hazylavender/hi huggingface dataset:
Date: 2023_04_26
Chamber: HOUSE OF COMMONS
Mr. Darren Fisher: I would be pleased to offer the opportunity to chat in a sidebar with that member at any time on any type of advocacy for seniors in Canada. The Government of Canada continues to do more to support seniors, including older women. Please allow me to provide members, once again, with a snapshot of what a 76-year-old woman in British Columbia, with a maximum GIS entitlement, could now receive. She could be eligible for more than $2,000 in additional support in 2023, thanks to the grocery rebate, the GIS top-up, the increase for single seniors introduced in 2016 and the new increase to the OAS pension for seniors over 75. That could be an extra $2,000 in her pocket this year.
Date: 2023_04_26
Chamber: HOUSE OF COMMONS
Mr. Darren Fisher: I think the member probably should have had some prepared comments, because everything he just spouted was basically wrong. There is no carbon tax in Nova Scotia yet and there is no price on pollution in Nova Scotia yet. How can he be speaking to constituents in Halifax and Dartmouth about the impact of something that does not exist? However, I will move along. It is hard to dot an i and cross a t for someone who says he has been fighting against the carbon tax when, in 2021, he campaigned on it. It was in his platform. I have a copy in my office. He knocked on doors, asking his constituents to vote for him based on what was in that platform. It is hard to cross that t and dot that i. We know Canadians are facing a really difficult time right now, which is why we will continue to be there for them, investing in them responsibly so they can make it through these tough times and get to the brighter future ahead. Far be it for the member to agree to this, but climate change is real. It is happening. It is a huge issue, the biggest issue, but it is the biggest opportunity of our lifetime. The latest science warns that to avoid severe impacts of climate change, greenhouse gas emissions must be reduced significantly and urgently to limit the global average temperature increase to 1.5degC. I knocked on doors too. Canadians want and expect real action on climate change. The member can stand and say Canadians do not want a price on pollution, but the Conservatives have lost three elections in a row. What do Canadians want? They want action on climate change. Clearly, the member is not listening to what Canadians are saying when, for three elections in a row, his party has been on that side of the House. It is going to be a fourth. It is going to be a frustrating time for Conservatives to sit on that side for a fourth time because they do not understand that Canadians want real action on climate change. I will take the word of our environment minister any day of the week over someone who one day says he does not support a price on pollution and in the next election says that his platform says he believes in it. What about the next election? They probably will not believe in it. Who knows? Fifty-five per cent of the grassroots members of the Conservative Party of Canada said climate change is not even real. I am glad to say that Canadians do not agree, and they showed that in the election.
Date: 2023_04_26
Chamber: HOUSE OF COMMONS
Mr. Warren Steinley: I wish the member had read from his prepared notes, because everything he said was untrue. First, I wish he would find a piece of literature that said I ran on a carbon tax in my riding. That would be interesting to see. Second, if the member agrees with his environment minister , then he agrees that people are going to pay more in the carbon tax than they are going to get back, because that is what the environment minister said. It is nice that he finally agrees with the Conservatives. Third, most people understand that we have to do something about climate change, but the hilarious part is the Liberals have never met a target they have made. They are 58th in the world in reducing emissions. That is a fact. That is from the recent COP report. The fact that they think this carbon tax scam is actually going to lower emissions is false, and they should stop spreading misinformation to Canadians.
Foreign Affairs
Date: 2023_04_25
Chamber: HOUSE OF COMMONS
Hon. Melanie Joly: I would like to table a very important document for the House, and for you. Pursuant to Standing Order 32(2), and in accordance with the requirements set out in the current policy on the tabling of treaties in Parliament, I have the honour to table, in both official languages, the treaty entitled "Agreement between the Government of Canada on the one hand and the Government of the Kingdom of Denmark together with the Government of Greenland on the other hand on the maritime and land boundaries in the area between Greenland and Canada", done at Ottawa on June 14, 2022. If I may, I would like to point out that this essentially marks the official end to the whisky war between Canada and Denmark.
