Kevin Vuong

[Housing, February 12th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, I have to give it to the parliamentary secretary, to home in on one word, “immigrants”, and try to spin it as some kind of xenophobia. I am the son of immigrants. I am the son of refugees. It is simply stating a fact that as immigration increases and there is not the housing supply, there is more demand and there is pressure for housing prices to go up.

The parliamentary secretary speaks about reality and says that no one has done more than this government. Let me tell him about the reality. Let us accept what he has said at face value. The reality is that it takes 26 years for a Torontonian to save up enough for a down payment for a home. Is that the best the Liberals have? Is that plan working for them? Is that success for the Liberal government? Give me a break.

Therefore, I will ask it again: How are they actually going to address housing unaffordability and unavailability and record-high interest rates, so that the dream of home ownership can actually be possible?

[Housing, February 12th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, every home bought by fraudsters is one less home that Canadians can buy. It is basic demand and supply. All else being the same, when demand increases, naturally prices go up. When there is less supply, prices also go up.

In the GTA, and in many real estate markets across Canada, we see not only the increasing demand as our country continues to receive from immigration, but also the alarming allegations of mortgage fraud where fraudsters are buying up homes and, in turn, reducing supply. This double whammy of increased demand and decreased supply due to fraud has made home ownership so out of reach that, in Toronto, people will have to save, on average, for 26 years for a down payment. That is a quarter of a century.

That is why I asked the Prime Minister on February 7 about the incidents of very significant alleged mortgage fraud being conducted at a major Canadian bank. I had mentioned unbelievable evidence of a person living in Canada, having no income or employment, somehow still able to obtain HSBC mortgages to purchase not one, not two, but at least four homes, simply based on a fake statement that the individual had equally fake high incomes from employment in China. That astounding information was lost on the Prime Minister, who either did not understand the question or simply did not care to address the issue of mortgage fraud. I then asked how the government could make more housing available and affordable to Canadians when fraudsters are out there buying multiple homes that, in turn, create housing scarcity and drive up house prices.

I would like to have been told that the government is aware of the issue and is doing something to address the damage created by money laundering and mortgage fraud in Canada. Instead, the Prime Minister seemed more interesting in waxing poetically on the foreign ownership ban. Given housing unavailability, unaffordability and record-high interest rates, it is a little late in the game for the Prime Minister to be suggesting that the government is stepping up on housing and will continue to do so while the Conservatives have no plan. Quite frankly, Canadians, at this point, do not care which party has a plan as long as it works. Unfortunately, the Liberal plan has been failing.

Home ownership is out of reach for so many Canadians that even if they found a home, they could not afford it. To top it off, we have money launderers and mortgage fraudsters adding fuel to real estate markets, especially those in urban markets. They are gobbling up multiple homes under false pretenses. In one case, a casino worker owned three homes, claiming to earn $345,000.

In another, someone, somehow had $10,000 in student loans that they still owed, but claimed to earn $700,000 annually working remotely in China. The most incomprehensible one was the one that I cited to the Prime Minister of an individual with no income or employment who was somehow financed to own four homes. Just from these three examples, those are eight fewer homes for Canadians. That might not matter to the Prime Minister, but it sure does to Canadians struggling to find a home.

Therefore, I have to ask, yet again, how can the Prime Minister make housing more available and more affordable, when he and his government are turning a blind eye to money laundering and mortgage fraud in Canada?

[Public Safety, February 8th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, the slogan that I have referenced is used at Canadian pro-Hamas terror rallies and sends a message of intolerance and hatred towards an identifiable group of Canadians, a minority, the Jewish community.

Is our government and the hate propaganda enforcement system that oblivious to the obvious?

I cannot emphasize enough that delaying a rapid and direct response to hate propaganda and racism is a matter that Canadians are very concerned about. The federal government cannot ignore or sidestep its responsibilities to upholding Canada's hate laws and their provisions, and working to eradicate anti-Semitism here in Canada. As is the case with justice, delaying a response to racism and hate denies the removal of the scourge. Anti-Semitism must be met directly and by the full extent of Canadian law. That takes action, not more platitudes.

