Borys Wrzesnewskyj

[Petitions, October 30th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, pursuant to Standing Order 36 I have the honour to present a petition signed by over 300 citizens. The signatures were collected by the Canadian Croatian Chamber of Commerce.

The petitioners strongly urge Parliament to pass Motion No. 99 and thereby follow the lead of the United Kingdom by lifting visitor visas for Croatian nationals.

The days of the iron curtain have ended. Today Croatia is standing shoulder to shoulder with Canadian armed forces in Afghanistan and is currently the second largest non-NATO troop contributor to the Afghan mission.

Politically, economically and socially Croatia is integrated with the west. It is time for Canada to follow the example of the U.K. and lift visitor visa requirements for Croatia.

[Internment of Persons of Croatian Origin Recognition Act, October 30th, 2006]

moved for leave to introduce Bill C-374, An Act to acknowledge that persons of Croatian origin were interned in Canada during the First World War and to provide for recognition of this event.

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to introduce my private member's bill, the internment of persons of Croatian origin recognition act. The purpose of the bill is to acknowledge and commemorate a tragic episode in our nation's history when persons of Croatian origin were rounded up, interned, and used as forced labour in internment camps in Canada.

With the outbreak of World War I, prejudice and racism was fanned into xenophobia, culminating in the implementation of the War Measures Act by an order in council of the Canadian government. Some 5,954 so-called enemy aliens, of which close to 400 were Croatian Canadians, were interned.

While some would prefer to sweep this tragic episode of the internment operations from 1914 to 1920 into the dustbin of history, the Croatian Canadian community remembers. Through public acknowledgement by the government, it seeks to bring closure to this painful episode in our common history. Better public understanding of what happened will reinforce and promote our shared values of multiculturalism, inclusion, and above all, mutual respect.

It is my sincere hope that colleagues on all sides of the House will embrace and support this worthy and long overdue legislative initiative.

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

[Internment of Croatian Canadians, October 30th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to welcome to Ottawa, John Marion and the other members of the Committee on Education, Culture and Heritage of the Canadian-Croatian Chamber of Commerce who took part in today's press conference announcing the introduction of my private member's bill, the internment of persons of Croatian origin recognition act.

The bill seeks to officially acknowledge and commemorate the tragic episode in our nation's history when approximately 400 Canadians of Croatian origin were rounded up, interned and used as forced labour in a number of locations during Canada's first world war internment operations.

The prejudice, racism and injustices carried out against members of the Croatian community, who were pioneers encouraged to settle and help build Canada, devastated an entire generation of its community and left a black mark on our common history.

After 86 years, it is high time that the internment operation against Croatian Canadians be properly addressed and the resources set aside to establish educational projects so that present and future generations of Canadians will have the opportunity to learn from this tragic episode in our common history.

[Petitions, October 2nd, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, pursuant to Standing Order 36, I have the honour to present a petition signed by over 200 constituents. The petitioners strongly urge the government to adopt Motion No. 99 and thereby follow the lead of the United Kingdom by lifting visitor visas for Croatian nationals. Croatia has made huge strides in recent years by participating in NATO's membership action plan and NATO-led operations, and is also in the process of joining the EU.

[Petitions, September 26th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, pursuant to Standing Order 36, and in honour of the visit to Canada of the President of Latvia, Madame Freiberga, I am privileged to present a petition signed by over 720 concerned citizens, including members of the Latvian Canadian Cultural Centre.

The petitioners demand that parliament pass Motion No. 19, calling for the lifting of visitor visas for the following seven new EU member states: Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic.

These countries are EU members, with free movement within the EU. The same visa regime should apply to them as the other EU countries. With hundreds of thousands of Canadians with family ties to these countries, Canada's onerous visa regime is a throwback to the days of the Iron Curtain and should be changed.

[Petitions, September 25th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, pursuant to Standing Order 36, I have the pleasure to present a petition signed by over 150 people from my riding of Etobicoke Centre.

The petitioners urge the government to remedy the recent budget by making the physical activity tax credit fairer and more inclusive by including cultural activities such as dance and ballet. In many cases, dance and ballet are more physically demanding than some traditional sports.

[Petitions, September 19th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, pursuant to Standing Order 36, I have the pleasure to present a petition signed by over 100 constituents from my riding of Etobicoke Centre.

The petitioners demand that Parliament pass Motion No. 19 calling for the lifting of visitor visas for the following seven EU member states: Poland, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. These countries are EU members with free movement within the EU and the same visa regime should apply to them as to the other EU countries.

With hundreds of thousands of Canadians with family ties to these countries, Canada's onerous visa regime is a throwback to the days of the Iron Curtain and should be changed.

[Petitions, June 22nd, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present a petition calling on the government to adopt private member's Motion No. 99 which would lift visitor visa requirements for Croatian nationals visiting Canada for business trips and family visits such as weddings and funerals. Adopting Motion No. 99 would bring our visitor visa regime in line with that of the United Kingdom which lifted visitor visa restrictions for Croatia back in March.

I might add that Croatia is in the process of joining the EU and is participating in NATO's membership action plan.

[Foreign Affairs, June 21st, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, last week Canada was missing in action at a UN contact group emergency meeting on the crisis in Somalia, which did not meet about the drought but about the looming civil war.

The Somali transitional government has 17 ministers and parliamentarians with Canadian passports and hundreds of Somali Canadians are volunteering on the ground. The Conservatives have abandoned them and have missed a chance to show international peace building leadership.

Civil war and famine are at Somalia's gates. Will the foreign minister at least engage with the UN emergency contact group and the AU peacekeeping mission?

[Foreign Affairs, June 21st, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Prime Minister.

Do we want a radical fundamentalist takeover in Somalia? Does the Prime Minister need to see images on our front pages of human carnage and children with distended bellies to act? In February, Canadian parliamentarians sent an appeal to the Prime Minister to call an international donors conference for Somalia to organize a rapid reconstruction team.

After four months of repeated requests and Conservative inaction, what does the Prime Minister have to say to the anguished hundreds of thousands of Somali Canadians?