Arnold Viersen
Peace River—Westlock, Alberta · Conservative · Canada
“Mr. Speaker, one of those really great laws is Bill S-211 , which requires companies selling or distributing goods in Canada to produce an annual report. The Liberals, contrary to the law, revised their directive and exempted a bunch of their corporate buddies from having to file the report. Now the U.S.”
“Mr. Speaker, the member mentioned executive bonuses, and I just want to point out that the company also gave some great bonuses to its executives, while it has built zero kilometres of rail line. I just thought I would put that on the record as well. I want to ask my hon.”
“Mr. Speaker, $200 million is what we are talking about with this launch pad. In my riding, a sawmill was recently shut down, with 190 jobs lost. That $200 million would have gone a long way there. The member for Taiaiako'n—Parkdale—High Park and I were debating this earlier, and he talked about how we needed a Canadian Cape Canaveral.”
“Mr. Speaker, I assure members that I only have one petition to present today. I rise to present a petition on behalf of Canadians who are concerned about human rights protections in India.”
“The petitioners are asking that the government ensure that any and all trade deals with India are premised on mandatory human rights provisions, that extremists are sanctioned and that the government promote a respectful human rights dialogue between Canada and India.”
“Since then, only minor tweaks have been made to that. Because of that, there are a host of companies that work hard on creating a product that is well serviced and lasts a long time. It does not ever really end up in the landfill, because they just keep rebuilding it and keep working it over.”
The complete record
Every one of 305 lines we hold for Arnold Viersen, in date order, each linked to its source. Free to read, in full, without an account. Page 4 of 7.
“Mr. Speaker, I listened intently to the member's speech. While he is new here, his ideas are quite outdated as Canadians fully rejected a carbon tax in the last election. Even people like Bill Gates are saying that we have to focus on things like eliminating hunger and poverty, which are on the rise right here in Canada. This bill purports to do some of those things. Why is the member bringing these outdated ideas back to this place and not focusing on reducing hunger and poverty in this country?”
“Madam Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague for his great speech on Bill C-4 , the unaffordability act, as the government wants to call it. We know that the Liberals have no good ideas of their own, and that when they take our good ideas, they wreck them. Conservatives put forward a proposal to take the GST off new home builds, and the Liberals came in with something that sounds like that, but it is only for first-time homebuyers. First-time homebuyers are generally not buying newbuilds; they are buying older homes. Newbuilds are what we need in our country. I am wondering if my hon. colleague has any comments around the fact that the Liberals steal our ideas but then wreck them.”
“Mr. Speaker, we have been pointing out for the last little while that it is the Brookfield government, and the Prime Minister has been using the government's plane to fly around the world. Interestingly, he has not secured many deals for Canada, but shortly after the Prime Minister leaves particular countries and places, Brookfield signs major deals with those particular places. I am just wondering whether the hon. member has any comments to that effect.”
“Mr. Speaker, Canadians are looking for collaboration, no doubt, but the Prime Minister went around to wave just another piece of paper that promises a potential pipeline maybe sometime in the future. In reality, it guarantees nothing. The only thing that was guaranteed today was that Albertans and Canadians will continue to pay more with the industrial carbon tax. Canadians are looking for a guarantee. The simple question is, can the Prime Minister guarantee what year shovels will be in the ground on this proposed pipeline?”
“Madam Speaker, I have two questions for the member: One, was he making the point in his speech that this is an austerity budget? Two, will he confirm for me, as he been a finance minister before, that deficit spending does drive inflation?”
“Madam Speaker, I really appreciated the member's speech as it was quite entertaining. There was this new term of “clever austerity”, which I guess is the reverse of austerity. The word “clever” makes the word “austerity” mean the opposite. Justin Trudeau, in all of his time in power, outside of COVID, never had a budget that had this much deficit spending in it. If this is what clever austerity is, I do not know what actual austerity looks like.”