I will ask again. Will the government take direct action to address this recurring hate?

[Public Safety, February 8th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, on November 6, I asked the government if it would take any action to address hatred targeting Jewish communities by pro-Hamas terror rallies across Canada.

There were rallies in Toronto where genocidal slogans called for violent acts against innocent people. At a solidarity rally at Queen's Park, where I proudly stood with Toronto's Iranian and Jewish communities, a Jewish woman was later assaulted for the simple act of holding a poster of a hostage. I would like to take this opportunity to recognize that person, Olga, whom I have since gotten to know. I want to thank Olga for her advocacy and countless others for calling for the immediate and unconditional release of the 136 hostages still being held by Hamas. Hamas and the militants holding the hostages should release them so that a path to peace, a just and durable peace, in the Middle East can be possible.

I asked the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada why he was being so silent on the grotesque and illegal displays of anti-Semitism, hatred and public incitement. Honestly, I just could not understand why he was turning a blind eye to these rallies in Toronto, in the city where he is also an MP, that were clearly supportive of Hamas, a listed terrorist organization. I reminded the minister that Canadians believe in the rule of law, not mob rule. I asked him if he was engaging his provincial and territorial counterparts to ensure that Canada's hate propaganda laws were being enforced.

In response, the Minister of Public Safety indicated that the government was far from being silent. He claimed that he condemned all incitements to violence and all expressions of hate and that, allegedly, the government is there for all communities. The key word in the minister's response was “all”. Sure, other than Hamas and other terrorists, who would not be against all hate and stand for all communities, except since October 7, all communities are not being targeted. It is one particular community that is being disproportionately targeted, and that is the Jewish community in Toronto and across Canada. Protesters only seem to care about intimidating innocent Canadians who are Jewish. It is Jewish-owned businesses in Toronto, and in my riding, that are being vandalized. It is Jewish schools receiving bomb threats, and it is even a Jewish-owned deli that was firebombed in Toronto.

This evening, I want to focus on a specific, tangible action that the government can take, but thus far has not. I would like to ask if the government will follow in the leadership of two democracies, Austria and Germany, two nations that know all too well the levels that hatred and anti-Semitism can lead to. Both states have banned the use of the protest slogan, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”. Freedom of expression does not mean someone has the right to call for genocide, and the Austrian and German governments are painfully aware of the true meaning of the slogan in Hamas terms, which calls for the elimination of the State of Israel.

Just yesterday, a motion was filed in the Dutch Parliament to do what the Austrians and Germans have done. Therefore, I would like to ask if the government will take this tangible action to actually fight hate in Canada against an identifiable group and a minority, the Jewish community.

[Housing, February 7th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, whistle-blower information from HSBC documents shows rampant mortgage fraud by people using fake high salaries from fake jobs in China to get mortgages and buy houses in Canada. How is it possible for a person with no income to buy four houses?

These frauds fuel real estate bubbles and the information supports FINTRAC findings on Chinese money laundering in Canadian real estate. How can the Prime Minister make housing more available and affordable when fraudsters are buying up multiple homes? Why is the government ignoring the damage created by money laundering and mortgage fraud in Canada?

[International Development, February 1st, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, some UNRWA personnel are said to have participated in the October 7 Hamas terror attack. However, Canada had sent UNRWA $48 million by the time the government got around to suspending its funding. Aside from transparency, timing and creative accounting, International Development, Global Affairs, is now shocked to learn taxpayer dollars have been going to an agency joined at the fanatical hip with Hamas.

Does the Minister of International Development still think UNRWA is a “trusted” agency, or is he finally going to recognize that taxpayers do not like funding an agency linked to a listed terror group?

[International Development, January 31st, 2024]

Madam Speaker, the parliamentary secretary said key words that the minister said, which is “no additional funding”. The question that Canadians have is this: How much funding has been extended to date, and had funding been accelerated until that announcement was made?

Furthermore, what steps will the government take to ensure that money does not make its way to aiding and abetting terrorists? UNRWA is Hamas, and Hamas is UNRWA. If we want to help people in need, as I think everyone would, money should be going to dedicated agencies that have not been infiltrated by Hamas, as UNRWA has.

