Larry Bagnell

[Terrorism, September 25th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, could the Minister of Transport please tell the House what steps are being taken to screen explosives at airports to prevent terrorist attacks? How can we ensure that security measures are being maintained?

[Petitions, September 24th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, I rise to present a petition from the citizens of Yukon from the supporters of Falun Gong who are opposed to the torture and murder of the members of that sect who are simply standing for truthfulness, compassion and tolerance. The petitioners would like Canada to set up a rescue team to help support these people and free Falun Gong practitioners who are now in prison.

[Walk of Hope, September 21st, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, as a former president of the United Way, it gives me great pleasure to inform the House that at noon today a Walk of Hope will take place. We are walking in memory of the victims of the tragedy of September 11. We will leave from the Centennial Flame and will cross the Interprovincial and Portage bridges, covering a route of five kilometres.

We ask that people wear red, white and blue and carry Canadian and American flags. Please come and walk to show support and solidarity with all those who have been affected by this terrible tragedy.

I want to thank the United Way committee for organizing and leading this demonstration. I want to thank the many volunteers who will collect donations for the Canadian Red Cross Society relief effort and I encourage people to donate generously.

Let us stand and walk together in this demonstration of our common stand for peace, justice and humanity.

[Canada-U.S. Meeting, September 20th, 2001]

Mr. Chairman, I will make two quick points with the first being some feedback from a couple of my constituents who have a fear of the ramifications of war, a fear of the creation of more terrorists by harming innocent citizens and the great advantages of peace in solving the problems of the world.

On Tuesday, September 11, the world was unveiled to a great new dark beast, a complex beast that requires complex solutions and a beast that lives in cells in many countries of the world and stealthily moves between them undetected. I hope the Prime Minister can sift out of these three days of debate the wisdom required to come up with the complex and correct solution to deal with that beast.

[Attack on the United States, September 17th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, I will be splitting my time with my colleague from York West.

As most members are aware, when the attack was made on Washington I was standing very near the Capitol building. It was certainly grim to be in the centre of an attack on the symbols of our democracy, our liberty and our freedom. It was not an attack on the U.S.A.; it was an attack on the entire free world because in those buildings were people from many religions, many cultures and over 40 countries.

In Canada the ramifications spread to the farthest riding in the Yukon, which is mine. In Whitehorse a Korean Airlines plane escorted by military jets landed and they were not sure if it was hijacked and there was a lot of commotion and fear. I would like to thank those people of the Yukon who helped ease that situation.

I would also like to thank the Gwich'in people who were in Washington with me, the farthest community from this House, fighting for their survival, ironically as we are now all fighting for our survival. I want to thank all of the people who supported us in Washington and New York. I want to thank the survivors of the people on the last plane who may have diverted it from crashing into the buildings we were in.

I also want to thank and commend the courageous firefighters and police of New York. I also take this opportunity to extend that thanks to firefighters and police in Canada and around the world because they put their lives forward daily for our safety.

When we came back on the bus from Washington I was never so happy to see the Peace Tower standing strong. We should never begrudge our contributions toward our symbols of freedom and liberty. They are so important. However, even if the Parliament Buildings had been levelled, the terrorists would not win because liberty and freedom live in the hearts of Canadians. They will never take that away.

Our motion today has three components.

The first one is sympathy and condolences. I do not think we need to say much more on that. Thousands of Canadians came to this building and signed the condolence book on the weekend, Canadians from the capitals, from Whitehorse, and various communities. I left my office here after midnight for the last three nights and every night there were people at the Eternal Flame in front of this building showing their respect for Americans.

It was an incredible scene at the American embassy, one which I will probably never see again. For the entire block the fence was covered with flowers, condolence messages and teddy bears. I estimated that there was over 15,000 bouquets. That is an incredible sign of support for our American friends.

I was so proud to be a Canadian and to be representing a country with so much compassion when I came out of the Parliament Buildings last Friday and saw on short notice 100,000 Canadians showing their compassion. For those of our American friends who want to know, it is the largest group I have ever seen on Parliament Hill.

The second part of our motion is related to catching the perpetrators. We have just witnessed 5,000 murders. It is inconceivable that we would ever use any less intensity to catch the perpetrators of those 5,000 murders than we use every day to catch the perpetrators of a single murder. Just as they use technology against us, we will use technology in catching them. That is one of the great strengths Canada can add. It is an advanced technological nation.

As one of my constituents wanted me to emphasize, and as has been stated before, our attack against the perpetrators is not an attack against any nation, any religion, any culture. It is only against a few dozen heinous criminals and terrorists.

Human beings, as rational as they are, can be over-affected by emotion. It can cloud their objectivity. Another strength that Canada can offer at this time is to help keep our friends in America on track as we chase the perpetrators so that there is as little threat as possible to innocent people or any other collateral damage.

When we crossed the border on the way back on the bus, it was very moving as people clapped to be back in the safety of Canada. However, the whole world is in fear because when people in the tallest buildings in the world in the most powerful nation in the world with the greatest military strength in the world can be made victims, then we can all be victims.

That is why the third and last part of the motion is the most important and most difficult: making the world safe for civilization.

As in any crime, catching the perpetrator is only the first half of the solution, because any crime is a symptom of conditions that will generate more terrorists and more acts of terrorism. We cannot overly criticize the intelligence systems in Canada and the United States. Obviously we have to make improvements in those systems. However, we live in a free nation and we refuse to give up those freedoms and civil liberties. In a free nation it is technically, physically and economically impossible to surround with military troops every vehicle, every building and every person. Our war has to be on the breeding grounds of terrorism so we remove the reasons that are so powerful that people would give up their lives to wreak this havoc and horror on other adults.

