This view breaks the statement into its steps and names what each one does.
Mr. Speaker, Procedure · 10 wordsI would like to start by telling a little story.Procedure Claims · 192 wordsTen years ago, almost to the day, on August 29, 2016, the National Energy Board arrived in Montreal.1 The board’s commissioners were there to hold public hearings on the energy east pipeline project.2 People in Quebec wanted nothing to do with that pipeline. It would do nothing to improve our energy security. It was just a big oil pipeline going from one side of Quebec to the other. It would cross 800 waterways that provide drinking water to most of Quebec’s population.3 Over 130 municipalities, accounting for 70% of Quebec’s population, opposed the pipeline.4 I have to say that the proponent, TransCanada Pipeline, did nothing to help its cause. It was full of contempt and kept telling anyone who would listen that Quebec had no say in the matter, that it did not recognize the authority of the Quebec government and that Ottawa, and Ottawa alone, would decide. It was against this tense backdrop that the commissioners of the National Energy Board left Calgary and went to Montreal to listen to the little people. Things got off to a bad start. Half of the commissioners did not speak a word of French, Procedure · 7 wordsand things only got worse from there.Procedure Claims · 46 wordsThe public realized that the consultations were a sham, that most of the commissioners were from the oil industry and that the board was basically an extension of the American oil companies. Needless to say, tempers flared, and the whole thing almost turned into a riot. Anecdote · 48 wordsIt reminds me of the Félix Leclerc song L’alouette en colère, in which he talks about how he became a separatist because of Canada’s contempt.Partly on point He sings about how “the big neighbour from across the street came over” and how this stranger’s rude behaviour filled him with rage.AnecdoteOff point Positioning · 10 wordsThat sums up what happened at the government’s sham consultations.Positioning Claims · 30 wordsIn the end, the commissioners shut down the hearings.5 The energy east pipeline was scrapped, the commissioners got on a plane back to Calgary, 6and we never saw them again. Reasoning · 15 wordsOttawa realized that stacking the deck in the oil companies’ favour only stoked more opposition. Claims · 61 wordsThe National Energy Board was too toxic, so it was rebranded as the Canada Energy Regulator, 7which sounded better. Most importantly, its mandate was confined to energy-related matters. Public consultations and impact assessments would no longer be conducted by former oil company lobbyists. Now, they would be done by neutral, objective, serious-minded people, scientists working together at an impact assessment agency. Positioning · 13 wordsThat was a big step forward. Thanks to Quebeckers, Canada was making progress.Positioning Claims · 28 wordsThat is what the government wants to destroy with the stroke of a pen. Bill C-39 is even worse than the process that angered Quebeckers 10 years ago. Positioning · 23 wordsThis bill rolls out the red carpet for American oil companies, as if the way to resist Donald Trump is to copy him.Positioning Claims · 15 wordsForget about impact assessments; the Canada Energy Regulator will be in charge of reviewing projects. Positioning · 6 wordsWhat is the Canada Energy Regulator?Positioning Procedure · 1 wordsSimple: ProcedureClaims · 4 wordsIt is oil companies. Procedure · 7 wordsThere is no making this stuff up.Procedure Claims · 78 wordsThere are seven commissioners.8 The lead commissioner is the former senior legal counsel for TransCanada Energy, formerly known as TransCanada Pipeline, 9which changed its name after the energy east fiasco. The deputy lead commissioner is a former executive of Royal Dutch Shell.10 Another commissioner served as legal counsel for the Pembina Pipeline Corporation and Shell Canada Limited.11 Another one is from Imperial Oil and Canadian Oil Sands Limited.12 Yet another is from Cenovus Energy, the oil sands company.13 Procedure · 9 wordsThat is the Canada Energy Regulator in a nutshell.Procedure Claims · 11 wordsBill C‑39 sidelines scientists and replaces them with oil company lawyers. Positioning · 20 wordsIt basically hands the fox the keys to the henhouse. In the energy east saga, Quebeckers helped Canada move forward.Positioning Claims · 6 wordsToday, Canada is setting Quebec back. Promise · 4 wordsWe will remember that.Vague promise Reasoning · 49 wordsEven if the structure of the energy regulator could be completely changed, even if oil lobbyists could be removed and replaced by genuinely neutral individuals, that would not do much. The regulator could ask that the pipeline be painted green, but that would be the extent of its authority. Claims · 65 wordsRegardless of what the regulator says, the projects will already have been approved. The regulator will not be able to say that the projects are bad, and if it did, it would not change anything. The projects are all pre-approved. The entire process is tainted. In fact, the process does not even really exist anymore. Now projects will be approved at the Prime Minister’s whim. Positioning · 5 wordsThe emperor’s word is final.Positioning Claims · 19 wordsI do not know of any government that has rolled back environmental protections so