House of Commons Hansard #160 of the 35th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament's site.) The word of the day was organized.

Topics

Presence In GalleryOral Question Period

3 p.m.

Some hon. members

Hear, hear.

Committees Of The HouseRoutine Proceedings

3 p.m.

Liberal

Marlene Catterall Liberal Ottawa West, ON

Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present the 64th report of the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs, on the business of supply.

The work on the business of supply was undertaken by a subcommittee which I had the privilege of chairing. I want to thank the members of the subcommittee for their dedication and hard work on an issue which has very little public profile and not much more in this House but which touches on the very core of Parliament's responsibility to tell the government how and how much money it may raise and spend.

I also want to strongly recommend to the House that this report be brought to the attention of the members of the 36th Parliament for consideration. The procedure and House affairs committee has already agreed to ask House officials to draft amendments to the standing orders based on this report.

Canada Elections ActRoutine Proceedings

3:05 p.m.

Reform

Chuck Strahl Reform Fraser Valley East, BC

moved for leave to introduce Bill C-407, an act to amend the Canada Elections Act.

Mr. Speaker, I am introducing a bill to amend the Canada Elections Act to address the situation I encountered last fall in which a private company tried to launder its corporate contributions to the Liberal Party by asking its employees to donate directly to the party and promising to reimburse the employees the full amount of their donations.

This practice hides the donations of companies which have a lot of influence with the government. It puts unethical pressure on employees who do not wish to support the political party of the company's choice and it rips off the taxpayer because donations from individuals receive higher tax exemptions than corporate donations.

Elections Canada agrees that this practice needs to be prohibited in the act and I hope to receive the support of all members for this proposal.

(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed.)

PetitionsRoutine Proceedings

3:05 p.m.

Reform

Leon Benoit Reform Vegreville, AB

Mr. Speaker, I have two petitions to present on behalf of my constitutions.

In the first the petitioners are asking for the federal government to remove the GST and other tax on reading materials. They urge Parliament to remove the GST from books, magazines and newspapers. They ask the Prime Minister to carry out his party's repeated promise to remove federal sales taxes from reading materials.

PetitionsRoutine Proceedings

3:05 p.m.

Reform

Leon Benoit Reform Vegreville, AB

Mr. Speaker, the second petition is from constituents who are upset with some recent court decisions on the age of consent. They are asking that the age of consent be raised to 18. They say the majority of Canadians believe that the age of consent laws are designed to control adults who want sex with minors.

Therefore the petitioners pray that Parliament will amend the Criminal Code of Canada to set the age of consent at 18, with the exception of husband-wife relationships, so as to provide protection from exploitation and abuse.

PetitionsRoutine Proceedings

3:05 p.m.

Liberal

Peter Adams Liberal Peterborough, ON

Mr. Speaker, I have a petition from almost 50 people in the riding of Peterborough who are concerned about the immigration tax.

Whereas the federal government has imposed an immigration tax of $975, whereas this tax is discriminatory with respect to perspective immigrants from developing countries where the average annual income is sometimes even less than the amount of the tax, and whereas this tax is particular odious when it applies to refugees who are among the most destitute of our immigrants, the

petitioners call on the government to appeal this immigration tax immediately, particularly in the case of refugees.

I know there have been changes in this tax very recently but even so I support this petition.

PetitionsRoutine Proceedings

3:05 p.m.

The Acting Speaker (Mr. Milliken)

I caution hon. members not to refer to whether they support or oppose a petition.

PetitionsRoutine Proceedings

3:10 p.m.

Liberal

Paul Szabo Liberal Mississauga South, ON

Mr. Speaker, the first petition comes from Delta, B.C. The petitioners draw to the attention of the House that our police officers and firefighters place their lives at risk on a daily basis as they serve the emergency needs of all Canadians.

They also state that in many cases the families of firefighters and police officers killed in the line of duty are left without sufficient financial means to meet their obligations.

The petitioners therefore pray and call on Parliament to establish a public safety officers compensation fund to receive gifts and bequests for the benefit of families of police officers and firefighters killed in the line of duty.

