Vincent Ho
Richmond Hill South, Ontario · Conservative · Canada
“Mr. Speaker, when I speak to my constituents, a lot of the concerns they talk about have to do with the affordability crisis and the housing hell the Liberal government has created after 11 years in power.”
“The PBO also warned that repeated spending increases beyond previous projections will “erode the credibility of fiscal plans and weaken confidence in the fiscal framework and raise concerns about long-term [debt] sustainability.” That is the exact credibility crisis that this Liberal Prime Minister finds himself in, because a fiscal ancho…”
“The only thing we know is that this brand new bureaucracy is staffed with Liberal insiders and executives who are collecting salaries as high as $700,000 a year. This reflects a classic principal-agent problem. Taxpayers are the principals, while Liberal government institutions and their corporate insiders are the agents.”
“That should alarm every member of the House. It is not only the PBO. The International Monetary Fund, the IMF, a global agency that the Liberals love to cite, has now called on Canada to adopt international accounting standards to improve transparency, ensure comparability over time and maintain a clear connection between borrowing and de…”
“Mr. Speaker, when historians study the fiscal decline of nations, they often note that collapse rarely begins with a dramatic event. It begins with habits: habits of indiscipline, habits of euphemism, habits of pretending that borrowing is prosperity, that inflationary spending is strategy and that accounting definitions can be stretched…”
“The Liberals already have the Infrastructure Bank, the growth fund and the defence bank. They have agency after agency, fund after fund and office after office, and the result is that Canada still has the worst investment performance in the G7. This is textbook government failure.”
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“This is not compassion; it is government-orchestrated chaos. Let us talk about the reality that Bill C-12 pretends it would address, but would not. Canada now has three million temporary residents, over 7% of our population, and that number is going up every day. Canada now has 500,000 undocumented individuals, and that number is also going up every day. Canada has 300,000 asylum claims in the queue, and of course that is also growing every day. The result is that our housing market is collapsing, our health care is collapsing, our job market is collapsing and our communities are simply overwhelmed. The Liberals created chaos, and now they want more power, not to fix it, but to cover up the mess they made. Let us not forget how much this border crisis is costing taxpayers.”
“It is backward and dangerous, and Canadians are paying the price. While this border crisis spreads fentanyl into our communities, the Liberals are opening and defending drug consumption sites near schools and playgrounds. Conservatives demanded not too long ago that the Liberals shut down overdose sites next to locations with children. What did the health minister have to say? They refused to rule out approving more drug-injection sites, even though they acknowledged that these sites are filled with rampant fentanyl use. (1635) The Liberals will not reverse the policies that got us into this mess in the first place. The Liberals will not jail fentanyl traffickers. The Liberals will not stop illegal border flows. The Liberals will not ever protect school zones from drug consumption sites.”
“The government actually believes that someone trafficking poison into our communities should be able to serve their sentence at home, on the couch, watching TV. Remember, the Liberals legalized hard drugs, they brought in taxpayer-funded hard drugs and flooded them into our streets and they also brought in drug consumption sites. Conservatives believe that fentanyl traffickers and drug kingpins should be in prison and those possessing 40 milligrams or more should be treated like the mass murderers they are and should receive life imprisonment, yet this bill does absolutely nothing to change that. The Liberals obsess over legal gun owners while doing absolutely nothing to put the gangsters behind bars. The Liberals target law-abiding hunters and farmers while letting fentanyl traffickers out on bail.”
“It makes no mention of the badly needed bail reform to the Liberals' catch-and-release, revolving-door injustice system. It makes no reference to mandatory prison sentences when the Liberals brought house arrest to dozens of serious crimes, cracking down on fentanyl traffickers and gangs doing drive-bys in our once-safe neighbourhoods or hiring more CBSA officers, which the Liberals promised to do in their election platform. Under the Liberal government, drug traffickers walk free on house arrest, gangsters avoid mandatory jail time and repeat violent offenders are released again and again under Liberal catch-and-release bail. None of this will stop a single fentanyl dealer or gun smuggler with real punishments and consequences.”