Again, on the additional funding, when was funding extended and how much more has been given in advance of the alleged pause?

[International Development, January 31st, 2024]

Madam Speaker, we are here this evening to try to understand why the Minister of International Development was such a stalwart defender of UNRWA and to get clarity for Canadians on how their hard-earned taxpayer dollars are being used.

When I asked the government last year, on December 14, 2023, about the $10 million in additional taxpayer dollars it pledged to UNRWA in spite of evidence on the misuse of international aid by Hamas, instead of treating it with the seriousness that it deserves, the minister accused me of making “political points”. It is not political to want to ensure Canadian tax dollars are not being used to fund terrorism. It is the government's moral and legal duty. In the minister's response, he noted that he “had numerous meetings with the head of UNRWA, Mr. Lazzarini” and emphasized that he will continue to work with “trusted agencies, like UNRWA”.

I would like to tell the minister and the federal government about their trusted agency. On October 7, 2023, six UNRWA workers were part of a wave of Hamas militants who killed 1,200 people. Two UNRWA workers also helped to kidnap Israelis. Just two days ago, The Wall Street Journal reported that intelligence estimates around 1,200 of UNRWA's roughly 12,000 employees in Gaza have links to Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad. That is one in 10 employees at the minister's trusted agency. About half have close relatives who belong to Islamist militant groups. The report also stated that 23%, or nearly one in four, of UNRWA male employees had ties to Hamas. An Arabic teacher at UNRWA is said to be a Hamas militant commander who took part in a terrorist attack on Kibbutz Be'eri where 97 people were killed and about 26 were kidnapped and taken as hostages. In 2017, the former head of UNRWA's union was fired after he was elected to Hamas' top political leadership. An UNRWA math teacher, belonging to Hamas, was close enough to a female hostage in Gaza that he took a picture of her. Another teacher was carrying an anti-tank missile the night before the invasion. Is that part of the trusted agency curriculum?

Since October 7, 2023, Hamas has stolen more than $1 million worth of UNRWA supplies, including fuel and trucks; and an intelligence assessment claims Hamas operatives are so deeply enmeshed within the UNRWA aid delivery enterprise that they coordinate transfers for the organization. Does any of this sound like an agency to be trusted?

UNRWA is an organization full of hate and it has been indoctrinating generations of innocent Palestinians to hate Jews. I have been reading excerpts of UNRWA's textbooks and I cannot believe what it has been teaching. Did members know that teachers are required to punish students who do not directly connect Judaism to murder? Did they know terrorists are glorified as role models, and that suicide bombings and cutting the necks of the enemy are glorified?

Therefore, I would like to ask the government if it still believes UNRWA is a trusted agency and why Canadian taxpayers are footing the bill to support UNRWA when this so-called humanitarian agency participates in the operations and murderous actions of Hamas, a listed terrorist organization.

[International Development, December 14th, 2023]

Mr. Speaker, despite evidence on the misuse of international aid by Hamas, Canada recently pledged $16.2 million to non-profit organizations in the region, including $10 million to the UN Relief and Works Agency, UNRWA, for its Palestinian programs.

How can Canada fund UNRWA when one of its own employees held an Israeli citizen hostage in Gaza? Hamas uses UNRWA buildings to launch rocket attacks. Over 100 Hamas terrorists attended UNRWA schools that teach anti-Semitism and Israel's elimination.

Will Canada review its UNRWA funding and suspend it if the agency is found to be in non-compliance with UN operational standards?

[Indigenous Affairs, December 13th, 2023]

Madam Speaker, I want to begin by reiterating to the parliamentary secretary the indigenous services minister's own admission that, “For decades, First Nations did not receive the same amount of money as a community of that size to provide clean water in terms of operating dollars, maintenance dollars, training dollars,” and I fully agree with that. That discrepancy must end once and for all. I look forward to a day when every existing water advisory is lifted in first nation communities that still have them.

Until then, I would like to ask the parliamentary secretary if the government could assist me in obtaining ground water maps for the Grand River watershed and provide them at no cost to the Six Nations of the Grand River.