“I'm not actually going to answer that question. Instead I will just remind everyone that my government held a press conference recently about immigration safety measures.”
What they said. What they meant.
Plain-language translations from the House of Commons.
Recent debates
8 latest topics
Spring Economic Update 2026 Implementation Act
57 statements
Spring Economic Update 2026 Implementation Act
19 statements
Arab Heritage Month Act
5 statements
The Economy
15 statements
Government Priorities
2 statements
Government Priorities
2 statements
Housing
12 statements
The Environment
2 statements
Government Orders
Business of Supply
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.
“I'm going to repeat the talking points about how we're coordinating with partners and taking steps, without actually saying what we've changed or how we're going to keep Ebola from being sent here again.”
“I'm filling time saying things everyone already knows.”
“The rules are already tight. We made them tighter. That's my whole answer.”
“I want to sound like I'm on your side and doing something useful. We have meetings!”
“I'm filling time with kind words and saying nothing anyone could pin down later.”
“I want to insist everything is fine and hope the question goes away.”
“I'm going to talk about percentages and years instead of answering the question.”
“I want to reassure Canadians that we take misconduct seriously. The department published the report on its own. We're being open about the problem.”
“I don't want to give a real answer. I will just say it was some.”
“I want to talk about the positive things my department did instead of the fraud you asked about.”
“I'm going to ignore your question about fraud. Instead I'll just say the Auditor General agreed with my party's decision.”
“I don't want to answer the question about terrorists. Let me change the subject and defend my rules. I want you to think I'm tough on immigration consultants.”
“You're worried about regime ties? I already said there's a ban. A total ban! Nothing to look at here.”
“We've canceled some visas. We're investigating some people. It's under control.”
“We banned those people. Trust us. Nothing to see here.”
“We are doing something about it. The previous speaker is wrong. My government is very effective.”
“You're imagining problems with my bill because you don't like immigrants. I'm going to ignore your concern and just praise the bill some more.”
“I'm dodging the question of security screening. Instead I'll just repeat buzzwords about the bill.”
“I'm dodging the actual question about criminality checks. But I want you to know claiming citizenship through ancestry is hard. You have to prove every link in your ancestry chain.”