Harb Gill
Windsor West, Ontario · Conservative · Canada
“They are lessons about leadership. They are lessons about the responsibility we all share to confront hatred before it turns to violence. That is why this debate matters. Racism is real. Anti-Semitism is real. Islamophobia is real. Hinduphobia is real. Every one of us has a responsibility to challenge those things wherever they appear.”
“A few weeks ago, many Canadians joined Rwandan communities across this country by marking Kwibuka, the remembrance of genocide against the Tutsi people in Rwanda. Kwibuka means “to remember”. It is a solemn reminder of one of the darkest chapters in modern history.”
“Their sacrifice deserves our respect and our gratitude, and their memory deserves to be honoured. One officer came from an Italian Canadian family, the other from an Indo-Canadian family. Different backgrounds, different communities, yet both wore the same uniform, took the same oath and made the same sacrifice in service to Canada.”
“It will not stop repeat violent offenders or the transnational gangs that continue to terrorize communities across Canada. Officer Pinizzotto was not investigating a sermon; he was investigating violent criminal activity. That is where the danger is, and that is where Canadians expect their government to be focused.”
“Our democracy is strong. Our people are united by far more than what divides us, but history still has lessons to teach us. One of those lessons is that hatred rarely begins with violence. It begins when people stop seeing their neighbours as fellow citizens. It begins when stereotypes replace understanding and when fear replaces trust.”
“The question is whether Bill C-9 is necessary and whether it will achieve what the government says it will achieve. There are provisions in this legislation that deserve support. Every Canadian should be able to attend a church, synagogue, mosque, temple, gurdwara, community centre or school without fear of intimidation or violence.”
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“Mr. Speaker, this is not going to help anybody except Mr. Trump and Trump's America. It is not going to help Canadians. It is not going to help the workers who have been laid off, and there are more than 5,000. There are other workers. I mentioned the Can Art extrusion company in Windsor, which laid off 250 people because it did not have work anymore. There are multiple companies like that, which have lost employees or laid off people because they do not have the ability to keep them as a result of these mandates.”
“We would support the electrification of the entire planet if I could help it, but what are we going to do about all of these plants that are consuming the products they make? We have not been helping them. What is the government prepared to do to help aluminum extrusion plants in Ontario?”
“Mr. Speaker, Ontario aluminum extrusion plants consume roughly 1.3 billion dollars' worth of aluminum from Quebec. Can Art, a company in Windsor, Ontario, has laid off 250 workers because the EV Ford truck is not being produced anymore. It started a plant worth $60 million that is sitting idle because of the tariffs imposed by our friends to the south. This is what we are doing to our own companies. We are not supporting them and we are not helping them. We are doing everything to stand in the way of their progress. These are companies that add value to the resources coming from Quebec, yet here we are, debating what to to do about electricity. It is a great question.”
“Mr. Speaker, that is a fantastic question. Here is the answer. Last year, with respect to the Dodge Charger EV that my friends opposite referred to, only about 7,000 of them were made. A little over 500 were sold in Canada and 7,000 were sold in the U.S. It was a losing proposition for Stellantis, which stopped production on it and has not decided if it will restart production this year. The Pacifica plug-in hybrid version is also being suspended. We are in North America. Our supply chains are integrated with North America. We have to do what is right here in our part of the world, not globally. They can do whatever they want in other parts of the world, but we should not be subsidizing other parts of the world with Canadian taxpayer dollars to say we support them and their—”
“Windsor is not the edge of the country, but one of its economic engines, and it is an important one, I might add. If we are serious about putting Canadians first and wanting workers in Windsor to believe their government believes in them, we must be serious about what happens to Windsor and its workers. They are relying on the House to come up with a proper solution so that they and their families have a viable future and their kids can enjoy all of the benefits this great nation has to offer.”
“People in Windsor and across southwestern Ontario need that information yesterday. What do people in Windsor really need? The people in my city are reasonable, and they have reasonable expectations. They want their government to defend Canadian jobs, first and foremost, to stop sending our tax dollars to President Trump and to secure a trade deal that protects us and keeps investments in Canada. They are not asking for guarantees; they are asking for honesty and integrity. This is the picture in Windsor. The unjustified tariffs by President Trump started the damage, the absence of an intelligent Canadian response by the Liberals allowed it to deepen, and workers, along with suppliers and small manufacturers, are paying the price.”