Foreign Affairs
Date: 2023_04_25
Chamber: HOUSE OF COMMONS
Mr. Maninder Sidhu: pursuant to Standing Order 32(2), and consistent with the current policy on the tabling of treaties in Parliament, I have the honour to table, in both official languages, the treaty entitled "Amendments to the 1996 Protocol to the Convention on the Prevention of Marine Pollution by Dumping of Wastes and Other Matter, 1972", adopted at London on October 7, 2022.
Foreign Affairs
Date: 2023_04_25
Chamber: HOUSE OF COMMONS
Mr. Peter Schiefke: I have the honour to present, in both official languages, the 11th report of the Standing Committee on Transport, Infrastructure and Communities, entitled "Reducing the Impact of Commercial Shipping on Shoreline Erosion in the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Corridor". Pursuant to Standing Order 109, the committee requests that the government table a comprehensive response to this report.
Foreign Affairs
Date: 2023_04_25
Chamber: HOUSE OF COMMONS
Mr. Michael Cooper: I rise to present a petition signed by Canadians who are calling on the government to invoke the notwithstanding clause to override the Supreme Court of Canada's Bissonnette decision, which struck down a law passed by the previous Harper Conservative government that gave judges the discretion to apply consecutive parole ineligibility periods to mass murderers. As a result of the Liberal government's inaction, the sentences of some of the worst killers in Canada have been significantly reduced. The petitioners are calling for action.
Foreign Affairs
Date: 2023_04_25
Chamber: HOUSE OF COMMONS
Mr. Glen Motz: I too rise on behalf of Canadians with a petition regarding the same case my hon. colleague mentioned, the Bissonnette decision of the Supreme Court. Canadians believe this is an unjust decision. It puts the interests of some of Canada's worst criminals ahead of the rights of their victims. Reoccurring parole hearings can traumatize the families of victims of mass murderers over and over again. The government has tools at its disposal to respond, including invoking the notwithstanding clause. Therefore, the undersigned in this particular petition urge the Minister of Justice to invoke the notwithstanding clause to override this decision.
Foreign Affairs
Date: 2023_04_25
Chamber: HOUSE OF COMMONS
Mr. Gord Johns: it is a privilege to table this petition on behalf of Denman Islanders from my riding. They are calling on the Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard to persevere in her restorative aims and use all tools in the sustainable fisheries framework to postpone licensing any further shellfish aquaculture facilities located in or near herring spawning and rearing habitat until an ecosystem-based assessment is completed, especially in Baynes Sound and Lambert Channel. They ask that the industry establish a record of effectively managing its own gear and equipment, pay for the cleanup costs of the tons of plastic debris it produces annually and develop, with first nations, a co-management plan for Baynes Sound and Lambert Channel.
Foreign Affairs
Date: 2023_04_25
Chamber: HOUSE OF COMMONS
Ms. Bonita Zarrillo: I stand today to table a petition on behalf of the graduate students of Canada, who are calling upon the Government of Canada to increase the number and monetary amounts of tri-council scholarships to better support graduate students. The value and number of scholarships offered by the tri-council has not changed in two decades. Alongside this, the cost of living in Canada is at historic highs, and graduate students and precarious researchers, who are our brain trust, are living at or below the poverty line.
Foreign Affairs
Date: 2023_04_25
Chamber: HOUSE OF COMMONS
Mrs. Elisabeth Briere: I would like to present a petition on behalf of some of my constituents, including Ms. Brouillette and Ms. Nguyen, two active citizens who are involved in Development and Peace. They came to deliver this petition to me in person. The petitioners are calling on the House of Commons to adopt legislation on due diligence for human and environmental rights that would require companies to prevent any negative impact on human and environmental rights throughout their global operations and supply chains, that would set out significant consequences for companies that fail to exercise adequate due diligence and report on it, and that would establish a statutory right for persons harmed to seek justice in Canadian courts.
