Most toxic speeches
Madam Speaker, that is exactly why this government is refusing to recognize the genocide as such. This government decided to end Canada's combat mission against the genocidal terrorists of Daesh. It was this government that withdrew Canada's air force, which was combatting these genocidal terrorists in the Middle East.Will the minister admit that the reason he is refusing to recognize the genocide as such is that Canada ended its combat mission?
Mr. Speaker, the deadly drug fentanyl is plaguing western Canada. In the last 18 months, well over 400 Albertans have died from fentanyl overdoses. We need to send a message to drug pushers who are poisoning Canadians with fentanyl that to do so is tantamount to a death sentence. When will the Liberals take action and introduce heavy mandatory sentences for fentanyl traffickers?
Mr. Speaker, the government is intent on imposing job-killing carbon taxes on the provinces. Its message is, Either you do this, or we will force you to. So much for sunny ways.Carbon taxes raise the price of everything, from filling up the gas tank to buying groceries to heating homes, and they kill jobs. Why is the current government so intent on raising the price of everything and killing jobs through its carbon tax?
Mr. Speaker, I find it disturbing that the Minister of Foreign Affairs is so profoundly misinformed on a matter of such great moral importance.In fact, the United States, the U.K., and EU, in their motions recognizing this genocide, apply that term to what this terrorist death cult is doing to the Chaldeans, the Assyrians, the Armenians, the Christians, and to other indigenous minorities, not only the terribly benighted Yazidis.Will the minister not again follow that international lead, follow Canada's natural moral conscience, and recognize the broader genocide happening?
Mr. Speaker, the genocidal death cult of ISIL has claimed responsibility for today's terrible attacks in Brussels, leading French President Hollande to say that Europe is at war with ISIS.Is Canada also at war with ISIS, and if so, why did we end our combat operations against that terrorist organization?
Madam Speaker, on March 17, United States Secretary of State John Kerry said that ISIS is responsible for genocide, but five days later in this place, the minister of global affairs denied Secretary Kerry's recognition, saying instead that the U.S. wanted to do more research.The British Parliament and the U.S. House of Representatives have unanimously endorsed a recognition of the genocide as such. ISIS itself does not deny its efforts to exterminate these historic communities, so why will the government not just recognize this genocide?
Mr. Speaker, I want to come back to the fact that the government has misled this place on the question of ISIS's genocide. The government denies the recognition of the genocide by the United States, even though Secretary Kerry said, Daesh is responsible for genocide...[and] is genocidal by self-proclamation.The government also says that it needs an international tribunal of lawyers to declare a genocide, yet the House recognized the Armenian genocide as such in 2004, without an international judicial process. True, the Liberal government voted against that recognition. Are the Liberals now saying that the Armenian genocide did not happen, because it has not been recognized by an international tribunal?
Mr. Speaker, it is unfortunate that it took this stubborn minister so long to realize the facts that have been staring the world in the face.While I appreciate his reflection on today's UN report with respect to the Yazidis, his statement today is simply insufficient because this genocide affects more than the Yazidis. It affects the other indigenous minorities of Mesopotamia. It affects the Assyrians, the Chaldeans, and the Armenians. Will the minister not join the U.S., EU, U.K., and the opposition in recognizing the broader genocide of Daesh?
Madam Speaker, that is legal pettifogging. Those are word games. This is not about a judicial process. This House and the previous Conservative government recognized the historical reality of the Armenian genocide without an international judicial process. We did so with respect to other historic genocides. This is happening today. We do not have time to wait for lawyers. We do not want to give ISIS the benefit of the doubt in a judicial process. We need simply to reflect the reality that it is seeking to exterminate the indigenous communities of Mesopotamia. Why will the government not follow the lead of Britain and the United States and
Madam Speaker, that non-answer reminds us of why Chantal Hébert characterized this minister's responses as asinine, disingenuous, discredited, farcical, and [insulting] our intelligence.In fact, the voter participation in those provincial referenda was higher than in the general elections. People are more prone to vote on the quasi-constitutional nature of their electoral system; 72% of Canadians voted in the Charlottetown Accord.Why does the minister want to exclude the voices of millions and millions of Canadians?
Mr. Speaker, the British Parliament, American Congress, and European Parliament have all passed unanimous motions.Secretary Kerry said, Daesh is responsible for genocide, and Daesh is genocidal by self-proclamation, by ideology, and by actionsin what it says, what it believes, and what it does.Our Prime Minister said that to recognize it would be to trivialize it. What this government's genocide denial is doing is trivializing the suffering of these people and their attempted extermination.Is the government not just covering up for its ending the combat role of Canada against those responsible?
Mr. Speaker, so it is not the Liberal culture to respect the majority of Canadians on the precise question of how they elect their representatives to their Parliament. This place does not belong to the Liberal Party, and the very question of legitimacy is at stake here. It is absolutely clear if the Liberals thought they could get a majority of Canadians to endorse their rigged system, they would hold a referendum. Is it not true? The only reason they refuse to do so is because Canadians would veto the Liberal rigged electoral system.
Mr. Speaker, yesterday we witnessed the shameful spectacle of the Liberal government denying the undeniable reality of a genocide happening in our own time against vulnerable religious minorities. The Minister of Foreign Affairs actually led the Liberals in applause to celebrate their vote against this genocide recognition. They say they need some group of lawyers to make a determination about this when the organization responsible, the so-called Islamic state, admits it is committing genocide. It is seeking to eliminate what they called apostates, Shia, and Yazidi, and to enslave so-called infidels, like Christians. Why are they contesting
Mr. Speaker, their excuses for trying to rig the system are getting more and more ridiculous and transparent with that answer.The minister is talking about a fake consultation process that interest groups will be involved in, maybe a few thousand people. We want the ultimate consultation that allows ten of millions of Canadians to decide how they elect their representatives.Why is the current Liberal government so determined to be the first government of a major democracy to change the electoral system without a direct popular mandate expressed in a referendum?
Mr. Speaker, I have never seen a parliamentary secretary attack his own department for saying that the budget was balanced.Not only are the Liberals blowing Canada's hard-won surplus, now they plan to help their Ontario Liberal friends impose a new job-killing payroll tax and a new tax on everything, a tax on carbon. All of that means fewer jobs and lower income.Why in the world would the Liberals be killing jobs through higher taxes, particularly at a time of economic fragility?
1.25 million barrels of capacity a day.He talks about northern gateway. The government killed it on day one by announcing, through fiat, its northern tanker traffic ban, even though hundreds of tankers come down that route from Alaska, hundreds come into our east coast from foreign countries.How is the government going to take seriously northern gateway, when it has already shut it down with its prejudicial tanker ban?
Mr. Speaker, a United Nations report includes details of the mass killings and sexual slavery of thousands of Yazidis by the so-called Islamic State. The genocide of the Yazidis is on-going, the report concludes. Now that the UN has joined the European Union, the United States, and the United Kingdom in recognizing that the self-proclaimed Daesh is committing genocide, will the government finally call this campaign of extermination what it really is, genocide?
Mr. Speaker, Canada used to be a moral leader. Are we now following Sweden?The European Union parliament said that ISIS is committing genocide. The American Congress unanimously said that all governments should call ISIL atrocities genocide. The U.K. parliament unanimously recognized that genocide is being perpetrated.Why is the minister denying the genocide that ISIS itself admits it is committing?
Mr. Speaker, in a feat of completely unprecedented fiscal incompetence, the government has taken us from a surplus to a $10-billion deficit and now to a $30-billion deficit.It is clear as day that the Liberals misled Canadians in the last election with their bogus fiscal promises.My question is simple. Why did the Liberals hide the truth about their agenda to massively expand the cost of government, and to run huge and growing deficits?
Mr. Speaker, as a member of the former government, I assure the minister that he is mistaken, that I and other ministers did recognize the genocidal nature of what is happening. The five genocides to which he refers were recognized by motions of this House. We are asking the government, as an executive action, to recognize this reality.The European Parliament, the U.S. Congress, and the Obama administration have done so. Why, then, has this Liberal government reversed Canada's position? Why is it denying the genocide against these Middle Eastern peoples that is happening right now?
Mr. Speaker, whether it is here or in Alberta, I will always fight for people's interests, including against the carbon tax. On a different matter, yesterday I put a motion to this place, the same as Conservatives proposed as a vote last June, to recognize that the crimes against humanity being committed by the so-called Islamic State against the Assyrian, Yazidi, Shia, and other religious minorities of Mesopotamia, constitute genocide. This has been recognized by the European Parliament, the U.S. Congress, and the British House of Commons.Why did the government, yesterday, again reject this motion, a second timeonce in June and then again yesterday? Will it not recognize the reality of this genocide against these minorities?