PetitionsRoutine Proceedings

3:10 p.m.

Liberal

Paul Szabo Liberal Mississauga South, ON

Mr. Speaker, the second petition comes from my riding of Mississauga South.

The petitioners draw to the attention of the House that managing the family home and caring for preschool children is an honourable profession which has not been recognized for its value to our society.

The petitioners therefore pray and call on Parliament to pursue initiatives to assist families that choose to provide care in the home for preschool children, the chronically ill, the aged or the disabled.

PetitionsRoutine Proceedings

3:10 p.m.

Liberal

Paul Szabo Liberal Mississauga South, ON

Mr. Speaker, the final petition is from Amherst, Nova Scotia.

The petitioners draw to the attention of the House that the consumption of alcoholic beverages may cause health problems or impair one's ability, and specifically that fetal alcohol syndrome and other alcohol related birth defects are 100 per cent preventable by avoiding alcohol consumption during pregnancy.

The petitioners therefore pray and call on Parliament to enact legislation to require health warning labels to be placed on the containers of all alcoholic beverages to caution expectant mothers and other of the risk associated with alcohol consumption.

PetitionsRoutine Proceedings

3:10 p.m.

Reform

Diane Ablonczy Reform Calgary North, AB

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to present a petition on behalf of my constituents in Calgary North requesting Parliament to affirm the duty of parents to responsibly raise their children according to their own conscience and beliefs and to retain section 43 of Canada's Criminal Code as it is currently written.

PetitionsRoutine Proceedings

3:10 p.m.

NDP

Simon de Jong NDP Regina—Qu'Appelle, SK

Mr. Speaker, I have the privilege of introducing a petition with some 1,700 signatures.

The petitioners point out that effective April 1, 1997 about 33 per cent of CBC radio and TV programming, both national and regional, will be lost. This is because of insufficient financial resources due to the Liberal Party's failure to honour its 1993 red book commitments.

Therefore the petitioners call on Parliament to immediately restore CBC funding to the promised level of financial support which existed as of January 1, 1994 so that the cutbacks and the layoffs at the CBC can be rescinded.

PetitionsRoutine Proceedings

3:10 p.m.

Liberal

Joe McGuire Liberal Egmont, PE

Mr. Speaker, it is my pleasure to present a petition on behalf of 60 of my constituents who are concerned about the GST on reading material.

The petition reads that the GST is the first federal tax in Canadian history to apply to the bible and other reading material.

Taxing reading material is unfair and wrong. Literacy and reading are critical to Canada's future. Removing the GST from reading material will help promote literacy in Canada.

Therefore the petitioners urge Parliament to remove the GST from books, magazines and newspapers.

PetitionsRoutine Proceedings

3:10 p.m.

Reform

Sharon Hayes Reform Port Moody—Coquitlam, BC

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to present a petition dealing with section 43. I have in my hand petitions from over 175 individuals from Manitoba, 350 from the New Market-St. Catharines-Beamsville area, 25 from the Calgary area, 125 from Beamsville, Ontario, and another 25 signatures from Calgary.

These people draw to the attention of the House that section 43 recognizes the primary role of parents in raising and disciplining their children, that the federal government is under pressure from various sources including the UN to change section 43, that the removal of section 43 would strengthen the role of bureaucrats and weaken the role of parents, and that the government now continues to fund research by people opposed to its removal.

These petitioners request Parliament to affirm the duty of parents to responsibly raise their children according to their own conscience and beliefs and to retain section 43 in Canada's Criminal Code as it is currently worded.

PetitionsRoutine Proceedings

3:10 p.m.

Reform

Sharon Hayes Reform Port Moody—Coquitlam, BC

Mr. Speaker, as well I have a petition regarding the age of consent.

This is from 185 individuals from Maple Ridge, Burnaby and White Rock in British Columbia. These citizens call on Parliament to amend the Criminal Code of Canada to raise the age of consent for sexual activities between a young person and an adult from 14 to 16.