“Law-abiding Canadians will not be treated like criminals just because Liberals cannot control the border that they themselves have broken. Now the Liberals are back with Bill C-12 , promising that this time it is different. Conservatives scrutinize every line, every clause, every hidden catch, to ensure the Liberals are not sneaking in another assault on Canadians' rights, freedoms and civil liberties. The Liberal government has forfeited the benefit of the doubt. The Liberal government tried once to spy on Canadians without a warrant; only a fool would trust them a second time. This bill barely touches on the number one border threat facing this country: the illegal flow of fentanyl, weapons and violent criminals across our border.”
“About a month ago, the Liberals tried to ram through Bill C-2 , which would have given them sweeping, warrantless powers to seize Canadians' personal information from banks and telecoms. There would be no warrants, judicial oversight, transparency or respect for the charter or Canadians. It was so abusive, invasive and offensive to our democratic tradition that the Privacy Commissioner confirmed the Liberals did not even bother to consult him. The Liberals planned a mass surveillance power grab and hoped Canadians would not notice. The Liberals got caught and Conservatives forced them to back down, go back to the drawing board and rewrite this bill. That is the only reason we are debating Bill C-12 today, because the Liberals' first attempt was exposed as a direct assault on Canadians' privacy, freedom and basic civil liberties.”
“Madam Speaker, after 10 years of Liberal failure, Canadians now face a cost of living crisis, a crime crisis, a housing crisis and a border crisis, and the government has the nerve to stand up here today and pretend that Bill C-12 will strengthen Canada's immigration systems and borders. This bill will not fix our immigration system and does not protect Canadians. It does little to stop the flow of fentanyl, guns, gangsters or illegal crossings, and most certainly does not defend the rights and freedoms of law-abiding Canadians. This bill is the second attempt at a failed Liberal bill, Bill C-2 , which, of course, the Liberals did not spend much time working on over the summer. Before we even get into Bill C-12 , we have to remember how we got here.”
“Mr. Speaker, every dollar the Liberal Prime Minister spends is taken out of the pockets of hard-working Canadians through inflationary deficits and higher taxes. Let us not forget that, for 10 years, Liberals claimed runaway deficits would spark investments. The current finance minister , back when he was industry minister, helped double the national debt, promising it would lead to growth. What did Canadians get? The worst per capita GDP growth in the G7 and investment per worker collapse by more than 10%. Will he ensure that his next budget will stop the inflationary deficit so Canadians can afford to live again, or will he instead double down on Trudeau's policies and make Canadians pay for his failures?”
“Mr. Speaker, the Liberals are pushing their so-called strengthening Canada's immigration system and borders act, yet illegal border crossings have surged under their watch, and the system has never been more out of control. Federal health care spending for asylum claimants has now ballooned to nearly half a billion dollars a year, covering vision care, home care and assistive devices, benefits that millions of hard-working Canadians are not even covered for. Meanwhile, hard-working and law-abiding families in Richmond Hill cannot find a family doctor and are waiting months for basic treatment. Canadians are compassionate, but they also expect fairness. Why does the Liberal government believe that illegal border crossers deserve gold-plated health care that Canadian citizens themselves do not even receive?”
“Mr. Speaker, the answer is in the question. It is because the Liberals broke our justice system with Bill C-5 and Bill C-75 , making house arrest the new norm and bringing in the revolving door justice system that we have now. They broke our justice system. Their bail reform is what caused this catch-and-release system, which has allowed crime to ravage our communities. We are asking why the Liberals will not scrap Liberal bail.”
“Mr. Speaker, the Liberals like to import U.S.-style politics. They have a history of that, but now they are importing U.S.-style crime. Property crime rates and violent crime rates are now higher in Canada than they are in the United States. That is because of 10 years of weak Liberal bail laws. If the Liberals could just admit that they failed, after 10 years of their soft-on-crime approach, they could support the Conservative jail not bail act and scrap Liberal bail.”
