drafted this bill after recognizing the need for Criminal Code amendments that this bill proposes. I also acknowledge members from all parties who have made meaningful contributions to the development of this bill, both in this chamber and at committee stage.
Committee review of the bill strengthened it by adding the words “and exploitation” to the proposed new term in the original bill, and I thank the parliamentary secretary and the Minister of Justice for their collaboration and continuation on this important initiative.
Expressions of support and collaboration from all sides reflect that this bill is a step in the right direction, a step that must be followed by more steps: additional steps toward strengthening the Criminal Code and other federal laws to increase protection of children; additional steps to increase capacities of those entrusted with enforcing and prosecuting offences; and additional steps to support healing and recovery of those victimized by child sexual abuse and exploitation.
I want to thank people who have approached me in North Okanagan—Shuswap on the streets and at events to express their support and appreciation for this bill. The spontaneous face-to-face support from constituents is always reassuring that we are moving in the right direction. I also thank all of the Canadians who supported the bill by signing petition e-4154 initiated by Rachel Enns back home in Vernon. I would especially like to acknowledge and thank the organizations that have expressed support for this bill, that work every day to fight child sexual abuse and exploitation.
I look forward to the vote on Bill C-291 and I hope all members support this important bill to move it forward and send it to the other place toward completion so that it will establish the proposed changes in Canada's Criminal Code.
384 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
Mr. Speaker, I posed a question to one of the member's colleagues from the other side and did not get an answer back, so I will pose it to her this afternoon. Hopefully, they have had the time to provide an answer.
The Liberals speak about a national day care program that should look after all its citizens who are looking for child care. I asked the question: How does this program assist those who do shift work, such as a single parent who is a nurse and works the night shift at the hospital, a baker in the coffee shop who has to start at 3 a.m. or a resident in a rural area where there is no formal day care? How does this program assist those people who need day care?
135 words
All Topics
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
Madam Speaker, there is one thing that we have not heard as an answer from the government on this bill. It claims that it is a national day care plan. A national day care plan should address the needs of everyone needing child care in the nation, but it has not explained to us yet how this is going to address the needs of a single parent who works as a nurse doing night shifts. It has not explained how it might address the day care needs of someone working at a coffee shop as a baker who has to start at three o'clock in the morning and does not fit into the usual nine-to-five time slots of these day cares that the program is aimed at.
Can the member tell me how it is going to address the needs of those who are working those shifts in remote communities?
153 words
All Topics
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
Madam Speaker, I thank the member from the NDP for his support and the support from his entire party on this, as they have indicated. I certainly hope that we can move this bill as quickly as possible to help protect children from child sexual abuse and exploitation material.
49 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- menumenu
- notificationsnotifications
- home
- mailmail
- searchsearch