PetitionsRoutine Proceedings

April 21st, 1997 / 3:15 p.m.

Liberal

Beryl Gaffney Liberal Nepean, ON

Mr. Speaker, I have two petitions on the same topic. One petition has 54 signatures, the other has 28, and most of them come from the Ottawa area.

The petitioners state that the national highway policy study identified job creation, economic development, national unity, saving lives and avoiding injuries, lower congestion, lower vehicle operating costs and better international competitiveness as benefits. They call on Parliament to join with the provincial governments to make the national highway system upgrading possible.

PetitionsRoutine Proceedings

3:15 p.m.

Reform

Ted White Reform North Vancouver, BC

Mr. Speaker, I wish to present a petition on behalf of my constituent, Helen Hawthorne, and 24 others who are concerned that paying income taxes which go toward the Canadian military is an infringement of the freedom of conscience of those who object to participating in military activity.

The petitioners ask Parliament to establish peace tax legislation by passing into law the conscientious objection act which recognizes the right of conscientious objectors to not pay for the military but to apply that portion of their taxes that was to be used for military purposes toward peaceful, non-military purposes.

PetitionsRoutine Proceedings

3:15 p.m.

Liberal

Jesse Flis Liberal Parkdale—High Park, ON

Mr. Speaker, pursuant to Standing Order 36, it is with great sadness that I table this petition.

The petitioners grieve that whereas Jacqueline Mariana MacLellan, born as a Canadian citizen, was kidnapped by her father on October 27, 1996 and taken to Bermuda; whereas the mother, Marguerite M. Kopaniak, holds a custody order awarded by the Supreme Court of Ontario which found that the father, Peter R. MacLellan, is in contempt of said court; and whereas Bermuda is not a signatory to the Hague convention, thus eliminating the generally adhered to rules to return abducted children to the country of original jurisdiction, the petitioners call on Parliament to take action to have the Bermuda authorities recognize and honour the Canadian jurisdiction over this child and cause for the child to be returned to Canada into the care and custody of the mother.

PetitionsRoutine Proceedings

3:15 p.m.

Liberal

Jesse Flis Liberal Parkdale—High Park, ON

Mr. Speaker, I have a second petition which I wish to present concerning NATO. The petitioners ask that central and east European countries be allowed to enter an enlarged NATO, excluding non priori.

PetitionsRoutine Proceedings

3:15 p.m.

Liberal

Jesse Flis Liberal Parkdale—High Park, ON

Mr. Speaker, I have a third petition which I wish to present concerning co-op housing. The petitioners call on the government not to cave into the Ontario government but to preserve co-op housing as it exists today.

PetitionsRoutine Proceedings

3:15 p.m.

Reform

Jan Brown Reform Calgary Southeast, AB

Mr. Speaker, I rise to present petitions on behalf of hundreds of constituents and concerned citizens from across the country who have a number of issues which they would like Parliament to address.

First, over 600 petitioners pray that Parliament will enact legislation to establish a national pedophile registry.

PetitionsRoutine Proceedings

3:15 p.m.

Reform

Jan Brown Reform Calgary Southeast, AB

Mr. Speaker, other petitioners pray that violent offenders not be eligible for parole until their full sentence is served.

PetitionsRoutine Proceedings

3:15 p.m.

Reform

Jan Brown Reform Calgary Southeast, AB

Mr. Speaker, another petition requests that Parliament make no changes in the law which would sanction or allow the aiding or abetting of suicide or active or passive euthanasia.

PetitionsRoutine Proceedings

3:15 p.m.

Reform

Jan Brown Reform Calgary Southeast, AB

Mr. Speaker, another petition requests that Parliament provide core funding to ensure that all women diagnosed with breast cancer have access, through survivor list support groups, to information on the various treatments available in their community.

PetitionsRoutine Proceedings

3:15 p.m.

Reform

Jan Brown Reform Calgary Southeast, AB

Mr. Speaker, another petition requests that the federal government join with provincial governments to make the national highway system upgrading possible in 1997.