Do we enter this war on terrorism when it is said that Canada loves peace? That peace has been shattered by this act of carnage. What about the notes from the children at the American embassy that are fearful but want peace? That peace has been broken. I believe it is our responsibility to fight to get that peace back for those children and for their children.

What other option do we have? What if we do not engage the enemy? Do we just assume that the terrorists who have killed hundreds of Canadians on Canadian soil and on Canadian property over the last 30 years will just go away? I did not see a note after this event saying that they would not do this any more.

The knives, the weapons of terrorists for centuries gone by, have been replaced by the weapons of mass destruction by modern terrorists. It will not get any better. Those weapons will get more horrendous. As Winston Churchill said, “We do not have a week, we do not have a day, we do not have an hour to waste in engaging in a war on terrorism and the root causes of terrorism”.

This will be a difficult and courageous decision for Canadians, because courage has a cost. In retaliation it could be the cost of Canadian blood at home and abroad. It is an excruciating decision for Canadians, because they are making it not only for themselves but for their children. Five thousand people died this time. How many people will die next time if we do nothing?

If anyone in the House is weakening in their resolve to engage in the battle against terrorism, I just want to imagine them going home to their riding tonight, sitting down to a dinner and thinking of thousands of other people with dining tables in their communities that are missing a person.

America, we are with you, because this was the slaughter of innocent secretaries and office workers, mothers and fathers, sons and daughters whose only crime was to choose to live and work in a free country, a country that loves freedom, democracy and liberty as much as we do.

[Yukon Territory, June 13th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, in the summer of 1896 three men, Skookum Jim, George Carmack and Tagish Charlie, found large gold nuggets in the gravel bottom of Bonanza Creek. Their cry of joy started the world's greatest gold rush.

Approximately 200,000 men and women from all over the world converged on the Klondike in search of gold. More than 40,000 of them found it.

In 1898 Dawson City was the largest Canadian city west of Winnipeg and Yukon, for so long the proud home of first nations people, was created from the western area of the Northwest Territories. On June 13, 1898, assent was given to the Yukon Act and four years later in 1902 we sent our first member to parliament, James H. Ross, a Liberal.

I stand to commemorate the 103rd anniversary of the founding of Yukon Territory. I invite all members and their families to come north this summer to see, as is described in the tourism brochure that I gave to members, what is really meant by the true north strong and free.

[Main Estimates, 2001-02, June 12th, 2001]

Madam Speaker, I thank the member opposite for outlining a number of points.

The hon. member wanted to be asked a question on accountability. I will ask the question so that the member can elaborate further on the blank cheque to the provinces. In what ways could we make the provinces accountable or have them monitor health care? That is a good question. I would like to hear more of the member's suggestions.

Along with that, what does the member think in regard to the accountability of passing on that spending? Various provinces have passed on expenditures or transfers from the federal government in various amounts. Various provinces spend different proportions on health care. Some of the provinces will be in very good shape soon, such as Alberta, which I think will be out of debt soon.

Last, I am glad the member mentioned the point of recruitment. It is a very important point. I was glad to hear the minister mention some plans in that respect. However, I know the Alliance is interested in taxes and I am curious about something. Does the member think that because we have made the largest tax cut in Canadian history, although of course it could always be more, it will help keep health care professionals in Canada?

[Proceeds Of Crime (Money Laundering) Act, June 11th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague opposite for his comments but point out that this is the second time I have been up in less than half an hour. It is not true that we are not participating in the debate.

I thank him for raising the good point that three bills have started in the Senate. In a bicameral system every bill must go through both houses. If all bills started in the Senate the House of Commons would sit around for a week with nothing to do until something was passed, and vice versa if they all started here.

I thank the hon. member for congratulating those who brought forward the improvement of splitting bills so that both houses could work on them. If the Senate could remove some of the fine details in its extensive committee consultations we would not have to worry about them and would have an even better bill when we got it.

[Motor Vehicle Transport Act, June 11th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to agree with the sentiments that were just expressed about the border between Yukon and British Columbia, and not just related to the safety code. For years we have had complaints from truckers about regulations in B.C. that make it very difficult for Yukon truckers to simply carry a load across the border.

I think it is part of a proliferation of internal trade barriers, which my colleagues across the way have also referred to. I brought to the attention of some of the witnesses in committee that I hoped they would try to diminish these internal trade barriers which really cut down on commerce in the country and specifically in my constituency of Yukon.

[Computer Hackers, May 31st, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, as the last speaker of the day, I can sum up basically the whole debate by saying that virtually everyone agrees computers are very important in our society and computer hacking is a terrible problem. It is the remedy that we need to discuss: whether section 430 of the criminal code is enough or whether the government should make additional amendments. That is how people will vote.

I want to make two points. One is for my constituents and it is that to have these problems we need to be connected. I am very glad the Government of Canada in its recent throne speech put a lot of effort into connecting Canadians. I have been urging and trying to get the towns of Faro and Ross River connected. I hope every house in the small Yukon communities of Beaver Creek, Pelly Crossing, Carcross, Old Crow, Destruction Bay, Burwash Landing, Elsa and Keena will be connected one day.

Finally, on the day the motion was introduced, the person who introduced it also introduced something that was not very unifying. I would like to induce him to perhaps take some private reflection or remember that softwares are languages on computers. There are quite a few and they all bring strength to a computer. If people understand a lot of languages on a computer then they have more strength.

With respect to the other initiative he brought forward, we want Canadians to be in the position of strength understanding that those many languages strengthen Canada. I hope he will reflect on that.