Mr. Speaker, that is exactly the problem. Canadians made a choice based on an election promise that the government never planned to keep. The $10-billion deficit it promised has tripled in three months.Did the Liberals mislead Canadians during the election campaign? Why did the Liberals hide their real plans for massive spending increases and huge deficits?
Mr. Speaker, I invite the minister to move beyond her repetitive non-answers, beyond her refusal to allow the Canadian people to decide the manner by which they elect their representatives. The minister stands and pretends that a few hundred witnesses at a committee are more inclusive than a referendum that could involve 17 million or more voters. What does she not understand about this? This is a simple question of the legitimacy of this place. Does the government really think Canadians will accept a rigged system chosen by and for the Liberal Party of Canada?
Mr. Speaker, the government promised a new era of respect for Parliament. Instead, after just six months, we have the Liberals shutting down debate for the first time in our history on an end-of life conscience matter.The Liberals tried to rig the rules of this place to the government's total advantage through Motion No. 6. We commend them for withdrawing that, but now they are trying to rig the very system that elects members to this place.The minister has just said that we need to hear the voices of those Canadians who brought us to this place. Those were 17.5 million voices that will be excluded by her closed, Liberal-controlled parliamentary process.Why will the government not really demonstrate a commitment to democratic reforms through a referendum?
Mr. Speaker, I hope the minister is not suggesting that President Hollande was making politics in stating that Europe is at war with ISIS. ISIS is also engaged in a campaign to eradicate the ancient indigenous peoples of Mesopotamia, the Assyrian Yazidis, and other people. The previous Conservative government recognized this as a form of genocide, an example followed by the EU Parliament, the U.S. Congress, and the Obama administration. Why has the Liberal government reversed Canada's position recognizing the genocide of ISIS against the indigenous peoples of Mesopotamia?
Mr. Speaker, Canadians are fair-minded people, and that is why they know it is wrong for one political party to seek to impose an electoral system on this Parliament, and our entire country, over the objections of other parties and the majority of Canadians.The Liberal governments in B.C., Ontario, and P.E.I. all understood this, which is why they held referenda on electoral reform.Why does the current Liberal government have so much less confidence in the common sense of Canadians? Why will the current Liberal government not follow the provincial precedent of a referendum on electoral reform?
Mr. Speaker, that is unbelievable. They are using Mike Duffy's excuse.Yesterday brought yet more job losses for Albertans. Dozens are losing their jobs at Western Feedlots Ltd. with its closure, a key part of the western beef industry. Company president Dave Plett says that recent government policies like Bill 6 and the carbon tax have contributed to the decision to close its operations.With yet more proof that carbon taxes kill jobs, will the government please reconsider its ideological determination to impose a job-killing carbon tax on Albertans?
Mr. Speaker, during question period, I made reference to motions adopted by the parliament of the European Union, the Congress of the United States, and the Westminster parliament, in which each one of these legislatures recognized the reality of the genocide being committed by Daesh in the Middle East. I would, therefore, seek the unanimous consent of the House to table these motions.
Mr. Speaker, the minister just said that the electoral reform stacked process she is recommending is designed to serve the best interests of Canadians and not political parties.Let us be clear. The government wants the Liberal majority controlling the committee to opt for the preferred Liberal system to be approved by the Liberal cabinet, to be adopted by the Liberal majority in the House, notwithstanding any dissent, including from 35 million Canadians.Nothing could be clearer. The Liberals are trying to rig the system by and for the Liberal Party. Why not allow Canadians to protect the legitimacy of our elections through a referendum?
I normally do not have a problem with sound, Mr. Speaker.My question for the Minister of Finance is why he keeps evading this very key question. He says that the Liberal Party made two commitments to voters in the last election. He has completely forgotten the central engagement for fiscal responsibility for balanced budgets in this term for $25 billion in debt. Instead, he has delivered $119 billion in debt and counting.The Prime Minister said that budgets balance themselves, that there is an absolute commitment to balance the budget. Why did the finance minister so utterly violate that fundamental commitment to Canadian voters?
Mr. Speaker, it sounds like the only people the minister is consulting in Alberta are NDP politicians, who did not even mention a carbon tax in their election campaign. We are going through the toughest recession we have had in decades, and the worst possible thing is to hike prices and impose new taxes on everything. Brad Wall understands that. He is opposed to the current government's top-down, do-it-or-else approach to federalism. Will the current government stop killing jobs and making a bad situation worse in Alberta? Will the Liberals stop their carbon tax plan?
Mr. Speaker, only the Prime Minister thinks that we are stepping up our fight by ending our combat mission. It makes no sense. Neither did it make sense when the Prime Minister said that budgets balanced themselves. Now, we have broken through a $10 billion deficit commitment. Now we are hot on a trail of a $30 billion deficit, a completely wrecked campaign commitment.Does thePrime Minister not understand that deficits now mean higher taxes in the future? Does he still believe that budgets balance themselves?
Mr. Speaker, I have seen a lot of things in this place, but never a finance minister who so blatantly contradicts his own department, which said this week that the government was left a $4-billion surplus for the first three quarters of this year.The key question is this: why did this government break its solemn election promise to balance the budget during its term and keep the new debt below $25 billion? The Liberals are increasing the federal debt by $120 billion right out of the gate. Why is this government
Mr. Speaker, there is a question that the hon. finance minister keeps rather obviously avoiding and debating, which is why he and the Prime Minister chose to violate
Mr. Speaker, the minister's answer was totally incoherent, so there is nothing to apologize for. I would encourage the minister to explain why this government--
Mr. Speaker, apparently the minister wants decisions to be made by Twitter. We want decisions to be made by the people.Parliament does not belong to politicians. Parliament does not belong to the Liberal Party. Parliament belongs to the Canadian people. Why is the government not allowing Canadians to make this decision instead of politicians?
Mr. Speaker, the minister says that we need to work together in her warm tones, while at the same time stacking the entire process for a Liberal rigging of the process by which we choose this Parliament that belongs to the Canadian people.We believe in government of, for, and by the people, not of, for, and by the Liberal Party.In her litany of our Conservative electoral reforms, she neglected to mention the 2005 P.E.I. referendum, the 2007 Ontario referendum, the 2009 British Columbia referendum.The problem for the Liberals is that those voters did not give those Liberal governments the answer that they wanted.Why not let the people decide, rather than the Liberal Party?
Mr. Speaker, tens of thousands of Canadian energy workers have lost their jobs. Our economy is losing billions of dollars in wealth, because we cannot get our oil to markets.The Liberals have responded by rolling over on Keystone XL's veto, shutting down the northern gateway pipeline with their tanker ban, adding a politicized delay to the Trans Mountain approved pipeline, and letting Liberals, like Denis Coderre, attack energy east without a response.Enough is enough. When will the government stand up for energy workers, for Canadian jobs, and for the Canadian economy?
Mr. Speaker, the minister clearly still does not get it. The government does not respect the millions of Canadian voters who would like to have a say on how they elect their representatives to this place, and is limiting that consultation to the few hundred people that show up as hand-picked witnesses at a parliamentary committee.Why does she disagree with the wisdom of 73% of Canadians who believe that this Parliament should observe the long-standing convention in other Westminster parliaments and Canadian provinces of allowing the voters to decide instead of politicians?
Mr. Speaker, the problem is that the Prime Minister made a very clear commitment that the deficit would not go over $10 billion. This week, the Liberals admitted that the deficit might hit $30 billion. The figure tripled in three months.My question for the Prime Minister is simple. How will the Liberals reduce this significant deficit that is growing day by day without increasing taxes? Which taxes will they increase?
Mr. Speaker, I thank the minister for her response, although she is not committing to tougher penalties. The Government of Alberta is not taking greater action and the Liberals today at the health committee voted down a motion by my colleague for Calgary Confederation for an emergency study on the fentanyl crisis at the health committee. We know that fentanyl is primarily produced in China. Much of it is smuggled to Canada, so did the Prime Minister raise these illicit fentanyl exports from China with his counterparts during his recent visit?
Mr. Speaker, clearly the minister does not understand the conflict of interest that exists when politicians choose their own electoral system. That is why other jurisdictions have had royal commissions and citizen assemblies followed by referendums. Why does the minister want to put politicians in a conflict of interest situation? Why not let millions of Canadians choose through a referendum?
Madam Speaker, it might occur to the minister that those three OECD countries are also the oldest and most stable continuing democracies in the world.The minister has been misleading this place by citing referendum turnouts at the provincial level. The fact is, in 1992, the last time we had a national referendum, 72% of Canadians voted, versus 63% in the last three federal elections. In Ontario and B.C., voter participation in the electoral reform referendum was higher than in the general elections.Why has the minister been misleading this House?