“Mr. Speaker, it is simple. After 10 years of Liberal pro-crime laws, violent crime is up 55%, gun crime has more than doubled, extortion is up 330%, homicides are up 29% and sexual assaults are up 76%. Auto thefts are at levels never seen before. There is one simple solution, which is to scrap Liberal bail.”
“Mr. Speaker, yes, Richmond Hill would be one of the safest communities across the country to live, raise a family, play and work. The Liberals can just admit that they have failed over the last 10 years with their Liberal soft-on-crime policies and their weak bail policies, and join us in supporting the Conservatives' jail not bail act to, finally, scrap Liberal bail.”
“Mr. Speaker, the people of Richmond Hill South, and Canadians across the country, are demanding safe streets. They want criminals behind bars, not behind the wheel of a stolen car. They want kids playing safely in parks, not dodging gunfire from illegally smuggled guns, which the Liberals let across the border at record levels. They want seniors to be free to walk their neighbourhoods, not locked indoors by fear of a crime wave unleashed by the Liberals. The Conservative's jail not bail act delivers what the pro-crime Liberals never will: justice for victims, protection for families and safety for communities. The Liberals gave us crime and chaos. Conservatives will bring home safe streets and secure borders. I, along with the rest of my Conservative colleagues, will be voting to scrap Liberal bail.”
“Premiers, provincial attorneys general and police chiefs across the country, including from the York Regional Police in Richmond Hill, have begged Parliament to fix the Liberals' soft-on-crime bail before more blood is spilled by the Liberal-sponsored crime wave, but the pro-crime Liberals refused. They ignored the warnings and calls to action from victims, police and communities alike. They left officers demoralized and communities exposed to the crime wave the Liberals unleashed. It went so far that the Liberal minister of injustice mocked victims by referring to this Liberal-sponsored crime wave as not being the Wild West. It is Canada, but it sure feels like it. Conservatives will stand with the police, who risk their lives—”
“They received more Liberal-sponsored gang shootings, more Liberal-sponsored carjackings, more Liberal-sponsored home invasions and more victims. The pro-crime Liberals talk about restorative justice. Tell that to the shopkeeper robbed for the third time because of lax Liberal bail laws. Tell that to the seniors imprisoned in their homes in fear of the crime wave unleashed by the Liberal government. Tell that to the mother who buried her son after a Liberal-sponsored gang shooting. Is the Liberal government going to restore her son's life? There is nothing restorative about that, only Liberal failure and injustice. To bring justice to victims and Canadians across this country, we must scrap Liberal bail.”
“Lastly, this legislation would prohibit anyone with an indictable conviction from acting as a guarantor and would require non-residents to surrender their passports upon request. Conservatives stand with victims, families and Canadians. That is the choice before the House. Will parliamentarians from all parties, and Liberals alike, come together and vote to scrap Liberal bail? Let us call this what it is: a pro-crime Liberal record. Liberal pro-crime Bill C-5 scrapped jail time for violent crimes involving weapons and allowed for house arrest instead of mandatory prison time for serious offences and a dozen other charges. Liberal pro-crime Bill C-75 lowered the bar so that repeat offenders could walk free and tied the hands of provincial governments, judges and police. What did Canadians and the people of Richmond Hill get in return?”
“Second, it would introduce a new major offences category, which would reverse the onus on bail conditions for crimes involving firearms, sexual assault, kidnapping, human trafficking, home invasion, robbery, extortion, arson and assault. It would require the accused to prove why they should be let out on bail. This would stop career criminals unleashed by the Liberal crime wave from taking advantage of this broken Liberal injustice system. Next, it would mandate judges to consider the full criminal history of the accused and prevent anyone convicted of a major offence while on bail in the last 10 years from receiving bail, thus ending the Liberals' revolving door injustice system.”