“The bridge is critical to both Windsor's and Canada's international trade. We have heard about the comments made by the President and the subsequent conversations he had with the Prime Minister , but the people in Windsor have been waiting and seeing delay after delay. Now they are even more uncertain as to when this bridge will open or even when the toll rates will be announced. Incredibly enough, the Liberal government and its Crown corporation have not come up with toll rates after starting the project over eight years ago. It is absolutely incredible. For logistics companies, which plan months ahead while bidding on contracts, the lack of certainty and information on toll rates hurts their ability to compete. This has to change. The government needs to provide firm timelines on when this bridge will open.”
“They told me the production for the EV Dodge Charger model that was just referred to has been paused, yet it won awards at the Detroit Auto Show. As of January 2026, the Pacifica plug-in hybrid is also being phased out by Stellantis. These workers are not debating climate goals; they are asking for clarity. They hear that the EV mandate is gone, but they are not happy about our tax dollars subsidizing cars made in Trump's America. When I mentioned our Conservative proposal for removing the GST on Canadian-made vehicles to support our manufacturing jobs, members can imagine their answer. They are all for it. Before I go on, I want to briefly mention the Gordie Howe bridge, which has been under construction for eight years. It was completely approved in 2015, but the Liberal government did not put a shovel in the ground until 2018.”
“There is another concern that comes up over and over again, which is that capital investment is leaving Canada. Banks have published studies on this, by the way. Other Canadian companies besides Brookfield Asset Management are choosing to invest in Trump's America, not because Canadian workers lack skills and not because our plants lack capacity. I am being told by manufacturers that the rules south of the border are clearer, that the regulators there are helpful instead of hindering, that the costs feel lower and that the path to profitability feels more stable. Some of these folks have told me that the red tape on our side of the border is choking entrepreneurs. When will the government address this issue? (1240) I have also had the opportunity to speak with a few workers, who have talked to me about the EV policy.”
“All of that decline took place under the Liberal-NDP rule. In Windsor and across southwestern Ontario, parts manufacturers and tool and die shops are under real threat. These are smaller businesses, often family-run, that are highly-skilled and absolutely essential to the auto supply chain. However, when assembly lines slow down, the orders for these smaller companies disappear, and when uncertainty drags on, layoffs begin quietly. I can tell the House that this is happening on both sides of the border, unfortunately. I am hearing from tool and die shops that have already let workers go. Parts suppliers are cutting shifts. This is how economic damage spreads. It is out of sight from Ottawa, but deeply felt in cities like Windsor, London, Hamilton, Brampton, Oshawa and Quebec.”
“The workers on the shop floor are shaking their heads at the complete lack of common sense in this policy. That is not all. The workers in Windsor have a great memory. They remember being promised a trade deal by July 21, 2025. They remember being told that help was coming, but that deal never arrived. There was no agreement, no certainty and no protection. Many in Windsor are feeling disappointed. They are caught between unfair Trump tariffs on one side and domestic policies that fail to anchor production and secure good-paying jobs on the other. People understand that trade negotiations are complex, but they also understand when promises are not kept. This issue goes well beyond the big three automotive companies. Today, we are producing half the cars that we did in 2016, going from 2.3 million cars a year to 1.2 million cars a year.”
“Just yesterday, even the United States Congress said those tariffs against Canada are unjustified. However, more importantly, there is anxiety and frustration on our side of the border, because of how the government has responded to the trade war so far. Instead of securing protections for Canadian manufacturing and Canadian workers, the government announced billions of dollars in EV subsidies. On the surface, that sounds supportive, but when workers look closely, they see where most of that money is going. A significant portion is going to vehicles built in the United States, in Trump's America, and in other foreign jurisdictions. While Trump's tariffs are hurting Canadian workers, Canadian tax dollars are being used to support American production.”