Mr. Speaker, the two-thirds of Canadians who demand a referendum on how they elected their MPs will not be confused by the smugness of the minister. The last time we had a referendum in this country, which was 1992 under a Conservative government, 14 million Canadians voted. In a typical parliamentary study, fewer than 100 witnesses appear. How could she possibly think that a process involving dozens or hundreds of people is more inclusive than one involving tens of millions?
Mr. Speaker, under the Conservative government, the Alberta Clipper, the Keystone, and the Anchor Loop were all approved and built. Line 9 was reversed, adding $1.25 billion
Madam Speaker, that is exactly why this government is refusing to recognize the genocide as such. This government decided to end Canada's combat mission against the genocidal terrorists of Daesh. It was this government that withdrew Canada's air force, which was combatting these genocidal terrorists in the Middle East.Will the minister admit that the reason he is refusing to recognize the genocide as such is that Canada ended its combat mission?
Mr. Speaker, the deadly drug fentanyl is plaguing western Canada. In the last 18 months, well over 400 Albertans have died from fentanyl overdoses. We need to send a message to drug pushers who are poisoning Canadians with fentanyl that to do so is tantamount to a death sentence. When will the Liberals take action and introduce heavy mandatory sentences for fentanyl traffickers?
Mr. Speaker, the government is intent on imposing job-killing carbon taxes on the provinces. Its message is, Either you do this, or we will force you to. So much for sunny ways.Carbon taxes raise the price of everything, from filling up the gas tank to buying groceries to heating homes, and they kill jobs. Why is the current government so intent on raising the price of everything and killing jobs through its carbon tax?
Mr. Speaker, I find it disturbing that the Minister of Foreign Affairs is so profoundly misinformed on a matter of such great moral importance.In fact, the United States, the U.K., and EU, in their motions recognizing this genocide, apply that term to what this terrorist death cult is doing to the Chaldeans, the Assyrians, the Armenians, the Christians, and to other indigenous minorities, not only the terribly benighted Yazidis.Will the minister not again follow that international lead, follow Canada's natural moral conscience, and recognize the broader genocide happening?
Mr. Speaker, the genocidal death cult of ISIL has claimed responsibility for today's terrible attacks in Brussels, leading French President Hollande to say that Europe is at war with ISIS.Is Canada also at war with ISIS, and if so, why did we end our combat operations against that terrorist organization?
Madam Speaker, on March 17, United States Secretary of State John Kerry said that ISIS is responsible for genocide, but five days later in this place, the minister of global affairs denied Secretary Kerry's recognition, saying instead that the U.S. wanted to do more research.The British Parliament and the U.S. House of Representatives have unanimously endorsed a recognition of the genocide as such. ISIS itself does not deny its efforts to exterminate these historic communities, so why will the government not just recognize this genocide?
Mr. Speaker, I want to come back to the fact that the government has misled this place on the question of ISIS's genocide. The government denies the recognition of the genocide by the United States, even though Secretary Kerry said, Daesh is responsible for genocide...[and] is genocidal by self-proclamation.The government also says that it needs an international tribunal of lawyers to declare a genocide, yet the House recognized the Armenian genocide as such in 2004, without an international judicial process. True, the Liberal government voted against that recognition. Are the Liberals now saying that the Armenian genocide did not happen, because it has not been recognized by an international tribunal?
Mr. Speaker, it is unfortunate that it took this stubborn minister so long to realize the facts that have been staring the world in the face.While I appreciate his reflection on today's UN report with respect to the Yazidis, his statement today is simply insufficient because this genocide affects more than the Yazidis. It affects the other indigenous minorities of Mesopotamia. It affects the Assyrians, the Chaldeans, and the Armenians. Will the minister not join the U.S., EU, U.K., and the opposition in recognizing the broader genocide of Daesh?
Madam Speaker, that is legal pettifogging. Those are word games. This is not about a judicial process. This House and the previous Conservative government recognized the historical reality of the Armenian genocide without an international judicial process. We did so with respect to other historic genocides. This is happening today. We do not have time to wait for lawyers. We do not want to give ISIS the benefit of the doubt in a judicial process. We need simply to reflect the reality that it is seeking to exterminate the indigenous communities of Mesopotamia. Why will the government not follow the lead of Britain and the United States and
Madam Speaker, that non-answer reminds us of why Chantal Hébert characterized this minister's responses as asinine, disingenuous, discredited, farcical, and [insulting] our intelligence.In fact, the voter participation in those provincial referenda was higher than in the general elections. People are more prone to vote on the quasi-constitutional nature of their electoral system; 72% of Canadians voted in the Charlottetown Accord.Why does the minister want to exclude the voices of millions and millions of Canadians?
Mr. Speaker, the British Parliament, American Congress, and European Parliament have all passed unanimous motions.Secretary Kerry said, Daesh is responsible for genocide, and Daesh is genocidal by self-proclamation, by ideology, and by actionsin what it says, what it believes, and what it does.Our Prime Minister said that to recognize it would be to trivialize it. What this government's genocide denial is doing is trivializing the suffering of these people and their attempted extermination.Is the government not just covering up for its ending the combat role of Canada against those responsible?
Mr. Speaker, so it is not the Liberal culture to respect the majority of Canadians on the precise question of how they elect their representatives to their Parliament. This place does not belong to the Liberal Party, and the very question of legitimacy is at stake here. It is absolutely clear if the Liberals thought they could get a majority of Canadians to endorse their rigged system, they would hold a referendum. Is it not true? The only reason they refuse to do so is because Canadians would veto the Liberal rigged electoral system.
Mr. Speaker, yesterday we witnessed the shameful spectacle of the Liberal government denying the undeniable reality of a genocide happening in our own time against vulnerable religious minorities. The Minister of Foreign Affairs actually led the Liberals in applause to celebrate their vote against this genocide recognition. They say they need some group of lawyers to make a determination about this when the organization responsible, the so-called Islamic state, admits it is committing genocide. It is seeking to eliminate what they called apostates, Shia, and Yazidi, and to enslave so-called infidels, like Christians. Why are they contesting
Mr. Speaker, their excuses for trying to rig the system are getting more and more ridiculous and transparent with that answer.The minister is talking about a fake consultation process that interest groups will be involved in, maybe a few thousand people. We want the ultimate consultation that allows ten of millions of Canadians to decide how they elect their representatives.Why is the current Liberal government so determined to be the first government of a major democracy to change the electoral system without a direct popular mandate expressed in a referendum?
Mr. Speaker, I have never seen a parliamentary secretary attack his own department for saying that the budget was balanced.Not only are the Liberals blowing Canada's hard-won surplus, now they plan to help their Ontario Liberal friends impose a new job-killing payroll tax and a new tax on everything, a tax on carbon. All of that means fewer jobs and lower income.Why in the world would the Liberals be killing jobs through higher taxes, particularly at a time of economic fragility?
1.25 million barrels of capacity a day.He talks about northern gateway. The government killed it on day one by announcing, through fiat, its northern tanker traffic ban, even though hundreds of tankers come down that route from Alaska, hundreds come into our east coast from foreign countries.How is the government going to take seriously northern gateway, when it has already shut it down with its prejudicial tanker ban?
Mr. Speaker, a United Nations report includes details of the mass killings and sexual slavery of thousands of Yazidis by the so-called Islamic State. The genocide of the Yazidis is on-going, the report concludes. Now that the UN has joined the European Union, the United States, and the United Kingdom in recognizing that the self-proclaimed Daesh is committing genocide, will the government finally call this campaign of extermination what it really is, genocide?
Mr. Speaker, Canada used to be a moral leader. Are we now following Sweden?The European Union parliament said that ISIS is committing genocide. The American Congress unanimously said that all governments should call ISIL atrocities genocide. The U.K. parliament unanimously recognized that genocide is being perpetrated.Why is the minister denying the genocide that ISIS itself admits it is committing?
Mr. Speaker, in a feat of completely unprecedented fiscal incompetence, the government has taken us from a surplus to a $10-billion deficit and now to a $30-billion deficit.It is clear as day that the Liberals misled Canadians in the last election with their bogus fiscal promises.My question is simple. Why did the Liberals hide the truth about their agenda to massively expand the cost of government, and to run huge and growing deficits?
Mr. Speaker, as a member of the former government, I assure the minister that he is mistaken, that I and other ministers did recognize the genocidal nature of what is happening. The five genocides to which he refers were recognized by motions of this House. We are asking the government, as an executive action, to recognize this reality.The European Parliament, the U.S. Congress, and the Obama administration have done so. Why, then, has this Liberal government reversed Canada's position? Why is it denying the genocide against these Middle Eastern peoples that is happening right now?