“Mr. Speaker, the Liberals have been in power for over 10 years now and have failed to secure a softwood lumber deal. They have been in power while there have been three different presidents of the United States, and they have failed to diversify our markets around the world after Stephen Harper left them with a legacy of 42 free trade agreements having been signed. Our energy is still landlocked in Alberta. I am wondering what my hon. colleague has to say about getting our resources to market.”
“Mr. Chair, when asked if he was picking up the phone and talking to Donald Trump, the Prime Minister said, “who cares?” We care. We care deeply about the workers in the softwood lumber industry. There are 15 mills that operate in my constituency. My friend Peter works at one of those mills. These are the folks who are affected by this. The Liberals have had 10 years to fix this problem, and now today they are saying we need to diversify our markets. They have had 10 years to diversify our markets. Stephen Harper signed 42 free trade agreements around the world, and the Liberals could have worked to ensure that we had diversified markets for our softwood lumber. What does the member think about that?”
“Mr. Chair, this is classic Liberals. They stumble along until we are in the midst of a crisis and then say, “What would you guys do?” It is pretty obvious: We would be negotiating a softwood lumber deal. The Liberals had lots of opportunities to do so. I remember the bromance between Justin Trudeau and Obama. They could have made it a priority and had a softwood lumber deal then. I remember when Joe Biden came to visit and the Liberals were swooning all over him. They could have used that opportunity to get a softwood lumber deal. What does my hon. colleague think about the missed opportunities the government has had to sign a softwood lumber deal?”
“Mr. Chair, I want to thank the member for his great speech on this topic. I wonder if he has any comments on the fact that we are only holding the Prime Minister to his own words. He promised that he was a master negotiator and that he was going to get us a software lumber deal within 100 days, by July 1, or something like that. I would also point out that the Liberals have been in power for a decade while the U.S. has been under three different presidents. I remember the Justin Trudeau bromance with Obama. I thought they would fix the softwood lumber deal because they got along so great. The Liberals had lots of accolades for Joe Biden, who came to visit us right here. They never got the softwood lumber deal. I just wonder what the member has to say about that.”
“Mr. Chair, I want to thank the member for recognizing the challenges that are facing our industry. However, the Prime Minister did say during the election campaign that he was going to get this deal done. Many Canadians from across the country voted for him because they thought that he would get this deal with Donald Trump done. Donald Trump endorsed him after all. Why are we still living with no softwood lumber deal in this country?”
“Mr. Chair, I want to thank my hon. colleague for his great speech on this topic. I know that his community has faced mill closures, as has mine. The Tolko mill in High Level has just reduced its mill operations by one-third. It has sent one-third of its people home. It says that it can survive this uncertainty that we are facing for a bit longer, but it is concerned about not having a structural change in this country. What are the member's comments around that?”
“Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for bringing this bill forward. It is a great bill. We have heard in the past stories of judges reducing a sentence so that particular people do not get deported. To me, this totally seems like a way of reducing the value of Canadian citizenship. I am wondering if she can comment on that.”
“To our beekeepers here today, the quiet backbone of our food security, and on behalf of a grateful nation, we express our thanks.”
“Mr. Speaker, as the MP for the honey capital of Canada, I am pleased to rise today to celebrate Canada's bees and their beekeepers. Canada's beekeeping industry operates over 800,000 colonies, pollinating 75% of our food and feed crops. From wild blueberries in Cape Breton to the yellow canola seas of Peace River country and the apple orchards of B.C. and Quebec, the map that we eat is drawn by the mighty bee. These tiny marvels, with their tireless buzz, carry tomorrow's harvest through the skies. When winter bites, and when faced with habitat loss and varroa mites, Canada's 10,000 beekeepers rise to the occasion with skill, grit and determination to deliver the world's best tasting honey and food to our tables. Every jar of honey is a small victory, every pollinated field a bountiful blessing, and every beekeeper a patriot in a veil.”
“Mr. Speaker, under the Liberals, fishing has been put at risk across the country through the management areas they have been putting in place across the country. I know my hon. colleague's bill does not say anything about marine protected areas, but I am wondering if he has any comments about that.”