“Windsor anchors one of the most integrated supply chains in the world. Auto parts made in Canada cross back and forth to the U.S. several times before the final assembly of a vehicle. When tariffs are imposed and uncertainty grows, the impact is immediate. A delay in Windsor can idle a plant in Michigan. A slowdown in Michigan can shut down a supplier in Ontario. That is why getting our auto policy right is essential if we want to put Canadian workers first. When I talk to workers back home, they are very clear about where our trouble started. They, too, blame it on the tariffs that President Trump imposed on us. Like us, the people of Windsor believe the tariffs are unjustified. They believe they were meant to target our manufacturing sector and our auto sector, and they hit Canadian auto workers directly.”
“Mr. Speaker, it is always an honour to rise in the House and speak for the decent and hard-working people of Windsor West. On their behalf, I would like to extend my heartfelt condolences to the good people of Tumbler Ridge as they go through the most challenging time of their lives. Windsor is a border city. For us, when trade works, we work. When a trade war starts, Windsor is on the front lines of that war, but the choices being made here in Ottawa are having a serious impact at home. It is important to explain what Windsor actually means to this country. Windsor is the automotive capital of Canada. The Windsor-Detroit corridor is the linchpin of our trading relationship, where roughly one-third of all Canada-U.S. trade crosses the border every single day, which amounts to over half a billion dollars every day.”
“Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister has committed $2.3 billion to subsidizing EVs, yet most EVs sold in Canada are made outside our country. The industry minister herself admitted that only one EV is made in Canada. Canadians are being forced to subsidize rebates for American-made cars, while over 5,000 Canadian workers have lost their jobs to U.S. tariffs. Why is the Prime Minister forcing Canadians to subsidize American-made EVs, instead of putting Canadian workers first and adopting the Conservative plan to cut the GST on all Canadian-made vehicles? Would that not make more sense?”
“Mr. Speaker, no matter which professor we talk to, they will tell us the same thing: Prices have gone up. We can ask any mom or dad going out to a grocery store. I consider them to be professors too, because they have been shopping their entire lives. They know the price of groceries has gone up. We do not need an expert or a consultant to tell us that the prices have gone up.”
“Mr. Speaker, the simple answer is that prices will go up. The average Canadian is going to suffer because of those policies and regulations. These are hidden in various ways, but we always hear that they are imaginary taxes. There is nothing imaginary about them. We can step outside the House and ask a regular Canadian who has to go grocery shopping how they feel about the grocery prices they are paying right now. They will tell us that they are pissed off. They are not happy. They are absolutely upset about it. Some hon. members: Oh, oh!”
“Mr. Speaker, we have a whole lot of policies that we are going to be addressing or bringing up. First, we should stop adding costs to food at every step of the supply chain. Conservatives would review and roll back federal policies that directly increase the cost of producing, processing, packaging and transporting food. When government adds costs to fertilizer, energy and transportation, these costs do not disappear; they land on grocery bills. Food is a necessity, and policy must treat it that way. Second, we should target help to the people who actually need it and make it permanent. Conservatives support targeted, predictable relief indexed to food costs for seniors, people on disability and low-income Canadians, not temporary cheques that expire while prices stay high.”
“Mr. Speaker, I happened to meet a gentleman who runs a greenhouse operation, and his comment was, “Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not adding it to a fruit salad.” That is all I have to say about that.”
“We believe in environmental responsibility, but not by making food unaffordable. We believe in helping families, but not just by talking about it or giving them a one-time cheque that many will not be eligible for. Food security is national security. When families cannot afford basics, it affects health care, public safety and social stability. I have seen it first-hand. When seniors are having to steal food, when working people are lining up at the food banks and when medication is being skipped so that groceries can be bought, it is not a theoretical debate. It is evidence. As in any good investigation, when the evidence piles up, one does not argue with it. One responds to it in a way in which one is clearly accountable, responsible and transparent. That is what the Canadian people expect of us.”
“How do Canadians see the Liberal government on this? The common perception is this: The government acknowledges the problem. Canadians hear the PM saying that they ought to judge him by the price they pay at the grocery store. They feel the government is not moving with urgency or owning the outcomes of its own policies, which are dismal, by the way. People hear announcements. They hear that ministers are meeting with the CEOs of the grocery stores. They hear about voluntary codes for grocery chains and short-term cheques being issued, but they do not feel any relief. There is frustration, confusion and a sense that the government is not doing nearly enough to help regular Canadians. I happen to agree with that. From a Conservative perspective, this is where we draw a clear line.”