Mr. Speaker, whether it is here or in Alberta, I will always fight for people's interests, including against the carbon tax. On a different matter, yesterday I put a motion to this place, the same as Conservatives proposed as a vote last June, to recognize that the crimes against humanity being committed by the so-called Islamic State against the Assyrian, Yazidi, Shia, and other religious minorities of Mesopotamia, constitute genocide. This has been recognized by the European Parliament, the U.S. Congress, and the British House of Commons.Why did the government, yesterday, again reject this motion, a second timeonce in June and then again yesterday? Will it not recognize the reality of this genocide against these minorities?
Mr. Speaker, that is exactly the problem. Canadians made a choice based on an election promise that the government never planned to keep. The $10-billion deficit it promised has tripled in three months.Did the Liberals mislead Canadians during the election campaign? Why did the Liberals hide their real plans for massive spending increases and huge deficits?
Mr. Speaker, I invite the minister to move beyond her repetitive non-answers, beyond her refusal to allow the Canadian people to decide the manner by which they elect their representatives. The minister stands and pretends that a few hundred witnesses at a committee are more inclusive than a referendum that could involve 17 million or more voters. What does she not understand about this? This is a simple question of the legitimacy of this place. Does the government really think Canadians will accept a rigged system chosen by and for the Liberal Party of Canada?
Mr. Speaker, the government promised a new era of respect for Parliament. Instead, after just six months, we have the Liberals shutting down debate for the first time in our history on an end-of life conscience matter.The Liberals tried to rig the rules of this place to the government's total advantage through Motion No. 6. We commend them for withdrawing that, but now they are trying to rig the very system that elects members to this place.The minister has just said that we need to hear the voices of those Canadians who brought us to this place. Those were 17.5 million voices that will be excluded by her closed, Liberal-controlled parliamentary process.Why will the government not really demonstrate a commitment to democratic reforms through a referendum?
Mr. Speaker, I hope the minister is not suggesting that President Hollande was making politics in stating that Europe is at war with ISIS. ISIS is also engaged in a campaign to eradicate the ancient indigenous peoples of Mesopotamia, the Assyrian Yazidis, and other people. The previous Conservative government recognized this as a form of genocide, an example followed by the EU Parliament, the U.S. Congress, and the Obama administration. Why has the Liberal government reversed Canada's position recognizing the genocide of ISIS against the indigenous peoples of Mesopotamia?
Mr. Speaker, Canadians are fair-minded people, and that is why they know it is wrong for one political party to seek to impose an electoral system on this Parliament, and our entire country, over the objections of other parties and the majority of Canadians.The Liberal governments in B.C., Ontario, and P.E.I. all understood this, which is why they held referenda on electoral reform.Why does the current Liberal government have so much less confidence in the common sense of Canadians? Why will the current Liberal government not follow the provincial precedent of a referendum on electoral reform?
Mr. Speaker, that is unbelievable. They are using Mike Duffy's excuse.Yesterday brought yet more job losses for Albertans. Dozens are losing their jobs at Western Feedlots Ltd. with its closure, a key part of the western beef industry. Company president Dave Plett says that recent government policies like Bill 6 and the carbon tax have contributed to the decision to close its operations.With yet more proof that carbon taxes kill jobs, will the government please reconsider its ideological determination to impose a job-killing carbon tax on Albertans?
Mr. Speaker, during question period, I made reference to motions adopted by the parliament of the European Union, the Congress of the United States, and the Westminster parliament, in which each one of these legislatures recognized the reality of the genocide being committed by Daesh in the Middle East. I would, therefore, seek the unanimous consent of the House to table these motions.
Mr. Speaker, the minister just said that the electoral reform stacked process she is recommending is designed to serve the best interests of Canadians and not political parties.Let us be clear. The government wants the Liberal majority controlling the committee to opt for the preferred Liberal system to be approved by the Liberal cabinet, to be adopted by the Liberal majority in the House, notwithstanding any dissent, including from 35 million Canadians.Nothing could be clearer. The Liberals are trying to rig the system by and for the Liberal Party. Why not allow Canadians to protect the legitimacy of our elections through a referendum?
I normally do not have a problem with sound, Mr. Speaker.My question for the Minister of Finance is why he keeps evading this very key question. He says that the Liberal Party made two commitments to voters in the last election. He has completely forgotten the central engagement for fiscal responsibility for balanced budgets in this term for $25 billion in debt. Instead, he has delivered $119 billion in debt and counting.The Prime Minister said that budgets balance themselves, that there is an absolute commitment to balance the budget. Why did the finance minister so utterly violate that fundamental commitment to Canadian voters?
Mr. Speaker, it sounds like the only people the minister is consulting in Alberta are NDP politicians, who did not even mention a carbon tax in their election campaign. We are going through the toughest recession we have had in decades, and the worst possible thing is to hike prices and impose new taxes on everything. Brad Wall understands that. He is opposed to the current government's top-down, do-it-or-else approach to federalism. Will the current government stop killing jobs and making a bad situation worse in Alberta? Will the Liberals stop their carbon tax plan?
Mr. Speaker, only the Prime Minister thinks that we are stepping up our fight by ending our combat mission. It makes no sense. Neither did it make sense when the Prime Minister said that budgets balanced themselves. Now, we have broken through a $10 billion deficit commitment. Now we are hot on a trail of a $30 billion deficit, a completely wrecked campaign commitment.Does thePrime Minister not understand that deficits now mean higher taxes in the future? Does he still believe that budgets balance themselves?
Mr. Speaker, I have seen a lot of things in this place, but never a finance minister who so blatantly contradicts his own department, which said this week that the government was left a $4-billion surplus for the first three quarters of this year.The key question is this: why did this government break its solemn election promise to balance the budget during its term and keep the new debt below $25 billion? The Liberals are increasing the federal debt by $120 billion right out of the gate. Why is this government
Mr. Speaker, there is a question that the hon. finance minister keeps rather obviously avoiding and debating, which is why he and the Prime Minister chose to violate
Mr. Speaker, the minister's answer was totally incoherent, so there is nothing to apologize for. I would encourage the minister to explain why this government--
Mr. Speaker, apparently the minister wants decisions to be made by Twitter. We want decisions to be made by the people.Parliament does not belong to politicians. Parliament does not belong to the Liberal Party. Parliament belongs to the Canadian people. Why is the government not allowing Canadians to make this decision instead of politicians?
Mr. Speaker, the minister says that we need to work together in her warm tones, while at the same time stacking the entire process for a Liberal rigging of the process by which we choose this Parliament that belongs to the Canadian people.We believe in government of, for, and by the people, not of, for, and by the Liberal Party.In her litany of our Conservative electoral reforms, she neglected to mention the 2005 P.E.I. referendum, the 2007 Ontario referendum, the 2009 British Columbia referendum.The problem for the Liberals is that those voters did not give those Liberal governments the answer that they wanted.Why not let the people decide, rather than the Liberal Party?
Mr. Speaker, tens of thousands of Canadian energy workers have lost their jobs. Our economy is losing billions of dollars in wealth, because we cannot get our oil to markets.The Liberals have responded by rolling over on Keystone XL's veto, shutting down the northern gateway pipeline with their tanker ban, adding a politicized delay to the Trans Mountain approved pipeline, and letting Liberals, like Denis Coderre, attack energy east without a response.Enough is enough. When will the government stand up for energy workers, for Canadian jobs, and for the Canadian economy?
Mr. Speaker, the minister clearly still does not get it. The government does not respect the millions of Canadian voters who would like to have a say on how they elect their representatives to this place, and is limiting that consultation to the few hundred people that show up as hand-picked witnesses at a parliamentary committee.Why does she disagree with the wisdom of 73% of Canadians who believe that this Parliament should observe the long-standing convention in other Westminster parliaments and Canadian provinces of allowing the voters to decide instead of politicians?
Mr. Speaker, the problem is that the Prime Minister made a very clear commitment that the deficit would not go over $10 billion. This week, the Liberals admitted that the deficit might hit $30 billion. The figure tripled in three months.My question for the Prime Minister is simple. How will the Liberals reduce this significant deficit that is growing day by day without increasing taxes? Which taxes will they increase?
Mr. Speaker, I thank the minister for her response, although she is not committing to tougher penalties. The Government of Alberta is not taking greater action and the Liberals today at the health committee voted down a motion by my colleague for Calgary Confederation for an emergency study on the fentanyl crisis at the health committee. We know that fentanyl is primarily produced in China. Much of it is smuggled to Canada, so did the Prime Minister raise these illicit fentanyl exports from China with his counterparts during his recent visit?
Mr. Speaker, clearly the minister does not understand the conflict of interest that exists when politicians choose their own electoral system. That is why other jurisdictions have had royal commissions and citizen assemblies followed by referendums. Why does the minister want to put politicians in a conflict of interest situation? Why not let millions of Canadians choose through a referendum?