Foreign Affairs
Date: 2023_04_25
Chamber: HOUSE OF COMMONS
Mr. Garnett Genuis: I am grateful for the opportunity to present a number of petitions to the House today. The first petition is on an issue that is important in my riding. It is the issue of foreign oil being imported into Canada. The petitioners note that Alberta in particular and Canada in general have the potential to produce more of the world's most environmentally friendly oil using high labour standards that are higher than those in other countries, yet we have a continuing situation in which we are importing oil and gas products from other countries. The petitioners therefore propose that Canada work to eliminate imports of foreign oil and gas into Canada, create more jobs and build a better economy for workers who are part of Canada's energy sector.
Foreign Affairs
Date: 2023_04_25
Chamber: HOUSE OF COMMONS
Mr. Garnett Genuis: the next petition I am tabling is in support of Bill C-257 , which is a private member's bill that I have put before the House. It responds to the problem of political discrimination, which is about people being discriminated against on the basis of their political views. The petitioners note that Canadians have a right to be protected against discrimination on the basis of their views and that it is fundamental to Canadian democracy when people are free to express their political views without fear of discrimination. Therefore, they ask the House to support Bill C-257 and defend the right of Canadians to peacefully express their political opinions. The next petition I am presenting deals with the ongoing arbitrary and illegal detention of Huseyin Celil. Mr. Celil is a Canadian citizen who has been detained in China, sadly, for substantially more time than Mr. Kovrig and Mr. Spavor were detained. They were released after an unjust detention of 1,000 days. Mr. Celil, at the time of the writing of this petition, had already been in detention for more than 5,000 days. He is a Canadian citizen, an activist for Uyghur human rights and a father of four sons, the youngest of whom has sadly never met his father because Mr. Celil's wife was pregnant at the time of his detention. The petitioners call on the Government of Canada to take the following actions to seek to address the situation: demand that the Chinese government recognize Mr. Celil's Canadian citizenship and provide him with consular and legal services in accordance with international law; formally state that the release of Huseyin Celil from Chinese detainment and his return to Canada are a priority of the Canadian government of equal concern as the unjust detentions of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor; appoint a special envoy to work on securing Mr. Celil's release; and seek the assistance of the Biden administration and other allies around the world in obtaining Mr. Celil's release, as was done in the case of the arbitrary detention of the two Michaels.
Foreign Affairs
Date: 2023_04_25
Chamber: HOUSE OF COMMONS
Mr. Garnett Genuis: the next petition I am tabling deals with the situation in Hong Kong and the concerns about free and fair trials, judicial independence and a lack of rule of law in Hong Kong. Those who have been involved in the democracy movement in China have been subject to politicized prosecution aimed at suppressing their legitimate democracy activity. Canada's immigration and refugee law seeks to render inadmissible Canadians who have been involved in criminal activity abroad. The petitioners note the need for exceptional treatment of those who are otherwise law-abiding and freedom-loving citizens but have been subject to arbitrary criminalization of their democracy activity. The petitioners call on the Government of Canada to recognize the politicization of the judiciary in Hong Kong and its impacts on the legitimacy and validity of criminal convictions; to affirm its commitment to render all national security law charges and convictions irrelevant and invalid in relation to inadmissibility rules in Canadian immigration; to create a mechanism by which Hong Kong people with pro-democracy movement-related convictions may provide an explanation for such convictions and on the basis of which government officials could grant exemptions to Hong Kong people who would otherwise be deemed inadmissible on the basis of criminality; and to work with other like-minded democracies to waive criminal inadmissibility of Hong Kong people convicted for political purposes who do not otherwise have criminal records.
Foreign Affairs
Date: 2023_04_25
Chamber: HOUSE OF COMMONS
Mr. Garnett Genuis: next I am tabling a petition that raises significant concerns about proposals to legalize euthanasia for children, that is, to allow the killing of children by our medical system. The petitioners highlight in particular the comments of Louis Roy of the College des medecins du Quebec, who recommended euthanasia for babies, that children and infants be killed. The petitioners find the proposal for legalizing infanticide in Canada from a representative of that college to be deeply disturbing. They call on the government and the House to block any attempts to legalize the killing of children in Canada.