“(1355) The Conservative jail not bail act would bring back sanity, common sense and peace of mind. It would lock up repeat violent offenders and slam the door on gang members. It would ensure that gun criminals, who are often using illegally obtained guns, stay behind bars where they belong. It would also force judges to finally put public safety first, not Liberal ideology. First, this legislation would repeal the Liberal principle of restraint and put public protection first instead of the criminal. This would ensure that communities are not left at the mercy of the pro-crime Liberals after all they have endured with a decade of the Liberals' soft-on-crime approach.”
“Teens cannot ride their bikes anymore because criminals are preying on their bikes and their lives. Shopkeepers on Highway 7 do not even bother reporting theft because the same thief is back the next day thanks to the pro-crime Liberals and their lax bail laws. What about the police officers who risk their lives arresting violent offenders only to see them walk free before their shift is even over. It has gotten so bad that the York Regional Police chief is asking victims of crime to simply comply with the demands of criminals who the Liberal injustice system has let out. That is not justice; it is betrayal. They have been straight-up stabbed in the back. That is the legacy of 10 years of the pro-crime Liberals. The only way to bring justice to the victims and families is by scrapping Liberal bail.”
“The Liberals handcuffed the police and set the criminals free. The result is that the people of Richmond Hill South, and Canadians across the country, live in fear while the Prime Minister shrugs and the minister of injustice makes jokes about the Wild West. That is not leadership; that is negligence. It is disgraceful. The only way to put an end to this and bring home safe streets again is by scrapping Liberal bail. Let us talk about the real cost of this Liberal failure. The cost is paid by Canadians, by blood, trauma and the loss of loved ones. In Richmond Hill, seniors tell me they will not walk through the mall or go to the park anymore. It is no longer safe. Parents living near Yonge Street say that their children cannot take public transit after dark.”
“Every single one of these tragedies was enabled by the pro-crime Liberal laws that keep criminals on the streets instead of behind bars. That is why it is high time to scrap Liberal bail. The numbers do not lie and the human stories are heartbreaking, but the numbers confirm it. After 10 years of Liberal pro-crime laws, violent crime is up 55%, gun crime has more than doubled, extortion is up 330%, homicides are up 29%, sexual assaults are up 76%, and auto theft in the GTA is at levels never seen before. This did not happen by accident, but by design, because the pro-crime Liberals passed Bill C-5 and Bill C-75 . Mandatory prison time was abolished for dozens of charges, and house arrest became the new norm. The Liberal catch-and-release came into effect, and the Liberal pro-crime revolving door in the justice system was set into motion.”
“Gangs are shooting up peaceful neighbourhoods and robbing homes, and this is often done by repeat offenders who are recommitting after being released, because of lax Liberal bail. At Highway 7 and Leslie, someone was carjacked at gunpoint, Grand Theft Auto style. People were robbed in broad daylight at Major Mackenzie and Bayview. Places of worship were attacked by acts of hate on 16th Avenue and Bathurst. In the Hillcrest mall, robberies by repeat offenders, which have caused lockdowns, have seniors and shoppers scared to go out anymore. People are losing family members because of intentional acts of arson by criminals who are lighting up innocent people in their own homes at night, right in Richmond Hill. These are not just statistics. This is real people, real fear and real victims.”
“The Conservative jail not bail act is about one thing: standing with Canadians, not felons; standing with victims, not criminals; and standing with Canadians, not the pro-crime Liberals and their revolving door of a justice system that created the crime crisis. That is why Canadians from all walks of life agree that it is time to scrap Liberal bail. Richmond Hill is under siege. Just weeks ago, gunfire ripped through a quiet Richmond Hill neighbourhood. A man was killed by an illegal gun, execution style, in the middle of a street in broad daylight. Parents dragged their children inside. Families huddled in fear. This is the question that echoed: Why is this happening in our once safe neighbourhood?”
“Mr. Speaker, Canadians feel betrayed, stabbed in the back, both literally and metaphorically. Every day, the people of Richmond Hill South and families across Canada watch as violent offenders are being arrested in the morning and then let back out on our streets before nightfall, due to a decade of Liberal soft-on-crime laws. Seniors are afraid to walk to the grocery store. Parents are terrified to let their kids take the bus after dark. Who do we have to thank? The pro-crime Liberals, who have intentionally put the rights of repeat violent offenders ahead of the rights of law-abiding Canadians.”
