Sitting 42 — October 23, 2025

The House devoted the bulk of its time to second reading debate on Bill C-12, the strengthening Canada's immigration system and borders act, which proposed changes to asylum procedures, border enforcement, and immigration integrity measures. Conservative members, while supporting strengthening border security, criticized the legislation as a repackaged version of the earlier Bill C-2 and argued it did not go far enough to address the backlog of 32,000 foreign nationals with outstanding deportation warrants. The NDP expressed strong opposition, characterizing the bill as a violation of refugee rights that stripped procedural protections from asylum seekers, while the Bloc Québécois raised concerns about the integration of the Coast Guard under the defence umbrella without adequate planning. Government members defended the bill as a necessary modernization of border controls amid global migration pressures.

Question period was dominated by responses to the Prime Minister's speech to university students the previous day, in which he reportedly said young Canadians would need to make sacrifices. Conservative members across multiple ridings characterized this as an insult to a generation that had already sacrificed home ownership, career prospects, and financial security under a decade of Liberal government. Government ministers responded by emphasizing the government's ambition to invest in major projects, skills training, and housing, with the Minister of Jobs and Families pointing to announcements on skilled trades and nuclear energy investment as evidence of a positive agenda for youth. The Auditor General's report on the Canada Revenue Agency also featured, with Conservatives highlighting that 8.6 million calls had gone unanswered and that the CRA's operating expenses had grown 70% while service standards deteriorated.

Private members' business featured Bill C-223, the keeping children safe act, which would amend the Divorce Act to require courts to consider evidence of family violence and coercive control when making parenting orders and to prohibit the use of reunification therapy in certain circumstances. The sponsor, the member for Hamilton Mountain, cited testimony from survivors and children who had been harmed by court-ordered reunification programs, and the debate was conducted with notable sensitivity and cross-party respect. The adjournment proceedings covered justice and bail reform, housing affordability, and the placement of automated external defibrillators in RCMP vehicles, a subject raised by the member for Lanark—Frontenac.