“The question we should be asking ourselves is whether our ideology should be costing that senior citizen or single parent their dignity. In my opinion, the answer is no. Some studies say that carbon pricing alone adds less than 1% to food prices, but Canadians do not live in a world where costs happen only once. These costs stack up. Fuel, energy, fertilizer, packaging and transportation are individually small, but they are crushing collectively. Experts like Sylvain Charlebois, the food professor, have been very clear: Canada's food inflation problem is now a structural problem, not a temporary one. Prices are not snapping back. They are staying high. A one-time rebate will help people breathe easier temporarily, but it will not fix the structural issue of why groceries cost so much in the first place.”
“That is not right. Sadly, I have seen that look of shame before. It is the look of someone who feels they have failed. Truthfully, it is the system that has failed them. They did not fail. Let us talk about why this is happening. Food does not magically appear on the shelves. It moves through a chain, starting with farms, farming equipment, fertilizers, processors, packaging and transportation. Every added cost along that chain ends up at the checkout. Fertilizer is a good example. It is not optional. Without it, we do not grow enough. Fertilizer production is energy-intensive. Under the current industrial carbon tax system, producers are facing hundreds of millions of dollars in added costs. This will increase over the coming years. When fertilizer costs more, farmers pay more. That is not ideology. That is math.”
“Meanwhile, everyone knows they did not forget. They are crying not because they were caught but because of the humiliation. (1200) Loss-prevention workers and cops will tell us that these are the hardest incidents to deal with. They can tell us, “This is a normal person, and this is not what they do.” These are not criminals by nature. These are people who ran out of options. The damage goes beyond a police report. Being detained for shoplifting strips these desperate people of their dignity, especially seniors, who often carry deep shame and will not even tell their family what happened. They will often stop going to the store and prefer to go hungry because they are ashamed. Officers themselves feel deeply humiliated, regardless of the outcome of the investigation, because they feel they are being asked to criminalize hunger.”
“We are just covering it up with charity. Now I want to talk about something most people do not see first-hand but what police officers and loss-prevention officers deal with at the grocery store every day: retail theft. There is a big difference between organized theft rings and desperation theft. Anyone who has worked on the road as a cop or worked in loss prevention knows the difference immediately. Loss-prevention staff and cops across the country are reporting more incidents involving basic food items like milk and bread, not electronics or resale items. Increasingly, the people involved are seniors, people on disability or people with no prior contact with the police. Here is what that looks like: an elderly person detained at the door, hands shaking, apologizing over and over again and saying they forgot to scan an item.”
“Seniors are only shopping on discount days. Parents are skipping meals so their kids can eat. Full-time workers are using food banks for the first time. People standing in line at the food bank are ashamed and hope no one they know sees them in that line. Food bank visits are up to 2.2 million every month, nearly double the pre-pandemic level. That tells us something important: Emergency food aid is no longer an exception. It is becoming normal. That number, by the way, does not include the food supports provided by community centres, churches, mosques, synagogues, temples or gurdwaras across this nation. When we combine traditional food banks with faith-based groups, we are seeing roughly 3 million to 3.5 million food assistance visits every month. That is not a marginal issue; it is a systemic failure.”
“This is the part that matters most: Most food-insecure households are not below the poverty line. These are working people, seniors, people on disability or single-parent households. These are people who did everything right, paid their taxes and assumed that the basics would be there for them. Instead, many are making choices they never, ever imagined between food or medication, food or heat, and food or rent. Health researchers confirm what people already know: When food gets expensive, people skip prescriptions, delay refills or stop paying rent altogether. That is not being irresponsible; that is desperation. We do not need a consultant to tell us this. We just need to listen. Whether someone is browsing online or attending a community gathering in this country, the same stories come up again and again.”
“That is consistent across surveys and media reporting on what Canadians are telling anyone who will listen to them. Groceries today cost roughly 30% more than they did five years ago. Wages did not go up 30%, and neither did pensions, disability supports or fixed incomes. When people say, “I do not know how this happened so fast”, they are not exaggerating. They are describing reality. We heard claims that headline inflation numbers are cooling, but food prices keep rising. That is why Canadians do not feel any relief. They buy groceries every week. They see the prices every week. There is no hiding it. There is sticker shock. It is real. Now let us talk about food insecurity. About one in four Canadians now live in a household that struggles, at least some of the time, to put enough food on the table.”