“He promised to spend less and invest more, but taxpayer-funded spending is up 8%, the inflationary deficits are doubling and $63 billion has fled the country, a record outflow. That is another Liberal broken promise, Canadians see the pattern. The Prime Minister does not just break promises; he is breaking Canada.”
“Mr. Speaker, the Liberal Prime Minister promised the fastest-growing economy in the G7. lnstead, Canada has the fastest-shrinking economy, the second-highest unemployment, the worst household debt and the most expensive housing. It is another Liberal broken promise. He told Canadians to judge him by grocery prices, but the food cost is rising faster today than when he took office. That is another Liberal broken promise. He promised “build, baby, build” and 500,000 new homes a year, yet his own housing agency says homebuilding will actually fall by 16%. That is another Liberal broken promise. He vowed to have nation-building projects done at unimaginable speed. Six months later, all he has done is take credit for other people's work. That is another Liberal broken promise.”
“Mr. Speaker, the member mentioned the unemployment that people are facing in his community. I am curious why the Liberal government is not addressing the unemployment crisis that Canadians are facing all across the country. We are faced with a youth unemployment crisis that economists are saying is at a recessionary level. Why not address the crisis the Liberal government has created instead of creating a national unity crisis to distract Canadians from the real problems?”
“Mr. Speaker, Canadians elected us as parliamentarians to work together to solve the crises that the Liberal government has caused: the immigration crisis, the cost of living crisis, the debt crisis, the inflation crisis and the housing crisis. I wanted to ask our colleague whether he agrees that this is just another distraction that the Liberal Prime Minister is trying to stir up for Canadians.”
“Mr. Speaker, the Liberal Party of Canada is the party of national division at a time when Canadians are facing an immigration crisis, a cost of living crisis, a debt crisis, a crime crisis and a housing crisis that was intentionally perpetuated by the Liberal government. I am wondering why the Liberal Prime Minister is so keen on distracting Canadians by creating a national unity crisis at this time.”
“Madam Speaker, no party has divided Canadians more and created more polarization than the Liberal Party of Canada. Canadians are facing a number of crises that the Liberal government has created: a food crisis, an inflation crisis, a crime crisis and an immigration crisis. We are also facing an unemployment crisis and a youth unemployment crisis at recessionary levels. Why is the Liberal Prime Minister trying to distract Canadians and trying to create a national unity crisis when Canadians are expecting us to come together to solve the problems the Liberals themselves have created?”
“Mr. Speaker, after 10 years of the Liberal government, our immigration system is in chaos. This summer, illegal border crossers claiming asylum surged by a staggering 277%. Most of their claims will be bogus. This has put massive pressure on housing, health care and benefits across Canada, especially in Quebec. What did the immigration minister do? She did absolutely nothing. She enjoyed her summer vacation while our borders were left wide open. The Prime Minister promised to be different, but instead of fixing it, he let the situation spiral out of control while Canadians paid the price. Why did the Prime Minister appoint such an incompetent minister to one of the most important jobs, when she is making the crisis worse every single day?”
“Lastly, why does this bill contain nothing about permitting house arrest, which the Liberals have enabled through their soft-on-crime, intentional procrime policies over the last 10 years, when they purportedly want to deal with this public safety issue? Is this just another case of Liberal incompetence or are they trying to mislead Canadians?”
“Madam Speaker, the Liberals call this bill the strong borders act. Canadians want secure borders, something the Liberals have opened up in the last 10 years through their intentional policies. Why do Canadians want a secure border? It is because the root of the issue comes down to public safety, again something the Liberals have completely shattered in the last 10 years with procrime policies that have unleashed unprecedented levels of crime into our once-safe communities. If the Liberals care about public safety, why is there nothing in this bill about mandatory prison time for fentanyl traffickers, who are killing people en masse, to the tune of tens of thousands? Why is there nothing in this bill about mandatory prison time for gangsters who are using guns to commit crimes?”