Foreign Affairs
Date: 2023_04_25
Chamber: HOUSE OF COMMONS
Mr. Garnett Genuis: next I am tabling a petition from citizens concerned about the government's proposals to politicize charitable status determination in Canada. They note a proposal in the Liberal Party election platform to deny charitable status to organizations with convictions that are different from those of the Liberal Party as it relates to the issue of abortion. The petitioners note that the effect of this would be to deny charitable status to hospitals, houses of worship, schools, homeless shelters and other charitable organizations that do not share the government's views on those issues. The government has previously used a values test to discriminate against worthy applicants to the Canada summer jobs program. This would be a kind of recapitulation of that proposal. The petitioners are calling on the House of Commons to protect and preserve the application of charitable status on a politically and ideologically neutral basis, without discrimination on the basis of political positions or religious values, and to affirm the right of all Canadians to freedom of expression.
Foreign Affairs
Date: 2023_04_25
Chamber: HOUSE OF COMMONS
Mr. Garnett Genuis: the final petition I am tabling is in some respects similar to the last one. It deals with discriminatory proposals made by the Minister of National Defence advisory panel on systemic racism and discrimination. Its final report, released in early 2022, effectively called for the exclusion from military chaplaincy of clergy that are part of religious traditions that have a different view on certain issues from that of the Government of Canada. The petitioners note that discrimination on the basis of religion is wrong and a violation of the charter. They therefore call on the government and the House to reject the recommendations on chaplaincy in the Canadian Armed Forces final report of the Minister of National Defence advisory panel on systemic racism and discrimination, and to affirm the right of all Canadians, including Canadian Armed Forces chaplains, to freedom of religion.
Foreign Affairs
Date: 2023_04_25
Chamber: HOUSE OF COMMONS
Mr. Garnett Genuis: Conservatives are deeply concerned about the situation in Sudan. For 30 years, Sudan was led by a genocidal dictator, Omar al-Bashir. In late 2018 and early 2019, the Sudanese people came together in heroic resistance against that regime and succeeded in forcing al-Bashir out of office. At the time, as we continue to do, we saluted the courage of the Sudanese people. Just like in Iran, the people of Sudan came together and took to the streets to demand the recognition of their God-given human rights. Since the removal of al-Bashir from office, the people of Sudan have struggled to realize the transition to civilian rule. This transition has been repeatedly interrupted and delayed and has been punctuated by horrific violence. Canada must stand with the Sudanese people in their pursuit of the recognition of their fundamental human rights. We call on the Government of Canada to be actively engaged with the situation in Sudan, both in response to the current crisis and in the push for a complete transition to civilian democratic rule as soon as possible. Today, we are seeking an emergency debate in response to the immediate crisis on the ground. The Sudanese Armed Forces, or the SAF, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, are fighting over territory. This is effectively a civil war within the military, as far as we can tell from this distance. Canadian diplomatic personnel have been withdrawn. We need to ensure the safety of all of our staff, both diplomatic and locally engaged. Sudan is a country of over 46 million people, which, like Ukraine and Iran, is on the fault line between democracy and authoritarianism. Its people continue to struggle for freedom and human rights. Conservatives call on all members of the House and the government to remain closely engaged with these events and to stand with the people of Sudan in this ongoing struggle. We think an emergency debate is an appropriate format for discussing these issues. I note, in closing, that I understand there is an agreement regarding debate happening this evening on the budget, so I propose that this emergency debate be scheduled for tomorrow evening.
