Steven Blaney

[Public Safety, October 6th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the hon. member for her question.

Canada has a four-point strategy with respect to terrorist attacks: prevent, detect, deny and respond.

As for the measures in place to raise awareness among ethnic and cultural communities and reach out to them, I can provide the hon. member with two reports, namely the annual report and the 2014 Public Report on the Terrorist Threat to Canada. I could also send her the counter-terrorism strategy.

We have hundreds of examples of police forces reaching out to communities and engaging in community activities with the specific goal of getting to the root of the problem and dissuading individuals from committing terrorist acts.

[Public Safety, October 6th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, as elected representatives, we have the important responsibility of making decisions to ensure that our national security agencies have the tools they need to protect Canadians.

Why did the member and his party vote against revoking passports? Why did they vote against revoking the citizenship of terrorists using Canadian passports? That is unacceptable.

[Public Safety, October 6th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, in this critical time, I commend the effort of the RCMP to reach out to communities to prevent terrorism. It is a pillar of our counterterrorism strategy.

This being said, I understand that the RCMP is no longer participating in the project the member talked about. During a review of the document, contents were found that were inconsistent with the values of the RCMP and Canadians in general.

On this side of the House, we do not bow down to terrorists.

[Public Safety, October 3rd, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, Canadians absolutely refuse to be held hostage in their own communities by thugs and criminals who are members of street gangs.

While I cannot comment on this specific case, our government is moving along with making murders committed for organized crime an automatic first degree murder charge and eliminating the sentencing discount for multiple murders, which will allow for longer parole ineligibility. We will bring forward legislation to make life sentences truly mean life behind bars.

The people of Surrey and across Canada can count our government to make our streets safe.

[Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act, October 3rd, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to pay tribute to my colleague, the hon. member for Kildonan—St. Paul. I have a great deal of respect for her because she is a passionate woman who tells it like it is. Because of her, I discovered something that I did not believe existed in Canada and that is modern slavery or human trafficking.

Perhaps the hon. member does not speak French, but a few years ago, she went to Quebec to speak out against human trafficking and make Quebeckers aware of this issue. I had an opportunity to be there with her. Today, I am very proud of that because I have seen her introduce a number of bills that would punish those who victimize the most vulnerable members of our society. Because of that, I have great respect for my colleague. What she is doing goes beyond party lines and has great historical significance for our country.

I had the opportunity to meet with groups that help victims of prostitution. I heard some heart-wrenching stories from young aboriginal people. Unfortunately, this is happening on our streets. That is why it is important to develop strategies to help victims of prostitution and human trafficking, who are exploited and stripped of their dignity. They need help breaking the cycle of dependence and constant violation of their dignity.

My question is very simple. Governments may put measures in place and organizations may be there to help, but as long as society feels it is acceptable to exploit people by choosing to ignore these issues, there will be a problem. This is then my question:

Does the member believe we can bring about a change of mentality, a paradigm shift, to raise awareness and make it criminal? It would be criminal to buy sex in this country, if this law is adopted. However, socially it is totally unacceptable to purchase sex from victims of exploitation. How does she feel with respect to that? As a society, we were successful at making impaired driving socially unacceptable. Can we do something about the purchasers of sex who are luring young victims?

[Privacy, October 1st, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, agencies in our country keep Canadians safe while respecting Canadian laws. They have my full confidence.

These groups, which even include former members of the NDP, will continue to do their job and protect Canadians.

[Privacy, October 1st, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, it is important for our agency to protect all Canadians, and I have full trust that it will do its job in a diligent way, while respecting Canadian laws.

[Security Intelligence Review Committee, September 29th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, as I just explained to my colleague, the Security Intelligence Review Committee is an independent committee made up of people with impeccable reputations. Even some former NDPers are members of this committee. That is why I have full confidence in their ability to continue to protect Canadians against potential threats from extremists.

[Security Intelligence Review Committee, September 29th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, the Security Intelligence Review Committee is made up of prominent Canadians who oversee our security services. These Canadians include a former NDP member of a provincial parliament.

We have full confidence that they will impartially review actions taken by our security services to protect Canadians against threats from any activists or radicals.

[Public Safety, September 29th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for Calgary Centre for this excellent question.

We introduced legislation for combatting terrorism, despite the NDP's opposition. Four out of five Canadians agree with revoking the Canadian passports of terrorists.

Shockingly, the Liberal leader opposes this common sense policy. He has called the revocation of passports an affront to Canadian values.

We, as a Conservative government, never agreed that our passports ought to be shared with terrorists who want to cut off our heads because we disagree with them.