“Together, all these groups are saying that we will not turn away from exploitation. They will not remain silent and neither will we. I want to thank Andrea and Kathy for their relentless work to end sexual exploitation.”
“Mr. Speaker, I am honoured to invite all members to a luncheon tomorrow at noon in 8-053, 131 Queen Street, to mark 11 years since royal assent for PCEPA, the Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act. This lunch will be hosted by Andrea and Kathy, long-time anti-exploitation advocates. Through PCEPA, Canada's Parliament recognized that prostitution is a form of sexual exploitation and affirmed that no one ever needs to be bought, sold or exploited for sex in Canada. Andrea and Kathy will provide a copy of their book When Men Buy Sex: Who Really Pays? to every single parliamentarian. This book elevates the voices of the survivors. Andrea and Kathy are also joined this week by the National Council of Women of Canada, CEASE Trafficking, Persons Against Non-State Torture, BridgeNorth, EmpowerMen and Men Ending Trafficking.”
“Madam Speaker, I was just wondering if my hon. colleague has any other examples. The last one was great. I was wondering if he has any other examples of how the Liberals have cheapened Canadian citizenship over the last 10 years.”
“Madam Speaker, I am thankful to the hon. member for his great speech on the topic. I wonder if he has any other examples of how the immigration system has been wrecked. I know that for as long as I have been here, we have been concerned about the Roxham Road crossing. I wonder if he has any other examples he would like to share with us.”
“Mr. Speaker, I would just like to, perhaps, pick the hon. member's brain a little about Bill C-3 . It is an interesting thing that the government brought this forward. I remember that during the campaign, the Prime Minister talked about how we were going to build projects at lightning speed, we were going to have to change some legislation and we were going to do all these great things in Canada. Then there is Bill C-3 , the third piece of legislation the Liberals brought forward. This whole thing was not even mentioned in the Liberal platform. I am just wondering why Bill C-3 is such an important thing for the Liberal government when we have a whole bunch of other things to do. Why was this put forward now?”
“Mr. Speaker, I am glad he is clarifying this. The point is that if his daughter became a Canadian citizen, she could easily pass Canadian citizenship on to her children. Hon. Kevin Lamoureux: She is a Canadian citizen. Arnold Viersen: Mr. Speaker, the member is saying she is a Canadian citizen, but if she was born in Germany, there would be a process for her to establish Canadian citizenship. If she is a Canadian citizen and has children while she is still in Germany, she too can pass it on. That is all currently— Hon. Kevin Lamoureux: No, she can't. Arnold Viersen: Mr. Speaker, if someone is a Canadian citizen, they are capable of passing it on. This bill, as far as I understand, is about the third generation and people who were missed. An hon. member: No, it's the second. Arnold Viersen: Mr.”
“Mr. Speaker, a Liberal questioner earlier talked about somebody who had been away on deployment and came back and had a child while away on deployment. I do not think this bill addresses that. I think it is second-generation citizenship that this bill in particular answers to. I am wondering if the member opposite could clarify for me if this bill is indeed about the second generation.”
“Mr. Speaker, I was interested in listening to the member's speech. Clearly, he has a lot of knowledge on the topic. I did not follow the bill through committee really closely. I was just wondering if he could comment about whether there are other countries that are doing this or proposing this. What are the differences between those countries and Canada, particularly given old-world versus new-world issues? I am wondering if he has any comments around that.”
“Mr. Speaker, the last petition I have to present today comes from Canadians from across the country who are concerned about the thousands of Afghans who are still living in vulnerability in Afghanistan given the fall of the Afghan government after the Americans pulled out. Canada has stepped up, but there are still thousands of immigrants left living in concerning situations. The petitioners are calling on the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship to use her powers to grant a special program to help persecuted minorities in Afghanistan. They call on the Minister of Foreign Affairs to raise the persecution and concern of the—”
“(1855) Since May 2015, thousands of Chinese citizens have filed criminal complaints against the Communist Party leader, who has orchestrated this persecution of the Falun Gong. The petitioners call on the Government of Canada and Parliament to establish measures to ensure that the products that we buy here are not made with Falun Gong forced labour and that people who are innocently going to China for organ transplants are not being sold organs from Falun Gong practitioners. They call on the government to take every opportunity to call for the end of the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners and urge the Chinese authorities to end that practice in China.”