“Mr. Speaker, it is always an honour to rise in the House to speak on behalf of the hard-working people of Windsor. Today, I want to talk about something that matters to every family in Windsor and to a whole lot of families across this country: food affordability. I am going to speak based on what I witnessed on the front lines of policing a little over a year ago, before I retired. Current evidence shows that the reality has gotten worse, not better. It is right there in front of the everyday Canadians who do see it, except for perhaps the Liberal government. When it comes to grocery prices and food affordability, Canadians do not need spin. They need honesty. Let us start with the basics. Across this country, food is now the number one pressure on household budgets.”
“Mr. Speaker, as a former police officer, I know a crisis when I see one. Extortion is out of control. Businesses and families are being threatened, shot at and shaken down daily, yet the Liberals deny there is a crisis. They are dragging their feet. Some municipalities are even asking for a state of emergency to be declared. When will the government stop its hug-a-thug policy, work with Conservatives, restore mandatory minimums and repeal the catch-and-release laws, Bill C-5 and C-75 ? For crying out loud, do something about this crisis.”
“They want the government to show them that it is doing something for them, rather than just putting out slogans and playing politics with their lives and their future.”
“Mr. Speaker, the failures and weaknesses in the system are nothing new. They have been around for a long time and are being exacerbated by the policies instituted and the new legislation brought about by our friends opposite. It is a disgrace to see this kind of legislation being brought forward. It is an insult to the officers working the border posts and the police officers working the border communities, because they are not seeing the help they need. These kinds of cuts are undermining and eroding the trust not just of police officers in the communities but also of us here in this chamber. The government is all talk and no action. People out there are saying that they have had enough of the smoke and mirrors show. They want results. They want action.”
“Mr. Speaker, it is remarkable that, just this past week, I heard that the government sent letters to senior officers, or officers who have several years of experience, offering them voluntary retirement. Meanwhile, it has not taken any steps to hire the 1,000 RCMP officers or the 1,000 CBSA officers it promised us. It is zero, crickets. Even the minister responsible had no idea how many people would be lost through attrition, yet there is no chance of any new hires coming on board. It is all talk and no action, unfortunately. To my colleague's point about officers being able to go to other posts and cover gaps in the system, I say, absolutely. That makes total sense. We need to have a proper system in place, where every border crossing is covered. We need to have the right people in place to cover those contingencies and—”
“Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for the reminder that we elected a new prime minister seven months ago who has only managed to pass one or two bills in that time period. That is a shameful record for any prime minister in the House of Commons. This is not something that I would say is a badge of honour for any politician worth his salt in this chamber. On co-operation, Bill C-2 , the predecessor of this bill, was an abject failure. It was a disgrace. The Liberals had to go back to the drawing board and come up with this bill, and it still fails. I do not know how many times they will have to go back to the drawing board in order to come up with proper legislation so that we, on this side, can work with them. That is the whole issue. We are ready to work, but we are not seeing any co-operation from the government, unfortunately.”
“We need CBSA resourced properly with modern equipment, adequate staffing and the capacity to interdict smuggling before it hits our streets. Above all, we need a government that understands safety and freedom must go hand in hand. Windsor knows the truth. We live on the front line. We feel the consequences of Ottawa's decisions faster and harder than most people do in the rest of the country. What we see today is a bill that does not rise to the moment, unfortunately. After three decades in policing, I will say this plainly: We cannot protect a border, protect a community or protect a country with wishful thinking. We need clear laws, real consequences, strong institutions and a government willing to prioritize public safety over politics. The bill fails that test.”
“That matters in a free society. At the end of the day, this comes down to something very simple: trust. People in Windsor trust institutions when those institutions prove they understand reality, but this bill does not reflect the reality that border communities like mine live every day. It reflects talking points, not lived experience. As someone who has spent his career responding to the consequences of weak laws and under-resourced agencies, I can say exactly what works and what does not. We need real bail reform, not more slogans. We need mandatory jail time for fentanyl traffickers and violent gun offenders. We need strong privacy protections, not blank-cheque powers. We need accountability for expanded surveillance authorities.”