Madam Speaker, it might occur to the minister that those three OECD countries are also the oldest and most stable continuing democracies in the world.The minister has been misleading this place by citing referendum turnouts at the provincial level. The fact is, in 1992, the last time we had a national referendum, 72% of Canadians voted, versus 63% in the last three federal elections. In Ontario and B.C., voter participation in the electoral reform referendum was higher than in the general elections.Why has the minister been misleading this House?
Mr. Speaker, the two-thirds of Canadians who demand a referendum on how they elected their MPs will not be confused by the smugness of the minister. The last time we had a referendum in this country, which was 1992 under a Conservative government, 14 million Canadians voted. In a typical parliamentary study, fewer than 100 witnesses appear. How could she possibly think that a process involving dozens or hundreds of people is more inclusive than one involving tens of millions?
Mr. Speaker, under the Conservative government, the Alberta Clipper, the Keystone, and the Anchor Loop were all approved and built. Line 9 was reversed, adding $1.25 billion
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Mr. Speaker, the genocidal death cult of ISIL has claimed responsibility for today's terrible attacks in Brussels, leading French President Hollande to say that Europe is at war with ISIS.Is Canada also at war with ISIS, and if so, why did we end our combat operations against that terrorist organization?
Mr. Speaker, it sounds like the only people the minister is consulting in Alberta are NDP politicians, who did not even mention a carbon tax in their election campaign. We are going through the toughest recession we have had in decades, and the worst possible thing is to hike prices and impose new taxes on everything. Brad Wall understands that. He is opposed to the current government's top-down, do-it-or-else approach to federalism. Will the current government stop killing jobs and making a bad situation worse in Alberta? Will the Liberals stop their carbon tax plan?
Mr. Speaker, the minister's answer was totally incoherent, so there is nothing to apologize for. I would encourage the minister to explain why this government--
1.25 million barrels of capacity a day.He talks about northern gateway. The government killed it on day one by announcing, through fiat, its northern tanker traffic ban, even though hundreds of tankers come down that route from Alaska, hundreds come into our east coast from foreign countries.How is the government going to take seriously northern gateway, when it has already shut it down with its prejudicial tanker ban?
Mr. Speaker, I hope the minister is not suggesting that President Hollande was making politics in stating that Europe is at war with ISIS. ISIS is also engaged in a campaign to eradicate the ancient indigenous peoples of Mesopotamia, the Assyrian Yazidis, and other people. The previous Conservative government recognized this as a form of genocide, an example followed by the EU Parliament, the U.S. Congress, and the Obama administration. Why has the Liberal government reversed Canada's position recognizing the genocide of ISIS against the indigenous peoples of Mesopotamia?
Mr. Speaker, Canadians are fair-minded people, and that is why they know it is wrong for one political party to seek to impose an electoral system on this Parliament, and our entire country, over the objections of other parties and the majority of Canadians.The Liberal governments in B.C., Ontario, and P.E.I. all understood this, which is why they held referenda on electoral reform.Why does the current Liberal government have so much less confidence in the common sense of Canadians? Why will the current Liberal government not follow the provincial precedent of a referendum on electoral reform?
Madam Speaker, that non-answer reminds us of why Chantal Hébert characterized this minister's responses as asinine, disingenuous, discredited, farcical, and [insulting] our intelligence.In fact, the voter participation in those provincial referenda was higher than in the general elections. People are more prone to vote on the quasi-constitutional nature of their electoral system; 72% of Canadians voted in the Charlottetown Accord.Why does the minister want to exclude the voices of millions and millions of Canadians?
Mr. Speaker, tens of thousands of Canadian energy workers have lost their jobs. Our economy is losing billions of dollars in wealth, because we cannot get our oil to markets.The Liberals have responded by rolling over on Keystone XL's veto, shutting down the northern gateway pipeline with their tanker ban, adding a politicized delay to the Trans Mountain approved pipeline, and letting Liberals, like Denis Coderre, attack energy east without a response.Enough is enough. When will the government stand up for energy workers, for Canadian jobs, and for the Canadian economy?
Mr. Speaker, I find it disturbing that the Minister of Foreign Affairs is so profoundly misinformed on a matter of such great moral importance.In fact, the United States, the U.K., and EU, in their motions recognizing this genocide, apply that term to what this terrorist death cult is doing to the Chaldeans, the Assyrians, the Armenians, the Christians, and to other indigenous minorities, not only the terribly benighted Yazidis.Will the minister not again follow that international lead, follow Canada's natural moral conscience, and recognize the broader genocide happening?
Mr. Speaker, the deadly drug fentanyl is plaguing western Canada. In the last 18 months, well over 400 Albertans have died from fentanyl overdoses. We need to send a message to drug pushers who are poisoning Canadians with fentanyl that to do so is tantamount to a death sentence. When will the Liberals take action and introduce heavy mandatory sentences for fentanyl traffickers?
Mr. Speaker, it is unfortunate that it took this stubborn minister so long to realize the facts that have been staring the world in the face.While I appreciate his reflection on today's UN report with respect to the Yazidis, his statement today is simply insufficient because this genocide affects more than the Yazidis. It affects the other indigenous minorities of Mesopotamia. It affects the Assyrians, the Chaldeans, and the Armenians. Will the minister not join the U.S., EU, U.K., and the opposition in recognizing the broader genocide of Daesh?
Mr. Speaker, only the Prime Minister thinks that we are stepping up our fight by ending our combat mission. It makes no sense. Neither did it make sense when the Prime Minister said that budgets balanced themselves. Now, we have broken through a $10 billion deficit commitment. Now we are hot on a trail of a $30 billion deficit, a completely wrecked campaign commitment.Does thePrime Minister not understand that deficits now mean higher taxes in the future? Does he still believe that budgets balance themselves?
Mr. Speaker, whether it is here or in Alberta, I will always fight for people's interests, including against the carbon tax. On a different matter, yesterday I put a motion to this place, the same as Conservatives proposed as a vote last June, to recognize that the crimes against humanity being committed by the so-called Islamic State against the Assyrian, Yazidi, Shia, and other religious minorities of Mesopotamia, constitute genocide. This has been recognized by the European Parliament, the U.S. Congress, and the British House of Commons.Why did the government, yesterday, again reject this motion, a second timeonce in June and then again yesterday? Will it not recognize the reality of this genocide against these minorities?
Mr. Speaker, the two-thirds of Canadians who demand a referendum on how they elected their MPs will not be confused by the smugness of the minister. The last time we had a referendum in this country, which was 1992 under a Conservative government, 14 million Canadians voted. In a typical parliamentary study, fewer than 100 witnesses appear. How could she possibly think that a process involving dozens or hundreds of people is more inclusive than one involving tens of millions?
Madam Speaker, that is legal pettifogging. Those are word games. This is not about a judicial process. This House and the previous Conservative government recognized the historical reality of the Armenian genocide without an international judicial process. We did so with respect to other historic genocides. This is happening today. We do not have time to wait for lawyers. We do not want to give ISIS the benefit of the doubt in a judicial process. We need simply to reflect the reality that it is seeking to exterminate the indigenous communities of Mesopotamia. Why will the government not follow the lead of Britain and the United States and
Mr. Speaker, the genocidal death cult of ISIL has claimed responsibility for today's terrible attacks in Brussels, leading French President Hollande to say that Europe is at war with ISIS.Is Canada also at war with ISIS, and if so, why did we end our combat operations against that terrorist organization?
Mr. Speaker, it sounds like the only people the minister is consulting in Alberta are NDP politicians, who did not even mention a carbon tax in their election campaign. We are going through the toughest recession we have had in decades, and the worst possible thing is to hike prices and impose new taxes on everything. Brad Wall understands that. He is opposed to the current government's top-down, do-it-or-else approach to federalism. Will the current government stop killing jobs and making a bad situation worse in Alberta? Will the Liberals stop their carbon tax plan?
Mr. Speaker, the minister's answer was totally incoherent, so there is nothing to apologize for. I would encourage the minister to explain why this government--
1.25 million barrels of capacity a day.He talks about northern gateway. The government killed it on day one by announcing, through fiat, its northern tanker traffic ban, even though hundreds of tankers come down that route from Alaska, hundreds come into our east coast from foreign countries.How is the government going to take seriously northern gateway, when it has already shut it down with its prejudicial tanker ban?
Mr. Speaker, I hope the minister is not suggesting that President Hollande was making politics in stating that Europe is at war with ISIS. ISIS is also engaged in a campaign to eradicate the ancient indigenous peoples of Mesopotamia, the Assyrian Yazidis, and other people. The previous Conservative government recognized this as a form of genocide, an example followed by the EU Parliament, the U.S. Congress, and the Obama administration. Why has the Liberal government reversed Canada's position recognizing the genocide of ISIS against the indigenous peoples of Mesopotamia?