“Mr. Speaker, the next petition I have to present comes from people from across the country who are concerned about the treatment of the Falun Gong in China. They note that millions of Falun Gong practitioners have been arbitrarily detained, including family members of Canadians, and they are concerned about the forced labour that is being perpetrated upon the Falun Gong population back in India. They also call for the Government of Canada to recognize somewhere between 60,000 to 100,000 forced organ harvest transplants that may be happening in China and they are concerned that there may be thousands of Falun Gong practitioners who have been murdered for their organs over the last 15 years.”
“These Canadians do not want an ableist health care system where the lives of those with disabilities are not seen as worth living. Many disability advocates from across the country have expressed concern and are opposed to track 2 of the MAID regime. Therefore, the folks who have signed this petition are calling on the Government of Canada to protect all Canadians whose natural death is not reasonably foreseeable by prohibiting medical assistance in dying to those whose death is not foreseen in the next six months.”
“Mr. Speaker, the next petition I have to present comes from Canadians from across the country who are concerned about the MAID regime in this country. Choosing medical assistance in dying because of a lack of available services or treatments is not a real choice. That is what the petitioners are pointing out. They also point out that allowing medical assistance in dying for those with disabilities or chronic illness, but who are not dying, devalues their life and tacitly endorses the notion that life with a disability is optional and, by extension, dispensable. They are concerned that offering medical assistance in dying as a solution for a disability or chronic illness reduces the incentives to improve treatment and care for people with these conditions.”
“They also wanted to point out Indian Muslims are also at risk of assault and sexual violence in India. The petitioners ask that the government ensure that any trade deal that we may be pursuing with India be premised upon mandatory human rights positions, that extremists be sanctioned and that the government promote a respectful human rights dialogue between Canada and India.”
“Mr. Speaker, the next petition I have is from Canadians across the country who are concerned about human rights abuses around the world. In particular, they note the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom that pointed out that various actors are supporting and enforcing sectarian policies in India to establish India as a Hindu state. The petitioners say that Christians in India are being targeted by extremists vandalizing their churches, attacking church workers and threatening or humiliating congregations. They also wanted to point out crimes against the Dalit groups, including Dalit women and girls who are increasingly facing crime in India. The petitioners call on the Indian government and the Canadian government to work together to bring this kind of persecution to an end.”
“The petitioners are calling on the government to bring in real legislation to tackle crime in this country and repeal Bill C-21 , and devote greater resources to policing so that they can combat these sources of illegal firearms.”
“Mr. Speaker, the next petition I have to present comes from Canadians across the country who are concerned about the way the Liberal government treats law-abiding firearms owners. They talk about the host of orders in council that the government has put in place targeting law-abiding firearms owners. They talk about Bill C-21 , which does nothing to tackle firearm crime, but rather, adds red tape to law-abiding firearms owners and goes after law-abiding firearms owners, and makes them paper criminals. They talk about how this bill does little to tackle the true source of illegal firearms and fails to go after organized crime and gangs.”
“Mr. Speaker, I have a few petitions to present tonight. The first petition comes from Canadians across the country who are concerned about the treatment of the armed forces chaplaincy. They are concerned about recent reports that have come out saying that chaplains may not pray at Remembrance Day ceremonies. They note that Canada has a long tradition of respecting and honouring the role of faith traditions in the Canadian Armed Forces. These Canadians are calling upon Parliament to reaffirm that the Canadian Armed Forces ought to be free to support servicemen and servicewomen who, through public prayer, keep their hard-won and honourable traditions of the armed forces, especially on Remembrance Day.”
“Mr. Speaker, these are things we have been pointing out for a very long time. I do not know why the Liberals left in these loopholes, other than they do not want a wholesale change to our justice system. On the one hand, they want to say this is a new government doing new things, but on the other hand, they always have a niggle in the back of their minds that since these are the laws they brought in, they cannot wholesale admit that the whole system is not working, because they engineered it only 10 years ago.”
