QUESTION PERIOD — Public Safety
Anti-Semitism
June 20, 2024
Senator Gold, Canadians are facing one crisis after another, and all we get from the Trudeau government is inertia. Look at foreign interference, for example. The opposition has raised the flag for years with legislation in both houses. Your government did not run to action until, of course, Justice Hogue and the preliminary report from the public inquiry shamed the government into tabling a bill which we passed in haste over the last few days — but thank God we did.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC is another example where your government did not take any action for nine years, ignoring one motion after another in Parliament until you saw the polls and realized Canadians of Iranian descent were flocking to the Conservative Party. All of a sudden — as of yesterday — it wasn’t difficult or complicated to list the IRGC as a terrorist entity — amazing.
In the last few months we have also seen encampments and protests — illegal protests, I underline — blocking highways and infrastructure and threatening the Jewish community and Jewish students on our campuses. When will your government take action and pack it up and shut them down?
The government has taken action, and I’m grateful to everyone in this chamber and to you, Senator Housakos, for your very responsible and measured speech yesterday in support of Bill C-70. Let us move forward; there’s still much work to be done. As difficult as it is for me and for members of the McGill University community or members of the Jewish community or, indeed, any other community who cares about the proliferation of hate crimes and hate speech on our streets — it is sometimes very difficult for us to walk in neighbourhoods we used to call our own.
It is not, however, the jurisdiction of the federal government to shut down demonstrations or encampments, legal or illegal, on private property within a province.
Senator Gold, I’m always measured and I’m always responsible.
Your government didn’t hesitate to put in place the Emergencies Act and to seize bank accounts for what eventually was nothing more than a towing operation. Yet you’re not going after illegal protests that involve shooting at synagogues and intimidating Jewish students on university campuses — and there are elements contrary to the Criminal Code. If only there was a political will in this country to send the message that we will no longer tolerate this. That’s all I’m saying: Show some political will that we won’t tolerate it.
I have to confess that I find this use of the suffering my community is going through very difficult. The administration of justice is a provincial responsibility, as is policing. It’s as simple as that. This is constitutional law 101. In fact, you don’t have to go to law school to understand this, Senator Housakos. Come on, show some respect for the people who have to live on the streets and are struggling.
