Madam Speaker, I wish to inform you that I will be sharing my time with the member for Beauport—Limoilou.

The Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs has held more than 70 meetings on foreign interference in our elections. There have been two questions of privilege, one raised by the member for Wellington—Halton Hills and one raised by the member for Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, which have been studied by the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs. An independent commission of inquiry has been launched at the relentless urging of my colleague from Trois-Rivières and myself in the House. Now the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians has released a bombshell report showing that Canadian parliamentarians are encouraging foreign governments to use them as part of their manipulations.

However, the report has not been met with urgency. The government hopes to put a lid on the scandal and smother it like so many others, but this time, the pressure cooker is about to explode. I think it is about to happen. What will it take for the government to act?

I cannot believe it is the Bloc Québécois, a separatist political party, that has to lead the charge on this matter to generate a discussion in the Parliament of Canada. That is crazy. Now even the Parti Québécois wants to launch a national inquiry in Quebec on foreign interference. The mayor of Brossard supports the idea, because the federal government is not doing its job.

Last week we learned that members of the House of Commons are being directly influenced by China and, even worse, are instigating interference. They are exploiting the schemes of foreign threat actors to further their own ends. That is serious. I hope that people understand what we are saying. When we talk about it, the government says that it is really not that serious. It is time for it to take responsibility and acknowledge how serious this problem is.

People know I am a sovereignist. I am sitting in a Parliament that I do not wish to sit in because I want Quebec to be independent. However, today I am the one asking the federal government to defend Canada. I want the government to realize that it is not addressing the issue. The government did everything it could to smother the scandal by initially vetoing a public inquiry and appointing a special rapporteur who we know is a friend of the Trudeau family as a diversion. Time is running out.

Just recently, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Public Safety told opposition members to “get over it”. She did this right in the middle of a parliamentary committee meeting. I can tell the member for Pickering—Uxbridge without hesitation that no, I will not get over it, because I have no trust.

For months, I have been hearing the security agencies, CSIS, the RCMP and the Communications Security Establishment Canada, pass the buck and tell us that they are doing their job, but that it is difficult. I cannot get over not actually knowing what makes it so difficult. No one has the courage to answer my questions in committee.

I have come to my own conclusion, which is that our intelligence agencies are being ignored because the news they are reporting to the highest levels of the Canadian government is not to the Prime Minister's liking. Why? It is because, as has now come to light, members of the government party are under the influence of foreign states. These states have developed clandestine networks surrounding candidates and elected officials to arrange nominations, elections, parliamentary business and government decision-making.

Do people realize what is going on? It is unbelievable. These foreign states are surrounding targets with ethnocultural community leaders and prominent Canadian business people and political staffers. These states convey their preferences. What do the collaborators do? They promote the chosen slate to targeted groups of voters. They go through the back door.

Back in February 2023, David Mulroney, Canada's former ambassador to the People's Republic of China, told the committee: “[I thought] back in history to the 1930s, when France constructed the Maginot Line. They were not going to suffer what happened to them in World War I, so they were going to build defences that went from the borders in the low countries all the way along the borders of France to Spain. It was impregnable, and it gave the French great confidence. However, the Germans didn't follow that plan. They had another plan. They entered via the Ardennes, and France fell. It was a disaster because they had designed something as they saw fit.” That is exactly what Canada is experiencing.

Marie-Hélène Gaudreau

$567,376.00