Madam Speaker, I rise today to speak on Bill C-64. It seems to me after having gone through the bill the thought police are out in force again. Here we have big government which is going to impose its will on employers, telling them not what they shall make but who they shall hire and in what numbers and so on, rather than allowing the free marketplace to decide who shall qualify for the job.
Looking at the bill concerning the purpose of the act, this is the double speak that the whole act tries to get around. It starts off by saying:
The purpose of this act is to achieve equality in the workplace so that no person shall be denied employment opportunities or benefits for reasons unrelated to ability-
Unrelated to ability, nobody shall be denied. Then it goes on after a while to say:
-employment equity means more than treating persons in the same way but also requires special measures and the accommodation of differences.
It starts off with the great idea that merit is number one. This country did not get to where it is today, apart from being up to its eyes in debt, through mediocrity, quotas and minimum standards. It got here by trying harder, working harder, reaching for better things, hoping for the best for our children, rather than settling down for quotas and less than the best that we can offer.
When I intervened, one of previous Liberal speakers admitted that while this act says nothing about quotas, it is quotas they are talking about. He actually admitted right out front and was quite candid when he said quotas are what this bill is all about. Merit is being compromised.
When I go through the bill I again find this double speak where it tries to be all things to all people. Let us remember that it is talking about various groups, women, natives, visible minorities and the handicapped. Add all of these together. We have women making up 50 per cent of our population. Then add on the male handicapped, male visible minorities and male aboriginals. We are talking about a significant majority, not a minority, covered by this bill. A small minority are going to be asked to step aside even though they are the best qualified; step aside although they are motivated; step aside even if they have family responsibilities so that somebody else who is less qualified, less able, less motivated can take over and move ahead.
Going right back to the beginning where the bill says that no person shall be denied employment opportunities for the reasons unrelated to ability, that is exactly what we have.
We can take a look at the rather ridiculous items in the bill. Clause 5 states every employer shall implement employment equity by identifying and eliminating employment barriers against persons in designated groups that result in employer's employment systems, policies and practices that are not authorized by law to ensure that we have this spectrum.
I think about sports. I think about the Olympics, this huge competition recognized around the world where we go out and find the best that we can find. There are no quotas there. It does not say that there has to be so many of one group or another group. We take pride in finding the best that we can find and we match these against others around the world. If we find that somebody else beats our Canadian competitors we say let us try harder so that next time we may win.
Surely that is the essence of any type of employment, any type of endeavour in this life where we say let me be the best that I can be.
If this bill had said let us take a look at the education that keeps back some people, be they an identifiable minority or not, surely we have an obligation to help these people to achieve the education and the motivational standards to allow them to compete rather than clamping down on those who do have the education, who do have the motivation, who do have the will and are prepared to work harder. Why are we putting a lid on them to elevate the others artificially? Why do we not give those who feel that they are disadvantaged a helping hand through education and developing that commitment and motivation so that when they enter the workforce they can compete on an equal basis?
Surely that is what it is about. We do not discriminate in sports. We go out and find the best we can find. It would be ludicrous if we thought that Canada was to apply some kind of quota system so that we would always lose. Do not worry, the the thought police will be happy because we ensured that all groups were represented at the competition.
This is big government wielding a big stick on employers. It is as if government thought that employers were incapable of doing it themselves. I think about a newsletter that I subscribe to out of the United States, not in Canada. We do not find these things in Canada. There are employment equity programs in the United States that have been forced on federally funded organizations, as this bill is trying to do here.
There is a small college in Michigan that said it will not comply. It may be thought these people are a bunch of bigots because they do not want to comply, they do not want to fill out the forms, they do not want to ask people which category they fit into, are they on the bottom rung so they have to help them, are they on the middle rung so they give them a little less helping up, are they on the top rung so they keep them down. They said they do not want to participate in that type of stuff. The government said if they are in receipt of federal funds they must, but they said no.
They were cut off federal funds. Some may think that serves them right. That college was the first to issue a degree to a woman in the United States in 1860 and the first college to issue a degree to a coloured person in the 1870s. One hundred years later when the government gets around to saying they have to in order to get employment equity or hiring equity or education equity going and have to fill out the forms, they say they have been doing that for a hundred years.
They do it on merit. They do not care if you are a woman or a man or if you are coloured or not coloured, but if you have the motivation and the desire to succeed, regardless of who you are or what you are they want to help you. They were doing that a hundred years ago voluntarily, long before the Department of Health, Education and Welfare in the United States used the big stick of government to force it down people's throats.
It can be done to education. We do not stand here as the Reform Party saying we want to keep people down. We do not want to keep anybody down but we do not want to classify people and ask which group they fit into. If you are here in this country as a Canadian then that is all that is required and we say let us help these people forward through education and let us not impose penalties on the minority to help the majority.