Mr. Speaker, Canadians are fair-minded people, and that is why they know it is wrong for one political party to seek to impose an electoral system on this Parliament, and our entire country, over the objections of other parties and the majority of Canadians.The Liberal governments in B.C., Ontario, and P.E.I. all understood this, which is why they held referenda on electoral reform.Why does the current Liberal government have so much less confidence in the common sense of Canadians? Why will the current Liberal government not follow the provincial precedent of a referendum on electoral reform?
Madam Speaker, that non-answer reminds us of why Chantal Hébert characterized this minister's responses as asinine, disingenuous, discredited, farcical, and [insulting] our intelligence.In fact, the voter participation in those provincial referenda was higher than in the general elections. People are more prone to vote on the quasi-constitutional nature of their electoral system; 72% of Canadians voted in the Charlottetown Accord.Why does the minister want to exclude the voices of millions and millions of Canadians?
Mr. Speaker, tens of thousands of Canadian energy workers have lost their jobs. Our economy is losing billions of dollars in wealth, because we cannot get our oil to markets.The Liberals have responded by rolling over on Keystone XL's veto, shutting down the northern gateway pipeline with their tanker ban, adding a politicized delay to the Trans Mountain approved pipeline, and letting Liberals, like Denis Coderre, attack energy east without a response.Enough is enough. When will the government stand up for energy workers, for Canadian jobs, and for the Canadian economy?
Mr. Speaker, I find it disturbing that the Minister of Foreign Affairs is so profoundly misinformed on a matter of such great moral importance.In fact, the United States, the U.K., and EU, in their motions recognizing this genocide, apply that term to what this terrorist death cult is doing to the Chaldeans, the Assyrians, the Armenians, the Christians, and to other indigenous minorities, not only the terribly benighted Yazidis.Will the minister not again follow that international lead, follow Canada's natural moral conscience, and recognize the broader genocide happening?
Mr. Speaker, the deadly drug fentanyl is plaguing western Canada. In the last 18 months, well over 400 Albertans have died from fentanyl overdoses. We need to send a message to drug pushers who are poisoning Canadians with fentanyl that to do so is tantamount to a death sentence. When will the Liberals take action and introduce heavy mandatory sentences for fentanyl traffickers?
Mr. Speaker, it is unfortunate that it took this stubborn minister so long to realize the facts that have been staring the world in the face.While I appreciate his reflection on today's UN report with respect to the Yazidis, his statement today is simply insufficient because this genocide affects more than the Yazidis. It affects the other indigenous minorities of Mesopotamia. It affects the Assyrians, the Chaldeans, and the Armenians. Will the minister not join the U.S., EU, U.K., and the opposition in recognizing the broader genocide of Daesh?
Mr. Speaker, only the Prime Minister thinks that we are stepping up our fight by ending our combat mission. It makes no sense. Neither did it make sense when the Prime Minister said that budgets balanced themselves. Now, we have broken through a $10 billion deficit commitment. Now we are hot on a trail of a $30 billion deficit, a completely wrecked campaign commitment.Does thePrime Minister not understand that deficits now mean higher taxes in the future? Does he still believe that budgets balance themselves?
Mr. Speaker, whether it is here or in Alberta, I will always fight for people's interests, including against the carbon tax. On a different matter, yesterday I put a motion to this place, the same as Conservatives proposed as a vote last June, to recognize that the crimes against humanity being committed by the so-called Islamic State against the Assyrian, Yazidi, Shia, and other religious minorities of Mesopotamia, constitute genocide. This has been recognized by the European Parliament, the U.S. Congress, and the British House of Commons.Why did the government, yesterday, again reject this motion, a second timeonce in June and then again yesterday? Will it not recognize the reality of this genocide against these minorities?
Mr. Speaker, the two-thirds of Canadians who demand a referendum on how they elected their MPs will not be confused by the smugness of the minister. The last time we had a referendum in this country, which was 1992 under a Conservative government, 14 million Canadians voted. In a typical parliamentary study, fewer than 100 witnesses appear. How could she possibly think that a process involving dozens or hundreds of people is more inclusive than one involving tens of millions?
Madam Speaker, that is legal pettifogging. Those are word games. This is not about a judicial process. This House and the previous Conservative government recognized the historical reality of the Armenian genocide without an international judicial process. We did so with respect to other historic genocides. This is happening today. We do not have time to wait for lawyers. We do not want to give ISIS the benefit of the doubt in a judicial process. We need simply to reflect the reality that it is seeking to exterminate the indigenous communities of Mesopotamia. Why will the government not follow the lead of Britain and the United States and
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Mr. Speaker, the minister just said that the electoral reform stacked process she is recommending is designed to serve the best interests of Canadians and not political parties.Let us be clear. The government wants the Liberal majority controlling the committee to opt for the preferred Liberal system to be approved by the Liberal cabinet, to be adopted by the Liberal majority in the House, notwithstanding any dissent, including from 35 million Canadians.Nothing could be clearer. The Liberals are trying to rig the system by and for the Liberal Party. Why not allow Canadians to protect the legitimacy of our elections through a referendum?
Mr. Speaker, I invite the minister to move beyond her repetitive non-answers, beyond her refusal to allow the Canadian people to decide the manner by which they elect their representatives. The minister stands and pretends that a few hundred witnesses at a committee are more inclusive than a referendum that could involve 17 million or more voters. What does she not understand about this? This is a simple question of the legitimacy of this place. Does the government really think Canadians will accept a rigged system chosen by and for the Liberal Party of Canada?
Mr. Speaker, so it is not the Liberal culture to respect the majority of Canadians on the precise question of how they elect their representatives to their Parliament. This place does not belong to the Liberal Party, and the very question of legitimacy is at stake here. It is absolutely clear if the Liberals thought they could get a majority of Canadians to endorse their rigged system, they would hold a referendum. Is it not true? The only reason they refuse to do so is because Canadians would veto the Liberal rigged electoral system.
Mr. Speaker, I have never seen a parliamentary secretary attack his own department for saying that the budget was balanced.Not only are the Liberals blowing Canada's hard-won surplus, now they plan to help their Ontario Liberal friends impose a new job-killing payroll tax and a new tax on everything, a tax on carbon. All of that means fewer jobs and lower income.Why in the world would the Liberals be killing jobs through higher taxes, particularly at a time of economic fragility?
Mr. Speaker, that is exactly the problem. Canadians made a choice based on an election promise that the government never planned to keep. The $10-billion deficit it promised has tripled in three months.Did the Liberals mislead Canadians during the election campaign? Why did the Liberals hide their real plans for massive spending increases and huge deficits?
Mr. Speaker, clearly the minister does not understand the conflict of interest that exists when politicians choose their own electoral system. That is why other jurisdictions have had royal commissions and citizen assemblies followed by referendums. Why does the minister want to put politicians in a conflict of interest situation? Why not let millions of Canadians choose through a referendum?
Mr. Speaker, in a feat of completely unprecedented fiscal incompetence, the government has taken us from a surplus to a $10-billion deficit and now to a $30-billion deficit.It is clear as day that the Liberals misled Canadians in the last election with their bogus fiscal promises.My question is simple. Why did the Liberals hide the truth about their agenda to massively expand the cost of government, and to run huge and growing deficits?
Mr. Speaker, a United Nations report includes details of the mass killings and sexual slavery of thousands of Yazidis by the so-called Islamic State. The genocide of the Yazidis is on-going, the report concludes. Now that the UN has joined the European Union, the United States, and the United Kingdom in recognizing that the self-proclaimed Daesh is committing genocide, will the government finally call this campaign of extermination what it really is, genocide?
Mr. Speaker, I thank the minister for her response, although she is not committing to tougher penalties. The Government of Alberta is not taking greater action and the Liberals today at the health committee voted down a motion by my colleague for Calgary Confederation for an emergency study on the fentanyl crisis at the health committee. We know that fentanyl is primarily produced in China. Much of it is smuggled to Canada, so did the Prime Minister raise these illicit fentanyl exports from China with his counterparts during his recent visit?
Mr. Speaker, the problem is that the Prime Minister made a very clear commitment that the deficit would not go over $10 billion. This week, the Liberals admitted that the deficit might hit $30 billion. The figure tripled in three months.My question for the Prime Minister is simple. How will the Liberals reduce this significant deficit that is growing day by day without increasing taxes? Which taxes will they increase?
Madam Speaker, it might occur to the minister that those three OECD countries are also the oldest and most stable continuing democracies in the world.The minister has been misleading this place by citing referendum turnouts at the provincial level. The fact is, in 1992, the last time we had a national referendum, 72% of Canadians voted, versus 63% in the last three federal elections. In Ontario and B.C., voter participation in the electoral reform referendum was higher than in the general elections.Why has the minister been misleading this House?