“While we appreciate the acknowledgement that the Liberals have failed with the introduction of Bill C-75 and that there is a need for repealing Liberal bail, there are many other things we need to do.”
“Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the member for Shefford for her great work on the All-Party Parliamentary Group to End Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking. One of the reasons I ended up at the Senate committee hearings on Bill C-75 was that I was in the role of the all-party co-chair. I was there with Senator Christmas at the time, who was the other co-chair back then. We pointed out that Bill C-75 not only ended consecutive sentencing for human traffickers, who in many cases traffic many victims, but also allowed for house arrest for human traffickers. Human traffickers are often operating from their house. Putting them back in the same environment where they operated from is totally ludicrous.”
“Mr. Speaker, I do not think the member listened to my speech. The whole first part of my speech outlined the graph of crime in Canada and how there is a distinct V in the crime statistics. I understand that correlation is not always causation, but it corresponds with when the Liberals came to power. On consecutive sentencing, when the Liberals brought in Bill C-75 and got rid of consecutive sentencing, the member for Winnipeg North argued extensively that consecutive sentencing was against the charter and was cruel and unusual punishment. Today, he is defending a bill that would reinstate consecutive sentencing.”
“Bill C-14 is an admission by the Liberals that the bail system is broken in this country. It is an admission that our slogan of “jail, not bail” for repeat offenders worked when we brought it to the Canadian public. They are stealing our homework again, and I am happy about that, but I wish they would go the whole way by repealing Liberal bail and bringing in a bail system that works in its entirety. I have lots to say on this. I spoke extensively on Bill C-75 . I was asked to be a witness at the Senate committee meeting on Bill C-75. I had lots to say about that. I would love to have a long chat about consecutive sentencing and how this bill also touches on that, and I am hopeful that the Liberals will ask me about it in the questions that follow.”
“I do not know where the Speaker was last week. I was sitting at committee when my phone made a very loud noise. I thought I had my phone on silent, so I was quite embarrassed by it. All of a sudden, I noticed that my phone was not the only phone making a lot of noise. Everybody's phone was making a lot of noise, and it was an Amber Alert. Subsequently, I found out that the Amber Alert had been issued because somebody had abducted a child, and that person was out on bail. We had already arrested this person for another crime and let them back out on bail, and now they were committing another crime. It interrupted our meeting, so I got to hear about that one in particular. That is very tangible for this place. I hope it will have an impact on my colleagues on the other side.”
“We do not like the Liberal bail system. We think the Liberal bail system sucks and it should be repealed entirely. We have put forward our vision for what bail ought to look like. Most people think the Canadian bail system does something it does not do at all. People watch movies all the time and they hear about how someone made bail. Their family or friends had to scrape together $10,000 to get them out of jail. That does not happen in Canada. People are not putting up money to get bail. They are being released with a promise to pay. Sometimes it is $1,000 and sometimes it is less. By the third time they get out on bail, they may have forfeited $2,000, but they have not forfeited any actual cash. These were forfeitures of promises to pay. They were forfeitures of IOU notes, essentially. We need to have bail that works in this country.”
“The police do not have the resources to even pursue them. It just does not happen anymore where I come from, because it is such a common occurrence, and it is occurring all across the country. One of the things that I find interesting is that, for as long as I have been a member of Parliament, vehicle theft has been quite a problem in northern Alberta. I do not think the trend has changed. I think it has held steady, but what has changed is that folks living in the big cities are now experiencing vehicle theft carte blanche. Now, after the Liberals have caused all of these problems, they suddenly want to talk about bail reform. I would say the reason they want to talk about it is that we have made the case that the bail system is broken in Canada, but we are not asking for reform. We are asking for Liberal bail to be repealed.”
