“I'm filling time with kind words and saying nothing anyone could pin down later. We can't help everyone, but we'll help who we can. I want to praise Canada's immigration policies for being compassionate and welcoming to refugees and vulnerable people. Our government is committed to continuing this humanitarian tradition.”
What they said. What they meant.
Plain-language translations from the House of Commons.
Recent debates
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A bill to make many changes to Canada's immigration and border control laws. During debate, Conservatives asked questions about specific cases and raised concerns about fraud, while the Liberal minister responded but often discussed unrelated topics like Canada Summer Jobs and praised a Liberal colleague.
“Thanks for showing up and saying a lot of words.”
“I'm filling time with kind words and saying nothing anyone could pin down later.”
“Just say yes or no. Is the IRGC a terrorist group here or not?”
“We already said the IRGC are terrorists and can't come to Canada. We did that.”
“I'm not going to answer your yes or no question directly. I'll just repeat general points that sound good instead.”
“I want to remind everyone that we have rules that should keep us safe. It works! I don't need to explain why this person visited Canada.”
“You can't dodge my question that easily. Someone granted this man a visa. I want to know exactly why.”
“I want you to think that we carefully checked this application. But I won't say whether we actually found anything wrong with this man or not.”
“You just said he wasn't allowed in Canada. Someone in your department ignored that. I want you to say yes or no, are you okay with how they handled this?”
“I want to avoid giving a yes or no answer. I'll talk in general about safety and co-operation instead of answering the specific question about my department ignoring the rules.”
“I want you to admit you're okay with a bad guy getting in because I think it makes you look bad. I want a yes or no answer so you can't dodge it.”
“That's bad. I'm okay with letting a bad guy in sometimes. We said no to lots of people. I think I look good because I said no a lot.”
“Someone let in bad people by mistake. Lots of people got in. The department is checking if they were bad. Can the minister say if that's true?”
“I don't want to give a straight answer to that specific question.”
“Just answer the question without the filler. Did your department skip security checks for those people or not?”
“I don't want to give a straight answer about our security checks. Let me list other things we do instead.”
“I want a yes-or-no answer from you.”
“I want you to think I'm answering, but I'm really not saying yes or no.”
“You admitted it. Now say the number out loud.”