Denis Paradis PC (born 1 April 1949) is a Canadian politician and lawyer who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Brome—Missisquoi from 2015 until 2019 and previously from 1995 to 2006.
[8] Paradis was first elected to the House of Commons of Canada in a 1995 by-election, called after Gaston Péloquin, the sitting Bloc Québécois member for Brome—Missisquoi, was killed in an automobile accident.
Paradis was returned to a second parliamentary mandate in the 1997 federal election, and in late 1997 he co-chaired a special committee that recommended Quebec's schools be divided on linguistic rather than denominational lines.
[15] Shortly after his appointment, Paradis met with Nigerian Information Minister Jerry Gana in an effort to prevent the execution of Safiya Hussaini.
This visit marked an improvement in relations between the countries, which had been strained for three years due to Canadian concerns about Cuba's human rights practices.
Writing in L'Actualité, Vastel claimed that the delegates decided that Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide should be replaced by a United Nations trusteeship within a year.
[25] Paradis was not, during Jean Chrétien's tenure as Prime Minister, among the group of Liberal parliamentarians (MPs) who supported Paul Martin's leadership ambitions.
[27] Paradis led several roundtable discussions with business, academic, and social groups in months that followed, during the buildup to the Martin government's 2004 budget.
[28] Shortly before budget day, he said that the government would return to a practice of setting aside four billion dollars per year to cover emergency spending or the possibility of an economic downturn.
[citation needed] Paradis ran for re-election in the 2011 federal election but lost to Pierre Jacob of the New Democratic Party amid a strong provincial swing to the NDP.
[32] Paradis again ran as the Liberal Party's candidate in Brome—Missisquoi during the 2015 federal election, and this time was victorious, beating New Democrat Catherine Lusson.