Debates of March 17th, 1995

Money Laundering

[Herb Gray, Liberal, Leader of the Government in the House of Commons and Solicitor General of Canada]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member is mistaken. There was close co-operation between the RCMP and the Swiss authorities, and I have been informed that the Swiss authorities are quite satisfied with the support they received from the RCMP.

[Michel Bellehumeur, Bloc, Berthier—Montcalm, QC]

Mr. Speaker, must I remind the Solicitor General that the only officer familiar with the Rizzuto and Giammarella case was on holiday when the Swiss authorities were forced to set them free?

How can the Solicitor General explain that the Swiss authorities, who caught these two individuals in the act of laundering money, were forced to set them free because the RCMP did not co-operate? This was mentioned by the Swiss authorities themselves.

[Herb Gray, Liberal, Leader of the Government in the House of Commons and Solicitor General of Canada]

Mr. Speaker, again, the hon. member's comments are wrong. A second report published a few weeks ago in the Montreal newspaper he has quoted set the record straight. The fact is that co-operation between the RCMP and the Swiss authorities is excellent. I am told that the Swiss authorities are fully satisfied with the support they received and are receiving from the RCMP.

Gun Control

[Lee Morrison, Reform, Swift Current—Maple Creek—Assiniboia, SK]

Mr. Speaker, last month a plain clothes policeman appeared at the home of Darrell McKnight near Fredericton with a warrant to seize his Franchi shotgun, banned by order in council effective January 1.

Mr. McKnight's teenaged daughter, home alone, phoned her father and on his instruction surrendered the gun's receiver, the minimum legal requirement. The officer insisted that she produce the rest of the gun and told her that he could tear the house to pieces to find the parts.

Given that when Mr. McKnight arrived with his lawyer, two backup police cars had arrived to deal with this dangerous criminal, can the justice minister understand why gun owners are afraid of setting themselves up for future harassment by registering their guns?

[Allan Rock, Liberal, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada]

Mr. Speaker, I will not comment on that specific case except to say that I look forward to seeing what the issue is in light of all the facts when fairly stated.

Let me point out that in respect of firearms that were prohibited effective January 1 of this year the federal government is paying compensation to those people from whom we are taking the firearms. That is point number one.

Second, firearms in that category are being prohibited because they are not used for sporting or hunting purposes. These are assault type weapons that have no place in this country.

[Lee Morrison, Reform, Swift Current—Maple Creek—Assiniboia, SK]

Mr. Speaker, the Franchi is a shotgun with a short stock.

The seizures of registered previously legal firearms under Kim Campbell's orders in council have been declared unlawful by Alberta courts. The crown is appealing but the minister has, nevertheless, bulled ahead with more potentially illegal OICs. Why is he not prepared to await the legal outcome to let this run through the courts before confiscating more lawfully owned property from honest citizens who trustingly registered them before the orders were issued?

[Allan Rock, Liberal, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada]

Mr. Speaker, the case referred to in Alberta is under appeal and the federal government has every confidence that its position will prevail in the appellate court.

Financial Institutions

[Ron Fewchuk, Liberal, Selkirk—Red River, MB]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Secretary of State for International Financial Institutions.

Yesterday the secretary of state announced the government is launching a review of financial institutions legislation. Could the secretary of state explain what this review will entail and how can Canadians get involved?

[Doug Peters, Liberal, Secretary of State (International Financial Institutions)]

Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for his question.

The Department of Finance did issue a press release yesterday inviting interested parties to comment on the mandated five-year review of the federal financial institutions legislation which comes up in 1997. That includes the Bank Act, the Insurance Companies Act, the Trust and Loan Companies Act and the Co-operative Credit Associations Act. We have asked that submissions be received from the public by June 30, 1995.

This is a separate issue from the regulatory and supervisory package which I presented in a white paper. We are very much looking forward to submissions from the public.

Canadian Wheat Board

[Len Taylor, NDP, The Battlefords—Meadow Lake, SK]

Mr. Speaker, in response to the decision to eliminate the Crow benefit the Canadian Wheat Board has asked the federal government to give farmers a short term break on freight rates. This raises a couple of questions for the Minister of Finance.

Can farmers expect any regulatory control to prevent freight rate increases on grain after August 1, 1995? Can the minister tell us if the government has done an evaluation of the effect the elimination of the Crow will have on the long term future of the Canadian Wheat Board?

[Douglas Young, Liberal, Minister of Transport]

Mr. Speaker, obviously the changes in the WGTA have a lot of impact on the movement of grain in the west.

The Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food and the Department of Transport have been looking at all of the alternatives. We have had extensive discussions with all of the shareholders, the producers, the railroads. We are very much aware of the concerns raised by my hon. friend.