“(1250) The most interesting story I have heard is probably the one from Westlock a number of years back. It was not covered in the news, so I do not know if it is true or not. A spike belt, which is used to stop fleeing vehicles, was used three times inside of 48 hours, and the police used it on the same person. They were pursuing a stolen vehicle, they used a spike belt and they arrested the person in the stolen vehicle. She got out on bail and immediately stole another vehicle. The police used the spike belt on that one, arrested her again and put her in jail overnight. The next morning, she was out on bail and, again, she stole a vehicle and the police pursued her and used a spike belt. This was a number of years ago. I point that out because it seems that stolen vehicles no longer rise to a certain level.”
“They give a political will to what we would do if we were in power. I referenced earlier today that in Vancouver, 43 individuals caused 1,100 police interactions in one year. Many of them were out on bail. We have one case after another of violent crimes committed by people who are out on bail, often for the second or third time. The members of the RCMP in my constituency, who do very good work, are completely frustrated. They work very hard to build a case and get a conviction. They arrest somebody, and within four hours, these people are back on the streets. In one case that was brought to me, there were something like 72 charges by the time the guy got to the first court date. He had been arrested three times and charged with multiple offences each time he was arrested, just to be let out again.”
“However, I would say that in a rolling average of five years, we are way past that. Those are the statistics. We know what they say about statistics. The reality on the ground is that people feel it. People know this. They understand this. The police in Toronto are telling people to leave their keys near the door so that if somebody comes to steal their vehicle, at least they will find their keys quickly and not disturb the rest of their house. This stuff is happening in our country. We do it. We hear from the Liberals all the time that “jail, not bail” is just words and not actions. It means something. People understand what it means. I acknowledge that Bill C-14 came from the last election. It came out of the campaign we fought for, with jail, not bail. Those are our words, but they mean something.”
“If we were to take a time scale of the last 30 years, it would be a very interesting graph to look at. There was a declining rate, which stabilized in the nineties. In the late to mid-2000s, it started declining again, and it declined rapidly for a period of time leading up to 2015. From 2013 to 2015, the rate on that graph dropped dramatically. Interestingly, there was a complete reversal. We could have expected it to flatten or something like that, but it did not flatten; it turned around immediately. Something very interesting happened in 2015. The Liberals got elected to power in this country. Since then, that incline took off and has continued to climb. Let us go back to the 100-year average. Again, the time scale matters. We are back to an average, so when the Liberals say that, I am not here to dispute it with them.”
“Mr. Speaker, drugs, stolen vehicles and church burnings are all things that have risen under the Liberal government since it came into power over 10 years ago. If we listen to the Liberals, they say Canadians have never had it so good and that crime is at historic lows. We could make a graph of crime. The interesting thing about graphs is the time scale. If we look at it over the last 100 years, yes, crime is now at an average rate and lower than it was 100 years ago. However, the population of Canada was completely different then. It was much smaller. With respect to the sample size of crime per capita, which is how it is referenced most of the time, if we change the denominator by a factor of millions, it changes the rate significantly.”
“Mr. Speaker, I do not even know where to start with the member opposite, but I would point out that the bill is an admission of Liberal failure. We are calling for the repeal of Liberal bail law. We are calling for jail, not bail for repeat offenders. We have heard from communities across this country. One example is the city of Vancouver, where 43 individuals caused 1,100 police interactions in one year. It is not that we have a lot of criminals in this country, but the criminals we do have are prolific because the Liberals keep letting them out on bail. What does the member have to say about that?”
“Mr. Speaker, I rise today to present a petition signed by Canadians from across the country who are concerned about past legislation, new orders in council and the targeting of law-abiding firearms owners. The petitioners say that Bill C-21 would do nothing to tackle firearm violence but would add red tape for law-abiding Canadians. They also say that the Liberals' gun confiscation program is nothing more than a waste of money. The petitioners are calling for the government to repeal Bill C-21 , revoke the orders in council and target non-law-abiding Canadians. It should go after the criminals and not law-abiding firearms owners.”
“Mr. Speaker, I recognize that our hon. colleague wants to talk about this, but the debate today is about Bill C-12 , and I wish he would bring it back to relevance. I note that it is the Liberals who—”