What they said. What they meant.

Plain-language translations from the House of Commons.

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Government Orders

Government Orders

A bill to create new criminal offenses for promoting hatred and intimidating people at religious or community sites. During discussion, members mostly argued about unrelated partisan disputes and parliamentary tactics, rather than the substance of the bill.

Official Hansard ↗

Garnett Genuis

Conservative
“I want to attack the other party's motives. I'm going to throw out criminal accusations to make them look bad. I don't like how they're ignoring voters.”
Our translation 61% shorter

Garnett Genuis

Conservative
“Liberals don't care about democracy. They only want power. Liberals took MPs with different beliefs just to get a majority. They want power just because. They shut down debate and hide documents. Now they want a supermajority on committees. The Prime Minister doesn't respect his own MPs. He just wants control. This is bad for democracy. We need to fight this abuse of power.”
Our translation 94% shorter

Garnett Genuis

Conservative
“You are upset we are talking to our voters. You had your chance to talk to them too. I'll embarrass you again if you want. You are very bad. People are mad at you.”
Our translation 73% shorter

Harb Gill

Conservative
“A teenager was stabbed. It's sad. The families are sad. But the government isn't paying attention to this real problem. I want the government to focus on this instead of wasting time on other things.”
Our translation 80% shorter

Garnett Genuis

Conservative
“I say a nice word about those sad families. Then I talk a lot about how government is slow and messy because a lot of people need to agree on things. My party is very responsible. We did our part to help make things work. But now the government wants to make the rules so it can just do whatever it wants. That's bad. Canadians didn't vote for the government to ignore everyone else.”
Our translation 53% shorter

Garnett Genuis

Conservative
“I agree that trust in government is important and weak. The current government has made people trust it less for many years. It hides information. It tries to change rules to keep its own power. People feel like that government doesn't listen to them. We should make government act better so people trust it again.”
Our translation 57% shorter

Scott Anderson

Conservative
“You're wrong. The Liberals didn't really win. People voted for MPs, not the party. The House isn't what Canadians wanted. I don't like the Liberals. They're a circus. Their new MP has bad views. He shouldn't agree with that.”
Our translation 62% shorter

Mel Arnold

Conservative
“You set committees to 60% Liberal instead of the 51% this government actually won. Are you shutting down opposition completely, or do you have some other sneaky reason?”
Our translation 65% shorter

Kelly McCauley

Conservative
“I want to argue that the other party is attacking democracy. They betray voters and don't allow enough debate. A past leader grabbed someone. We should get to lead some committees and they shouldn't get to decide what we can debate. This is about transparency. They tax and spend too much without asking us. They call us obstructing when they don't want to show the budget. I'm mad they want to decide things without asking me.”
Our translation 89% shorter