I want to assure him and the people who are going to be directly affected by the measures announced in the budget that we will take every step possible to ensure the orderly and affordable transportation of grain in western Canada.

[Len Taylor, NDP, The Battlefords—Meadow Lake, SK]

Mr. Speaker, perhaps to the Minister of Finance this time, can the minister explain why the government's one-time payout for the loss of the Crow is based on an expected reduction in land value and not on the increased costs of shipping grain?

[Douglas Young, Liberal, Minister of Transport]

Mr. Speaker, all of the negotiations surrounding the method of paying that follows from the elimination of the WGTA have taken into account as many concerns as possible.

No final determination has been made with respect to the method of payment. The discussion is ongoing as to how that will be handled. Without exception, throughout these negotiations the government has been acutely aware of the implications for both the owners of the land and those who are actually farming the land. There has to be a determination on what is in the best interests of those two groups.

Genetic Engineering

[André Caron, Bloc, Jonquière, QC]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Health. Last week several European countries took a stand against the marketing of genetic discoveries. Europe is sending a clear message to the biotechnology industry: allowing business to gain control over the gene pool of the human race is out of the question.

Does the Minister of Health not think that it is high time the government made its intentions known and tabled a clear policy preventing the sale of human embryos and genetic manipulation for commercial purposes?

[Diane Marleau, Liberal, Minister of Health]

Mr. Speaker, I maintain direct contact with my provincial counterparts and we intend to put forth a policy on new reproductive technologies.

[André Caron, Bloc, Jonquière, QC]

Mr. Speaker, does the minister realize that the longer she waits to regulate the activities of certain Canadian businesses, the more difficult it will be to enforce regulations to prevent this commercial activity?

[Diane Marleau, Liberal, Minister of Health]

Mr. Speaker, I understand fully and you will understand my frustration, especially when I get a question like this one from the Bloc Quebecois, whose members constantly talk about federal and provincial jurisdiction. You know that we must always work in co-operation with our counterparts. That is what we are doing and there is no doubt that something will be done.

Gun Control

[Jay Hill, Reform, Prince George—Peace River, BC]

Mr. Speaker, we have been told by a justice official the department is considering linking some private organizations into the proposed gun registration system.

Could the minister verify whether this is true? Is he contemplating providing access to privileged information about private citizens to outside organizations through C-PIC and the gun registration system?

[Allan Rock, Liberal, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada]

No, Mr. Speaker. The proposal is to have a registry which will be kept in computer records but which will be part of C-PIC and available only to police.

As secure as the registry system for handguns has been, we have had registration of handguns for decades and there has not once been an instance of anybody breaking into the secure registry system for handguns.

At the moment those who oppose registry are fearmongering, trying to get people to think the registration will result in people getting into private information. That is simply untrue.

[Jay Hill, Reform, Prince George—Peace River, BC]

Mr. Speaker, given past conflicting statements by this minister I am not sure how much comfort our citizens are going to take that he is going to be protecting their privacy.

At the age of 17 Kevin Mitnick hacked into the North American air defense command's main computer. Recently he stole computer files which could compromise the security for anyone on the Internet.

With new hackers every day how can the minister guarantee to responsible gun owners that his new registration system will not simply provide a supermarket for criminals looking for guns?

[Allan Rock, Liberal, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada]

Mr. Speaker, if we want to spend time in the House looking into the future and conjuring up images that frighten Canadians, I would rather focus on what will happen if we do not have effective gun control.

We will go the way of other countries. We will undermine public safety. We will end up with a gun culture. Canadians do not want that for the future of their country.

Health

[Shaughnessy Cohen, Liberal, Windsor—St. Clair, ON]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Health.

It is widely accepted that in the past medical research and therefore practice and treatment have to some extent failed women.

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh.

[Shaughnessy Cohen, Liberal, Windsor—St. Clair, ON]

It seems the testosterone levels are a little high on the other side today. Those members do not take women's health matters seriously. Maybe when they get their guns they will feel better.

Breast cancer, osteoporosis, heart disease and other ailments remain a serious and deadly threat to the women of Canada, although apparently amusing to the Reform Party.

What is this government doing to keep its red book promises to Canadian women to improve their health care?

[Diane Marleau, Liberal, Minister of Health]

Mr. Speaker, the government thinks it is absolutely shameful the amount of neglect allowed to occur in terms of focusing on questions of women's health.

When it comes to breast cancer during this past budget exercise we have been able to keep the moneys we have so we can continue to invest in research and other services having to do with women and breast cancer. Not only that, we are looking at reallocating funds so we can do even more.

As to specific red book commitments, I will refer to the centres of excellence on women's health. We are about to launch the process for the site selections for the centres of excellence. These centres of excellence will link together researchers, policymakers, health professionals and women's groups across the country so we can better focus dollars we have.