“Mr. Speaker, only a Liberal prime minister could promise to secure our border and fail in just six months. Over the summer, asylum claims from illegal U.S. crossings spiked dramatically, piling onto a staggering backlog of nearly 300,000 unprocessed claims. Many of these are likely bogus, yet claimants are immediately entitled to work permits, health care and benefits on the backs of Canadian taxpayers. It is another broken Liberal promise, another bait and switch, because he is just another Liberal Prime Minister . How much longer is the Prime Minister going to keep our border open and let it become a backdoor, unplanned stream of economic migration before he finally takes action?”
“Mr. Speaker, if the Liberals truly cared about fairness and cared about fixing their legislation, they would clear the backlog that real immigrants are facing right now, instead of turning the bill and this opportunity into a vanity ideological project.”
“Mr. Speaker, the Liberals have spent the last 10 years erasing our heritage and breaking our immigration system. Instead of trying to fix that immigration system, fixing that backlog and capping the levels of immigration, they have decided to exploit this opportunity, a bill that was tabled by our side of the aisle under the Senate, and turn it into some vanity ideological project. It is simply insulting, and it is simply a mockery of everyday Canadians, especially immigrants who have worked hard their entire lives, and who have paid their dues, paid their taxes and contributed to Canada.”
“Mr. Speaker, let us be clear here. This is not about punishing Canadians born abroad. It is about respecting the meaning of Canadian citizenship. My constituents in Richmond Hill South did not get citizenship handed to them by bloodline. They earned it. They waited. They worked. They sacrificed. All we are saying is, if someone wants citizenship, they should show the same commitment. The bill erases that standard and replaces it with a bloodline test. That is not fairness. It is privilege. Conservatives believe in equal opportunity, not automatic entitlements.”
“Mr. Speaker, rights come with responsibilities. Citizenship is more than a legal status; it is a bond to this country. If someone has never lived here, never contributed and never shown any connection to Canada beyond a parent's passport, how can we say they are truly Canadian? We are not talking about military families or aid workers here. We are talking about a wide open policy with no limits and no accountability. That is not compassion. That is recklessness.”
“I will end with this: Conservatives will always stand up for strong families, for people who are loyal to this country, for the people who built this country and who are still doing so, including the hard-working immigrants of Richmond Hill South. They will fight for fairness, for hard work, for earned citizenship and for a Canada that puts Canadian citizens and our heritage first.”
“If Bill C-3 is passed, we may be on the hook to rescue and bring into Canada and provide those services to individuals who have never even lived in Canada and who may have no actual connection to this country beyond mere paperwork. Canada must never become a country that values someone's last name more than their loyalty to this country. The worst part is that the Liberal government admits it does not even know how many people this would apply to. There are no numbers, no data and no accountability. It is just another open-ended promise with Canadian taxpayers left to foot the bill. This is not irresponsible; it is reckless. It reeks of the same people who cannot be bothered to table a budget.”
“It is wrong; it is backwards, and it cheapens the value of citizenship. Bill C-3 says that citizenship is about bloodlines. Conservatives say citizenship is about belonging, contribution, allegiance and shared values. The Liberal government wants to create a system where privilege and ancestry matter more than action and values. That is not the Canada our parents and grandparents built, and it is not the Canada we should leave to the next generation. There is more at stake here than just principle, because there is also the cost of it. With automatic citizenship comes automatic obligations, including the duty to protect and evacuate citizens during international emergencies. We saw the staggering cost of deploying consular services and evacuation operations during a crisis in Lebanon.”
“The bill proposes a vague substantial connection test, a standard so loose that it opens the door to granting citizenship to people who may have no or only minimal or even symbolic interaction with Canada, subject to the broad discretion of unelected bureaucrats. Multi-generational foreign residents could potentially claim Canadian citizenship without ever having lived here, worked here or embraced the values we hold dear. That is not a recipe for national cohesion; it is a recipe for chaos. However, under Bill C-3 , someone who happens to be born abroad to a Canadian citizen and who has not lived in Canada for decades would get a free pass, while someone who volunteers in their community, pays taxes, works hard, celebrates our heritage and raises children in Canada is left waiting.”