“When I talk to parents, they tell me they want their kids to be safe while they are walking to school. They want their neighbourhoods to be stable. They want drug use and trafficking to be addressed at the source, not just managed on a street corner, yet at the committee, the health minister could not commit to stopping fentanyl consumption from taking place near schools or day care centres. (1145) In Windsor, we understand what that means. We have seen neighbourhoods destabilized because the government failed to draw basic, common-sense lines. The bill even gives the Canadian Coast Guard expanded surveillance powers, but it does so without the guardrails that prevent overreach or misuse. The Conservatives fought to make sure the Minister of National Defence, not a patchwork of agencies, is accountable for how those authorities are used.”
“It assumes that if we simply legislate more expectations, outcomes will magically flow. However, in policing, and in border work especially, expectation without capability is a dangerous combination. It does not work. This bill fails to address the things police officers and families talk to me about all the time. It does not fix the catch-and-release bail system that puts repeat violent offenders back into neighbourhoods before police finish their paperwork. It does not introduce mandatory sentences for fentanyl traffickers, the very people fuelling the deaths we are seeing in our emergency rooms; we have lost nearly 50,000 people since 2015. It does not impose mandatory jail terms for gang members caught with illegal firearms. It does not prevent house arrest for serious and violent crimes that devastate families and communities.”
“It completely ignores the fact that CBSA officers in places like Windsor are being stretched thinner than ever. Windsor residents are not fools. They understand the realities of living next to the busiest international crossing in North America. They know the risks, they know the pressures, and they know when Ottawa is not listening. Let me be clear about the lived reality these folks face: CBSA officers in my region are trying to intercept dangerous drugs and firearms with equipment that belongs several other decades behind us. They are understaffed. They are overburdened. Some units run at minimum manpower every day. While the officers do heroic work, government after government has failed to give them the tools that match the scale of their responsibility. This bill pretends those challenges do not exist.”
“In border communities like mine, we are responding to the consequences of smuggling operations that exploit every weakness in the system. Former Dallas police chief David Brown, in a moment of reflection during the funeral service for five of his police officers killed in action, said that society asks police to solve every problem but only equips them for one. That line has stayed with me for years because it captures, exactly, our lived reality. It is the same pattern with Bill C-12 . The Liberals talk about strengthening the border, but this bill does not deal with the fundamentals. It adds responsibilities without adding resources. It expands authorities without addressing bail failures. It gestures at privacy protections while leaving gaps big enough for any government to drive through.”
“We see CBSA officers struggling with outdated equipment, short-staffed shifts and facilities that were never meant to handle the volume they do today. We see police officers, good and dedicated people, being asked to carry the weight of government policy failures. I remember hearing countless officers I worked with say that they are covering every gap in the system there is. That is not a complaint. It is a sober description of the reality on the ground. They are right. We are responding to mental health crises because mental health supports are not there. We are responding to addiction because treatment beds are not available. We are responding to violent offenders because bail laws send them back out the door soon after their arrest.”
“Mr. Speaker, it is always a pleasure to rise on behalf of the people of Windsor West, and I am grateful for the privilege they have given me by sending me here to the House. I rise today not just as a legislator but also as someone who spent nearly three decades in policing. Of those three decades, two decades were in policing a border community. In Windsor, the border is not a distant concept; it is part of our daily rhythm. Families cross it every morning for work or school. Trade pours through it every minute, and criminals try to exploit it every day and night. That was my lived reality for nearly 30 years in uniform. When we work the front line in a border city, we see things that do not make the evening news. We see the family torn apart by fentanyl. We see the gun trafficked across the river showing up at a crime scene.”
“Mr. Speaker, this is a question of fairness. Is it fair to the Canadian public that we are now going to pay for these 14 asylum claimants that my friend referred to, for the next four years? They are going to have their education, housing and health care paid for. Is that fair to the Canadian taxpayer?”