Mr. Speaker, the minister says that we need to work together in her warm tones, while at the same time stacking the entire process for a Liberal rigging of the process by which we choose this Parliament that belongs to the Canadian people.We believe in government of, for, and by the people, not of, for, and by the Liberal Party.In her litany of our Conservative electoral reforms, she neglected to mention the 2005 P.E.I. referendum, the 2007 Ontario referendum, the 2009 British Columbia referendum.The problem for the Liberals is that those voters did not give those Liberal governments the answer that they wanted.Why not let the people decide, rather than the Liberal Party?
Mr. Speaker, the minister clearly still does not get it. The government does not respect the millions of Canadian voters who would like to have a say on how they elect their representatives to this place, and is limiting that consultation to the few hundred people that show up as hand-picked witnesses at a parliamentary committee.Why does she disagree with the wisdom of 73% of Canadians who believe that this Parliament should observe the long-standing convention in other Westminster parliaments and Canadian provinces of allowing the voters to decide instead of politicians?
Mr. Speaker, their excuses for trying to rig the system are getting more and more ridiculous and transparent with that answer.The minister is talking about a fake consultation process that interest groups will be involved in, maybe a few thousand people. We want the ultimate consultation that allows ten of millions of Canadians to decide how they elect their representatives.Why is the current Liberal government so determined to be the first government of a major democracy to change the electoral system without a direct popular mandate expressed in a referendum?
Mr. Speaker, apparently the minister wants decisions to be made by Twitter. We want decisions to be made by the people.Parliament does not belong to politicians. Parliament does not belong to the Liberal Party. Parliament belongs to the Canadian people. Why is the government not allowing Canadians to make this decision instead of politicians?
Mr. Speaker, I have seen a lot of things in this place, but never a finance minister who so blatantly contradicts his own department, which said this week that the government was left a $4-billion surplus for the first three quarters of this year.The key question is this: why did this government break its solemn election promise to balance the budget during its term and keep the new debt below $25 billion? The Liberals are increasing the federal debt by $120 billion right out of the gate. Why is this government
Mr. Speaker, that is unbelievable. They are using Mike Duffy's excuse.Yesterday brought yet more job losses for Albertans. Dozens are losing their jobs at Western Feedlots Ltd. with its closure, a key part of the western beef industry. Company president Dave Plett says that recent government policies like Bill 6 and the carbon tax have contributed to the decision to close its operations.With yet more proof that carbon taxes kill jobs, will the government please reconsider its ideological determination to impose a job-killing carbon tax on Albertans?
Mr. Speaker, the government is intent on imposing job-killing carbon taxes on the provinces. Its message is, Either you do this, or we will force you to. So much for sunny ways.Carbon taxes raise the price of everything, from filling up the gas tank to buying groceries to heating homes, and they kill jobs. Why is the current government so intent on raising the price of everything and killing jobs through its carbon tax?
Madam Speaker, on March 17, United States Secretary of State John Kerry said that ISIS is responsible for genocide, but five days later in this place, the minister of global affairs denied Secretary Kerry's recognition, saying instead that the U.S. wanted to do more research.The British Parliament and the U.S. House of Representatives have unanimously endorsed a recognition of the genocide as such. ISIS itself does not deny its efforts to exterminate these historic communities, so why will the government not just recognize this genocide?
Mr. Speaker, the British Parliament, American Congress, and European Parliament have all passed unanimous motions.Secretary Kerry said, Daesh is responsible for genocide, and Daesh is genocidal by self-proclamation, by ideology, and by actionsin what it says, what it believes, and what it does.Our Prime Minister said that to recognize it would be to trivialize it. What this government's genocide denial is doing is trivializing the suffering of these people and their attempted extermination.Is the government not just covering up for its ending the combat role of Canada against those responsible?
Mr. Speaker, I want to come back to the fact that the government has misled this place on the question of ISIS's genocide. The government denies the recognition of the genocide by the United States, even though Secretary Kerry said, Daesh is responsible for genocide...[and] is genocidal by self-proclamation.The government also says that it needs an international tribunal of lawyers to declare a genocide, yet the House recognized the Armenian genocide as such in 2004, without an international judicial process. True, the Liberal government voted against that recognition. Are the Liberals now saying that the Armenian genocide did not happen, because it has not been recognized by an international tribunal?
I normally do not have a problem with sound, Mr. Speaker.My question for the Minister of Finance is why he keeps evading this very key question. He says that the Liberal Party made two commitments to voters in the last election. He has completely forgotten the central engagement for fiscal responsibility for balanced budgets in this term for $25 billion in debt. Instead, he has delivered $119 billion in debt and counting.The Prime Minister said that budgets balance themselves, that there is an absolute commitment to balance the budget. Why did the finance minister so utterly violate that fundamental commitment to Canadian voters?
Madam Speaker, that is exactly why this government is refusing to recognize the genocide as such. This government decided to end Canada's combat mission against the genocidal terrorists of Daesh. It was this government that withdrew Canada's air force, which was combatting these genocidal terrorists in the Middle East.Will the minister admit that the reason he is refusing to recognize the genocide as such is that Canada ended its combat mission?
Mr. Speaker, as a member of the former government, I assure the minister that he is mistaken, that I and other ministers did recognize the genocidal nature of what is happening. The five genocides to which he refers were recognized by motions of this House. We are asking the government, as an executive action, to recognize this reality.The European Parliament, the U.S. Congress, and the Obama administration have done so. Why, then, has this Liberal government reversed Canada's position? Why is it denying the genocide against these Middle Eastern peoples that is happening right now?
Mr. Speaker, the government promised a new era of respect for Parliament. Instead, after just six months, we have the Liberals shutting down debate for the first time in our history on an end-of life conscience matter.The Liberals tried to rig the rules of this place to the government's total advantage through Motion No. 6. We commend them for withdrawing that, but now they are trying to rig the very system that elects members to this place.The minister has just said that we need to hear the voices of those Canadians who brought us to this place. Those were 17.5 million voices that will be excluded by her closed, Liberal-controlled parliamentary process.Why will the government not really demonstrate a commitment to democratic reforms through a referendum?
Mr. Speaker, yesterday we witnessed the shameful spectacle of the Liberal government denying the undeniable reality of a genocide happening in our own time against vulnerable religious minorities. The Minister of Foreign Affairs actually led the Liberals in applause to celebrate their vote against this genocide recognition. They say they need some group of lawyers to make a determination about this when the organization responsible, the so-called Islamic state, admits it is committing genocide. It is seeking to eliminate what they called apostates, Shia, and Yazidi, and to enslave so-called infidels, like Christians. Why are they contesting
Mr. Speaker, the minister just said that the electoral reform stacked process she is recommending is designed to serve the best interests of Canadians and not political parties.Let us be clear. The government wants the Liberal majority controlling the committee to opt for the preferred Liberal system to be approved by the Liberal cabinet, to be adopted by the Liberal majority in the House, notwithstanding any dissent, including from 35 million Canadians.Nothing could be clearer. The Liberals are trying to rig the system by and for the Liberal Party. Why not allow Canadians to protect the legitimacy of our elections through a referendum?
Mr. Speaker, I invite the minister to move beyond her repetitive non-answers, beyond her refusal to allow the Canadian people to decide the manner by which they elect their representatives. The minister stands and pretends that a few hundred witnesses at a committee are more inclusive than a referendum that could involve 17 million or more voters. What does she not understand about this? This is a simple question of the legitimacy of this place. Does the government really think Canadians will accept a rigged system chosen by and for the Liberal Party of Canada?
Mr. Speaker, so it is not the Liberal culture to respect the majority of Canadians on the precise question of how they elect their representatives to their Parliament. This place does not belong to the Liberal Party, and the very question of legitimacy is at stake here. It is absolutely clear if the Liberals thought they could get a majority of Canadians to endorse their rigged system, they would hold a referendum. Is it not true? The only reason they refuse to do so is because Canadians would veto the Liberal rigged electoral system.
Mr. Speaker, I have never seen a parliamentary secretary attack his own department for saying that the budget was balanced.Not only are the Liberals blowing Canada's hard-won surplus, now they plan to help their Ontario Liberal friends impose a new job-killing payroll tax and a new tax on everything, a tax on carbon. All of that means fewer jobs and lower income.Why in the world would the Liberals be killing jobs through higher taxes, particularly at a time of economic fragility?
Mr. Speaker, that is exactly the problem. Canadians made a choice based on an election promise that the government never planned to keep. The $10-billion deficit it promised has tripled in three months.Did the Liberals mislead Canadians during the election campaign? Why did the Liberals hide their real plans for massive spending increases and huge deficits?