Budget Implementation Act, 2023, No. 1
Date: 2023_04_25
Chamber: HOUSE OF COMMONS
Mr. Martin Champoux: I am happy to learn who this budget was meant for. Now I understand that it was meant for the citizens of Vaudreuil--Soulanges. I am happy to have heard my colleague's speech. I invite the citizens of Vaudreuil--Soulanges to read the budget carefully and consider what the government means when it speaks of the environment, because the Liberals are still in favour of carbon capture and storage as a means of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. With regard to dental care, I also invite my colleague's constituents to note that there is already a dental program in Quebec. The question I would like to ask my colleague from Vaudreuil--Soulanges concerns the Liberals' commitment to make federal services more efficient. In 2022, money was set aside for this in the budget. This year, the Liberals committed to improving federal services and making them more efficient. I would like to know how that is going so far.
Budget Implementation Act, 2023, No. 1
Date: 2023_04_25
Chamber: HOUSE OF COMMONS
Mr. Peter Schiefke: I am pleased to announce to the House and to my constituents in Vaudreuil--Soulanges that I will be giving them the opportunity to ask a few questions. I will be holding a town hall with my constituents in the coming weeks here in Ottawa, virtually and in my community. I look forward to answering their questions in person and explaining how the 2023 budget will help them and their families in the years ahead.
Budget Implementation Act, 2023, No. 1
Date: 2023_04_25
Chamber: HOUSE OF COMMONS
Mr. Eric Melillo: the member opposite talked quite a bit about affordability and its importance in his speech, but the budget really does the opposite of addressing affordability. It adds billions of dollars of debt, which is going to drive up inflation. It adds new taxes, especially the carbon tax, which is going to make the costs of gas, groceries and home heating more expensive. My question for the member opposite is simply this: If he is so concerned about affordability, why does the budget make life more unaffordable for Canadians?
Budget Implementation Act, 2023, No. 1
Date: 2023_04_25
Chamber: HOUSE OF COMMONS
Mr. Peter Schiefke: one thing I will say is that we differ on the definition of affordability. On this side of the House, we like to provide more support for Canadians when they need it the most. On that side of the House, they like to vote against all the measures we are putting in place, including the Canada child benefit and child care. In the budget, we put money toward helping Canadians pay for grocery bills, which the Conservatives are voting against. We have money for dental care, which will put hundreds of dollars, if not thousands of dollars, back in the pockets of seniors, youth under the age of 18 and those with disabilities. The Conservatives are voting against it. We have a different understanding of what affordability is, and it is a shame that the other party will be voting against all these measures.
Budget Implementation Act, 2023, No. 1
Date: 2023_04_25
Chamber: HOUSE OF COMMONS
Mr. Charlie Angus: the New Democrats have spent a lot of time working with energy workers and those who are trying to see a move toward a clean-tech economy. We have heard a lot of promises in the budget, but I cannot go back to workers in Windsor or Fort Mac without a legislative framework and tell them to trust the government. A legislative framework is needed. They are talking about a sustainable job secretariat. Where is it? When they talk about a sustainable jobs partnership council, is this going to be legislated? I cannot go back to workers and say, "Hey, trust 'em. It's going to happen somehow. It's somewhere in the budget." Will the government commit to putting those key elements into legislation with rights for workers to guarantee that we move toward a clean-tech economy with well-paying union jobs?
Budget Implementation Act, 2023, No. 1
Date: 2023_04_25
Chamber: HOUSE OF COMMONS
Mr. Peter Schiefke: I know this is an issue that is extremely important to my colleague. It is one that is important to me. I spent 10 years in the environmental field prior to entering politics. For me, the proof is in the pudding. We have been fighting for record investments in transitioning towards a green economy. This budget alone commits $88 billion to make that happen. It means more charging stations across the country. It means continuing to fund the subsidies, the incentives to buy electric vehicles. It means investments of $13 billion in bringing the factories that are going to produce the next-generation batteries for electric vehicles to Canada. This is what we have been waiting for as environmentalists, as people who have been fighting for this for decades. It is finally here. It is paying off, and we are going to continue to invest in a transition towards a greener economy.