“Their story is part of Windsor's story and a part of Canada's story. Our country is better because of them. As someone who celebrates April as Sikh Heritage Month, it is truly meaningful to stand here to say that I look forward to celebrating Arab heritage month alongside my Canadian friends of Arabic heritage. April can be a month of shared pride where our communities celebrate together, honour each other and look ahead to a future built on friendship and mutual respect under one Canadian flag. I am proud to support this bill. Let us make April a time to celebrate the Arab community, which is a community that has given Canada so much and continues to inspire us every day.”
“It is a time to acknowledge that the Arab Canadian story is not a story of one group but of many, be they Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Zoroastrian, Druze or people of various backgrounds, all of whom have shared values and a deep commitment to a unified Canada. In Windsor, we know first-hand how much the Arab community contributes to our shared life. Walk through our neighbourhoods, visit our restaurants and shops, speak to our local business owners or visit our hospitals, and one will find this community serving, healing, building, teaching and leading. Their fingerprints are everywhere, in the best possible way. (1755) I want to thank those in the Arab community of Windsor West and across Canada. I thank them for their leadership, their generosity, their resilience and their commitment to building a stronger Canada for all of us.”
“These are families who built our neighbourhoods and local institutions and helped raise generations of engaged, compassionate citizens of a united country. Their values, devotion to faith, love of family, generosity, hard work and service to community are the very values that have built this country. They are values that resonate deeply with me personally and with many Conservative households across Windsor and, indeed, across Canada. This is why Arab heritage month matters. It is not simply a symbolic gesture. It is an opportunity for Canadians to learn about and honour the diverse cultures, languages, traditions and histories that shape Arab communities from Lebanon, Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Palestine, Jordan, Yemen, Morocco and so many others.”
“Jasey, a remarkable man whose compassion and commitment to his patients touched countless families across Windsor-Essex. To his family, children and grandchildren, and to the many he cared for, his legacy will be a lasting source of pride and gratitude. These are only a few names. Canadians of Arab heritage in Windsor include doctors who save lives, entrepreneurs like Tony Sleiman of Vengeance Power, Rabia Kirma of the WE CARE Association of Windsor, and many, many others who create jobs. There are educators who inspire and philanthropists who give generously without ever seeking recognition. There are police officers like Sergeant Oliver Jibrail of the LaSalle Police Service, who came here as a young lad from Iraq and is now serving the community.”
“In 1960, the city welcomed its first mosque, built by Arab families who wanted a space where their children could learn, gather and pray. These institutions remain symbols of their courage, sacrifice and commitment to building a better life in their new homeland. Over the generations, people of Arab heritage in Windsor have contributed to our region in extraordinary ways. We saw it in the leadership of former mayor Eddie Francis, the youngest mayor in Windsor's history, whose historic tenure helped modernize our city and position Windsor as a forward-looking community ready for growth and renewal. We see it in the dedicated service of health care professionals like Dr. Tayfour and Dr. Osman Tarabain, whose work and philanthropic efforts have benefited everyone in our region. We especially honour the memory of the late Dr.”
“It recognizes a community that has shaped Canadian life for more than a century. It acknowledges contributions that continue to enrich our country every single day. As someone from the Sikh faith whose community also celebrates April, as Sikh Heritage Month, I understand the power of recognition. I know what it means for communities to feel they are seen and celebrated, so I welcome the opportunity to share this month with my friends from the Arab diaspora. In Windsor, the Arab community has a long and storied history. Early Lebanese settlers arrived in the late 1800s and began laying the foundations of a community that grew, thrived and became an essential pillar of our region. In 1924, over 100 years ago, they built St. Peter’s church on Niagara Street, a place of faith, family and cultural identity.”
“Mr. Speaker, it is always an honour and a profound privilege to rise in the House as the member of Parliament for Windsor West, a community known for its generosity, its diversity and its deep sense of belonging. Representing the people of Windsor West is one of the greatest responsibilities of my lifetime, and I carry their stories, their hopes and their aspirations with me every time I stand here. Today, I am proud to rise in support of the private member's bill, Bill S-227 , sponsored in the other place by Senator Al Zaibak and here by my colleague from York South—Weston—Etobicoke , to designate April as Arab heritage month in Canada. I would also like to thank the member for Edmonton Manning and the defence minister , who worked on similar legislation in the past. The bill carries deep meaning.”