much, except Donald Trump, perhaps, Aside · 9 wordsand we are told that he is a fool.Aside Positioning · 75 wordsStephen Harper would not have dared gut environmental protections so brutally. He would not have dared tell the public that he did not want to hear their opinions because he had decided everything on his own. He knew that would not go down well. Why is the government so distrustful of the public that it does not want to hear from them? Apparently, it has to act this way because Donald Trump is a fool.Positioning Aside · 2 wordsGo figure.Aside Anecdote · 52 wordsAs children, we were told to go inside or the bogeyman would get us. It was a trick to keep us quiet.Partly on point Today, the bogeyman wears orange makeup and has yellow hair, but it is the same thing. We are being told, “Hide and stay quiet or the bogeyman will get you”.Anecdote Positioning · 22 wordsBy fearmongering about Donald Trump, the government is trying to make us accept things that we would never put up with otherwise.Positioning Claims · 35 wordsDonald Trump will not be around forever. Two months from now, he should already have less power. Two years from now, he will be gone. However, the setbacks and damage from Bill C‑39 will remain. Positioning · 20 wordsThe Liberal members who are bragging here today will likely have a hard time hiding their shame in two years.Positioning Claims · 77 wordsDemocratic processes are not the only thing that Bill C‑39 throws out the window. It does not just sacrifice the fight against climate change in a complete betrayal of our children and grandchildren. It also attacks workers’ rights. In 2015, the Supreme Court ruled that the right to strike is a fundamental right protected by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and that there must be a very good reason for infringing on a protected right.14 Reasoning · 22 wordsProtecting the life, health or safety of the public is a good reason. However, protecting the interests of large companies is not. Claims · 18 wordsThat is essentially what the Supreme Court wrote in its ruling in the Saskatchewan Federation of Labour case.15 Reasoning · 15 wordsAs a result, it is possible that this part of Bill C-39 may be unconstitutional. Positioning · 31 wordsI cannot wait to hear the Liberals extol the virtues of using the notwithstanding clause to defend Bill C-39. It will be quite the sight, watching them twist themselves into knots.Positioning Claims · 74 wordsThe Canada Labour Code is outdated. It allows for the use of replacement workers, a practice that has been abolished in Quebec for almost 50 years.16 That is why disputes at the federal level drag on. When that happens, the government ends the strike through special legislation or stops negotiations and imposes working conditions by invoking section 107 of the federal labour code, 17which amounts to the same thing, but without the democratic debate. Procedure · 9 wordsWe need to be aware of what this means.Procedure Claims · 165 wordsSince the negotiations never reach a conclusion, the disagreements are never resolved. They are swept under the rug, but the thorny issues remain. Invariably, they resurface as even bigger problems in the next round of bargaining, and the cycle begins all over again. The dispute becomes harder to resolve and eventually drags on indefinitely. The government ends the strike. The issues are put off until later, but nothing is ever actually resolved. Bill C-39 makes the situation even worse. It will make it easier to end strikes. It will ensure that disputes and disagreements are never resolved. It will only postpone them until later, when they will be even bigger. It will undermine bargaining and the work environment, because employers will know full well that it is better for them if things come to a standstill. Thanks to the bill, they will know in advance that the government will be there, ready to end the strike and impose working conditions that benefit employers, of course. Reasoning · 107 wordsWhat is great about democratic societies is that they allow for peaceful resolution of disagreements. That is what makes life in a democratic society better and easier. There are built-in conflict resolution mechanisms, places where people can go to and be heard, knowing that their voices count. Parties can negotiate in good faith in an environment where everyone’s rights are respected. However, when consultations take place after the decision has been made, when an emperor’s decree replaces social licence, when the interests of the powerful replace scientific facts and serious analyses, and when negotiations are rigged in favour of companies, the social contract starts to fall apart. Claims · 34 wordsWhen the only choice for people to be heard is to take to the streets, social peace is in jeopardy. Bill C-39 is a downward spiral and a democratic, environmental and social step backward. Reasoning · 16 wordsWhen the social contract starts to get ripped apart, who knows where we can end up. Promise · 54 wordsGilles Vigneault put it best when he had his character Ti-Cul Lachance say these words to a corrupt politician:That’s a lot of hot air you’ve been sowingBut it seems like you’re obliviousTo the great whirlwind you’ll end up reaping We in the Bloc Québécois are not oblivious and we will firmly oppose Bill C-39.
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