“One of the most troubling aspects of Bill C-3 is that it continues to treat Canadian citizenship as a trophy that is passed on rather than a civic privilege tied to commitment, values and contribution. This is a profoundly elitist and out-of-touch view of what it means to be Canadian. Canada is not a bloodline. It is not an accident of birth. Canada is a country a person believes in, a country they build, a country they choose and a country that should choose them because of their loyalty and their commitment to its success. What is even more concerning is that no real ties to Canada would be required if the Liberal legislation passed.”
“We believe it should be earned by those who commit to this country, who uphold our values, who are loyal to Canada and who are proud to call Canada home, not handed out based on convenience. We stand with the people who work hard, follow the law and contribute to our communities; these are people who are too often forgotten by the Liberal government and betrayed by a system that favours the global elite over the Canadian worker. While the Liberals reward inherited privilege, Conservatives will fight for those who invest in Canada, not those who treat it like it is a backup plan. Let us talk about what the bill gets fundamentally wrong about the very meaning of Canadian citizenship.”
“Even more alarming is that the bill would eliminate the first-generation limit but would open the door to granting citizenship to those born abroad if just one parent had spent 1,095 days in Canada over their lifetime, even nonconsecutively, which is three years spread out however they like. There are no requirements for criminal background checks, understanding or experience of what it means to be Canadian or demonstrated commitment to this country; it is just a rubber stamp. This makes a mockery of the standards that immigrants have spent years trying to meet. Conservatives believe in something different. We believe that citizenship is a badge of belonging, not a trinket that is passed around.”
“This is just the Liberal way, which is to erase our heritage, mock hard-working immigrants and reward those with connections, global privilege and the right bloodline, while ignoring the working-class immigrants who have done the real work of building this country. (1330) This is the same Liberal government that has thrown open the borders to criminals crossing into our country illegally but that forces honest immigrants to spend years waiting for a fair hearing. This is not compassion. This is not about justice. This is political theatre, a feel-good vanity bill from a Liberal government obsessed with symbolism and blinded to the reality facing new Canadians on the ground.”
“Bill C-3 would grant citizenship automatically to people born abroad, even if they have never been to Canada, never contributed to our economy, never served under our flag, never celebrated our heritage and never even intended to live here. How is that fair? How do we tell someone who has been working in Canada for years, building a life, contributing to the economy, paying taxes and sometimes even raising Canadian-born children, that they must continue to wait, jump through hoops, navigate a system broken by the Liberals, while someone born abroad who has never set foot here is handed citizenship automatically by the Liberal government, without question? It is offensive. It is elitist. It sounds like an idea that came straight from Davos at the World Economic Forum. More importantly, it does not embody the Canadian promise.”
“Many of them have been here for years, contributing more to Canada than most people, yet they still cannot get their citizenship finalized. I have personally experienced this as a member of Parliament for Richmond Hill South. Having only been elected for less than two months, my constituency office has received hundreds and hundreds of immigration case files already. I have met many new Canadians who are more engaged in their communities than most Liberal politicians, yet they are stuck in the limbo because of a backlog, bureaucratic red tape and a system broken by Liberals that treats them like a statistic. Now, this same Liberal government wants to give away Canadian citizenship like it is some kind of souvenir.”
“Their hard work, their patience, their loyalty to this country means less than someone else's paperwork and bloodline. This bill does not fix the system the Liberals broke. It deepens the unfairness. It makes a mockery of the sacrifices made by immigrants who paid their dues. It is yet another example of a Liberal government that is more concerned with global virtue signalling than with actually standing up for the people who built this country. Let us talk about fairness, because that is what this debate is really about. Across this country, there are millions of immigrants who came to Canada legally. They followed the rules, waited patiently in line and built their lives here, working long hours, raising families, paying taxes and volunteering in their communities.”