Mr. Speaker, clearly the minister does not understand the conflict of interest that exists when politicians choose their own electoral system. That is why other jurisdictions have had royal commissions and citizen assemblies followed by referendums. Why does the minister want to put politicians in a conflict of interest situation? Why not let millions of Canadians choose through a referendum?
Mr. Speaker, in a feat of completely unprecedented fiscal incompetence, the government has taken us from a surplus to a $10-billion deficit and now to a $30-billion deficit.It is clear as day that the Liberals misled Canadians in the last election with their bogus fiscal promises.My question is simple. Why did the Liberals hide the truth about their agenda to massively expand the cost of government, and to run huge and growing deficits?
Mr. Speaker, a United Nations report includes details of the mass killings and sexual slavery of thousands of Yazidis by the so-called Islamic State. The genocide of the Yazidis is on-going, the report concludes. Now that the UN has joined the European Union, the United States, and the United Kingdom in recognizing that the self-proclaimed Daesh is committing genocide, will the government finally call this campaign of extermination what it really is, genocide?
Mr. Speaker, I thank the minister for her response, although she is not committing to tougher penalties. The Government of Alberta is not taking greater action and the Liberals today at the health committee voted down a motion by my colleague for Calgary Confederation for an emergency study on the fentanyl crisis at the health committee. We know that fentanyl is primarily produced in China. Much of it is smuggled to Canada, so did the Prime Minister raise these illicit fentanyl exports from China with his counterparts during his recent visit?
Mr. Speaker, the problem is that the Prime Minister made a very clear commitment that the deficit would not go over $10 billion. This week, the Liberals admitted that the deficit might hit $30 billion. The figure tripled in three months.My question for the Prime Minister is simple. How will the Liberals reduce this significant deficit that is growing day by day without increasing taxes? Which taxes will they increase?
Madam Speaker, it might occur to the minister that those three OECD countries are also the oldest and most stable continuing democracies in the world.The minister has been misleading this place by citing referendum turnouts at the provincial level. The fact is, in 1992, the last time we had a national referendum, 72% of Canadians voted, versus 63% in the last three federal elections. In Ontario and B.C., voter participation in the electoral reform referendum was higher than in the general elections.Why has the minister been misleading this House?
Mr. Speaker, the minister says that we need to work together in her warm tones, while at the same time stacking the entire process for a Liberal rigging of the process by which we choose this Parliament that belongs to the Canadian people.We believe in government of, for, and by the people, not of, for, and by the Liberal Party.In her litany of our Conservative electoral reforms, she neglected to mention the 2005 P.E.I. referendum, the 2007 Ontario referendum, the 2009 British Columbia referendum.The problem for the Liberals is that those voters did not give those Liberal governments the answer that they wanted.Why not let the people decide, rather than the Liberal Party?
Mr. Speaker, the minister clearly still does not get it. The government does not respect the millions of Canadian voters who would like to have a say on how they elect their representatives to this place, and is limiting that consultation to the few hundred people that show up as hand-picked witnesses at a parliamentary committee.Why does she disagree with the wisdom of 73% of Canadians who believe that this Parliament should observe the long-standing convention in other Westminster parliaments and Canadian provinces of allowing the voters to decide instead of politicians?
Mr. Speaker, their excuses for trying to rig the system are getting more and more ridiculous and transparent with that answer.The minister is talking about a fake consultation process that interest groups will be involved in, maybe a few thousand people. We want the ultimate consultation that allows ten of millions of Canadians to decide how they elect their representatives.Why is the current Liberal government so determined to be the first government of a major democracy to change the electoral system without a direct popular mandate expressed in a referendum?
Mr. Speaker, apparently the minister wants decisions to be made by Twitter. We want decisions to be made by the people.Parliament does not belong to politicians. Parliament does not belong to the Liberal Party. Parliament belongs to the Canadian people. Why is the government not allowing Canadians to make this decision instead of politicians?
Mr. Speaker, I have seen a lot of things in this place, but never a finance minister who so blatantly contradicts his own department, which said this week that the government was left a $4-billion surplus for the first three quarters of this year.The key question is this: why did this government break its solemn election promise to balance the budget during its term and keep the new debt below $25 billion? The Liberals are increasing the federal debt by $120 billion right out of the gate. Why is this government
Mr. Speaker, that is unbelievable. They are using Mike Duffy's excuse.Yesterday brought yet more job losses for Albertans. Dozens are losing their jobs at Western Feedlots Ltd. with its closure, a key part of the western beef industry. Company president Dave Plett says that recent government policies like Bill 6 and the carbon tax have contributed to the decision to close its operations.With yet more proof that carbon taxes kill jobs, will the government please reconsider its ideological determination to impose a job-killing carbon tax on Albertans?
Mr. Speaker, the government is intent on imposing job-killing carbon taxes on the provinces. Its message is, Either you do this, or we will force you to. So much for sunny ways.Carbon taxes raise the price of everything, from filling up the gas tank to buying groceries to heating homes, and they kill jobs. Why is the current government so intent on raising the price of everything and killing jobs through its carbon tax?
Madam Speaker, on March 17, United States Secretary of State John Kerry said that ISIS is responsible for genocide, but five days later in this place, the minister of global affairs denied Secretary Kerry's recognition, saying instead that the U.S. wanted to do more research.The British Parliament and the U.S. House of Representatives have unanimously endorsed a recognition of the genocide as such. ISIS itself does not deny its efforts to exterminate these historic communities, so why will the government not just recognize this genocide?
Mr. Speaker, the British Parliament, American Congress, and European Parliament have all passed unanimous motions.Secretary Kerry said, Daesh is responsible for genocide, and Daesh is genocidal by self-proclamation, by ideology, and by actionsin what it says, what it believes, and what it does.Our Prime Minister said that to recognize it would be to trivialize it. What this government's genocide denial is doing is trivializing the suffering of these people and their attempted extermination.Is the government not just covering up for its ending the combat role of Canada against those responsible?
Mr. Speaker, I want to come back to the fact that the government has misled this place on the question of ISIS's genocide. The government denies the recognition of the genocide by the United States, even though Secretary Kerry said, Daesh is responsible for genocide...[and] is genocidal by self-proclamation.The government also says that it needs an international tribunal of lawyers to declare a genocide, yet the House recognized the Armenian genocide as such in 2004, without an international judicial process. True, the Liberal government voted against that recognition. Are the Liberals now saying that the Armenian genocide did not happen, because it has not been recognized by an international tribunal?
I normally do not have a problem with sound, Mr. Speaker.My question for the Minister of Finance is why he keeps evading this very key question. He says that the Liberal Party made two commitments to voters in the last election. He has completely forgotten the central engagement for fiscal responsibility for balanced budgets in this term for $25 billion in debt. Instead, he has delivered $119 billion in debt and counting.The Prime Minister said that budgets balance themselves, that there is an absolute commitment to balance the budget. Why did the finance minister so utterly violate that fundamental commitment to Canadian voters?
Madam Speaker, that is exactly why this government is refusing to recognize the genocide as such. This government decided to end Canada's combat mission against the genocidal terrorists of Daesh. It was this government that withdrew Canada's air force, which was combatting these genocidal terrorists in the Middle East.Will the minister admit that the reason he is refusing to recognize the genocide as such is that Canada ended its combat mission?
Mr. Speaker, as a member of the former government, I assure the minister that he is mistaken, that I and other ministers did recognize the genocidal nature of what is happening. The five genocides to which he refers were recognized by motions of this House. We are asking the government, as an executive action, to recognize this reality.The European Parliament, the U.S. Congress, and the Obama administration have done so. Why, then, has this Liberal government reversed Canada's position? Why is it denying the genocide against these Middle Eastern peoples that is happening right now?
Mr. Speaker, the government promised a new era of respect for Parliament. Instead, after just six months, we have the Liberals shutting down debate for the first time in our history on an end-of life conscience matter.The Liberals tried to rig the rules of this place to the government's total advantage through Motion No. 6. We commend them for withdrawing that, but now they are trying to rig the very system that elects members to this place.The minister has just said that we need to hear the voices of those Canadians who brought us to this place. Those were 17.5 million voices that will be excluded by her closed, Liberal-controlled parliamentary process.Why will the government not really demonstrate a commitment to democratic reforms through a referendum?
Mr. Speaker, yesterday we witnessed the shameful spectacle of the Liberal government denying the undeniable reality of a genocide happening in our own time against vulnerable religious minorities. The Minister of Foreign Affairs actually led the Liberals in applause to celebrate their vote against this genocide recognition. They say they need some group of lawyers to make a determination about this when the organization responsible, the so-called Islamic state, admits it is committing genocide. It is seeking to eliminate what they called apostates, Shia, and Yazidi, and to enslave so-called infidels, like Christians. Why are they contesting