Mr. Speaker, in June, Canadians pleaded with the Liberal government to keep Parliament open and deliver real bail reform. Its members refused, and they went on vacation. While they were away, tragedy multiplied: A three-year-old girl was assaulted in her own bed, a boy was killed by a stray bullet as he slept in his mother's arms, a father was slain while defending his family and a grandmother was murdered for her car. Each story is a heartbreak. Each one is a question: Why was the Liberals' vacation more important than protecting Canadians from crime?

Now Parliament is finally back. It is day two, and what does the government put first? It is not violent crime, not unemployment, not the cost of living and not housing affordability. Instead, the Liberals rushed forward with a bill to let the state seize our mail without a warrant and to reach into our digital life unnecessarily and without oversight. However, when I walk the streets of Newmarket—Aurora, when I knock on doors, I do not hear calls for broader surveillance powers. I hear a mother in tears, telling me that she no longer feels safe in her own home. I read emails and take calls from neighbours who tell me, with desperation, that they no longer feel safe in their home, in their streets and in their country.

Canadians are asking, “Can I feed my family? Will my children ever be able to afford a home? Are our streets safe?” That is what weighs on the people's hearts, and yet the government answers with an omnibus bill that ignores their pleas and fiddles with their freedoms.

Violent crime is up 50%. Gang-related homicide is up 75%. Extortion is up 357%. Auto theft is up 46%. Crimes against children are up 119%. Every percentage point is not a number; it is a person, a life upended, a family scarred.

There are parts of the bill where we find common ground. We support tougher measures to combat fentanyl. We support expanding the sex offenders registry so police can prevent the most horrific crimes. We support stronger powers for law enforcement to stop predators and for the CBSA to stop money laundering and terrorist financing. These are urgent issues that could pass now, but the government went further. The Liberals bundled urgent, non-contentious issues with controversial ones that overreach.

Section 8 of our charter is clear: Canadians are protected against unlawful search and seizure. The protection must come before the state acts, not after. The private information of Canadians sent through the mail should never be handed to the government without a warrant. That would be a clear breach of confidentiality.

Let us think about what we entrust to the mail: mail-in ballots, confidential files and financial statements. Where is the line? Where is the respect for Canadians' civil liberties? When I hear of a government's screening mail, I do not think of a western democracy; I think of a place where the state controls and where people are afraid to speak their mind. That is not Canada, yet that is exactly what the bill proposes.

The reality is that criminals are savvy. They adapt, they shift, they change and they will. We have already seen cases of pigeons delivering drugs in B.C., and we know that the use of drones is rapidly growing. Criminals will find other ways, and what will be left behind? It will be ordinary Canadians with their liberties, civil liberties, stripped away, and their private letters, their ballots, their most personal information left open to the government's eyes, not through due process, not with a warrant but with a will.

That is not the Canada we know. That is not the Canada we should ever accept. The bill offers no real oversight, no safeguards and no consequences for abuse. Canadians know this: Once liberties are handed away, they are rarely returned.

There is something else tucked inside the bill, quiet but troubling: restrictions on the use of cash. For generations, cash has been more than a currency. It has been independence. It has been a safeguard for seniors who do not bank online; for small businesses that still trade hand to hand, predominantly in the retail sector; and for families who rely on it in times of emergency.

The Liberal government once froze Canadians' bank accounts. Now it moves to limit the cash in their pockets. That is not financial modernization; that is control. Cash is not the problem; criminals are. Canadians deserve to know why a government that cannot control its spending is so eager to control how Canadians spend.

Canadians deserve a Parliament that deals with real concerns: safe streets, affordable living and stable jobs, while preserving the liberties that define us. Conservatives will support practical, effective measures that protect families, that support stronger borders, tougher penalties and real action against fentanyl, but we will not support a government that uses fear as a cover for overreach and that buries necessary policy inside sweeping new powers.

Let us pass what unites us, let us set aside what divides us and let us spend the chamber's precious time on the things that Canadians are truly asking of us: safety, prosperity and freedom. That is where Conservatives will stand.

Sandra Cobena

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