Debates of Oct. 21st, 1998

Petitions

[Rick Casson, Reform, Lethbridge, AB]

Mr. Speaker, I have two petitions to present today. The first one deals with Bill C-68. It has 100 signatures from the citizens of my riding of Lethbridge.

The petitioners are concerned with Bill C-68 for the following reasons. Bill C-68 will do nothing to stop the criminal use of guns, it is not a cost effective way to control crime, it puts thousands of jobs in jeopardy and is opposed by police on the streets in Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, Saskatchewan and Yukon.

The petitioners call on parliament to repeal Bill C-68 and redirect the money to proven methods of gun and crime control and it is my pleasure to join them.

[Rick Casson, Reform, Lethbridge, AB]

Mr. Speaker, pursuant to Standing Order 36 I am pleased to present the following petition on behalf of the citizens of Lethbridge. There are 1,750 signatures on this petition.

My constituents believe that some of the greatest problems in our society are the problems surrounding marriage and family life. As family life goes, so does the rest of society. Troubled families produce a troubled society which is what we see happening in our nation today.

In order to protect the nucleus of society the petitioners call on parliament to enact Bill C-225, an act to amend the marriages act so as to define a statute that a marriage can only be entered into by a single male and a single female. It is my pleasure to support this petition.

[Svend Robinson, NDP, Burnaby—Douglas, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present petitions signed by over 1,000 residents of Alberta and British Columbia who express serious concern about rampant human rights abuses in Indonesia and in particular about serious looting, rioting and the death of more than 1,300 people last May.

The petitioners note that hundreds of ethnic Chinese women were raped and they point out that there is a long history of discrimination against ethnic Chinese living in Indonesia.

The petitioners call on Canada as a human rights leader to speak out on this and they urge parliament to appeal to the president of Indonesia to enact and enforce laws so as to protect the safety and rights of the ethnic Chinese, to bring those responsible for these atrocities to justice, to apologize and compensate the victims and to form an autonomous committee promoting racial harmony.

The petitioners call on Canada to modify our current immigration regulations to help respond to this humanitarian crisis. I certainly echo their call.

[Svend Robinson, NDP, Burnaby—Douglas, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present a second petition which is signed by residents of my constituency of Burnaby—Douglas noting the concerns around the multilateral agreement on investment.

The petitioners point out that through this agreement the rights of Canadian citizens and the power of the Canadian government will be greatly suspended and superseded by those of foreign investors and multinational corporations.

The petitioners therefore call on parliament to consider the enormous implications to Canada by the signing of the MAI and put it to open debate in the House and place it for a national referendum for the people of Canada to decide.

I note that today it appears the MAI is dead at the OECD but nevertheless I believe this petition is important to register the ongoing concerns.

[Gerald Keddy, Progressive Conservative, South Shore, NS]

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to present a petition signed by the residents of South Shore. These constituents believe that this government should repeal Bill C-68 on the grounds that it does nothing to deter violent crimes and that the money would be better spent on putting more police on the street.

[Gerald Keddy, Progressive Conservative, South Shore, NS]

Mr. Speaker, I have a second petition signed also by residents of South Shore. These constituents believe that this parliament should enact Bill C-225.

[Monte Solberg, Reform, Medicine Hat, AB]

Mr. Speaker, I rise to present a petition from constituents from the town of Brooks and the town of Tilley calling on parliament to define in statute that a marriage can only be entered into between a single male and a single female.

[Monte Solberg, Reform, Medicine Hat, AB]

Mr. Speaker, my second petition is from constituents of Medicine Hat calling on parliament to reject any bill that would weaken the sponsorship provisions in the Tobacco Act. The petitioners point out that tobacco sponsorship advertising is a way for tobacco companies to associate a positive lifestyle image with a deadly product.

There are some 30 names on that petition.

[Monte Solberg, Reform, Medicine Hat, AB]

Mr. Speaker, I have another petition from the constituents in the towns of Taber and Grassy Lake calling on parliament to hold a referendum on the issue of medically unnecessary abortions.

They point out that there were 106,000 unborn children who lost their lives in abortions in 1995 and they expressed their concern over that.

I also have two petitions from constituents—

[The Speaker]

It's like baseball. Three strikes and you're out. The hon. member for Yukon.

[Louise Hardy, NDP, Yukon, YT]

Mr. Speaker, I have a petition of over 80 pages of signatures. The petition states that Canada should declare Iran as an unsafe country and that government stop all deportations to Iran immediately.

The petitioners ask this because in the last 20 years the Islamic republic of Iran has executed over 100,000 women, men and children in Iran and has assassinated hundreds of its opposition members abroad as well.

They ask this since no one is allowed to openly express political positions in Iran without danger of execution.

[Werner Schmidt, Reform, Kelowna, BC]

Mr. Speaker, according to Standing Order 36 I would like to present two petitions. The first one asks the government to support Bill C-225, an act to amend the marriage and interpretation acts so as to define in statute that a marriage can only be entered into between a single male and a single female.

[Werner Schmidt, Reform, Kelowna, BC]

The next petition, Mr. Speaker, is signed by hundreds of petitioners and it asks that the government change the Young Offenders Act to reflect the concerns of the citizens of Canada by lowering the age limit and transfer those accused of crimes of violence to adult court and publishing the identity of violent crime offenders. I am pleased and honoured to support both these petitions.

[The Speaker]

Of course, my colleagues, it is not necessary to either support or not support petitions.

[Mark Muise, Progressive Conservative, West Nova, NS]

Mr. Speaker, pursuant to Standing Order 36, I would like on behalf of well over 100 constituents from the riding of West Nova, to present a petition calling on this government to respect the Canadian human rights tribunal decision on pay equity that would see mostly low income female federal public servants be compensated for years of discrimination they endured in the workforce.

They call on the government to immediately comply with the orders of the Canadian human rights tribunal in the matter of pay equity.

[Gordon Earle, NDP, Halifax West, NS]

Mr. Speaker, pursuant to Standing Order 36 I am pleased to present a petition signed by many constituents calling on parliament and the Minister of Finance to stop the mega bank mergers.

The constituents are very concerned that if these mergers proceed they will adversely affect the jobs and social well being of our communities and small businesses across Canada and that they will change drastically the financial landscape of our country in a very negative way.

[Garry Breitkreuz, Reform, Yorkton—Melville, SK]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to present 705 more pages of petitions with 16,486 more signatures of concerned citizens from seven different provinces.

About half these petitions are from the province of Quebec and the petitioners find it regrettable that they cannot find an MP in Quebec to present these petitions calling for the repeal of Bill C-68.

My constituents have asked me to keep a running total of the repeal Bill C-68 petitions I have introduced. This year I have introduced 1,509 pages with 35,321 signatures.

These petitioners request parliament to repeal Bill C-68, the Firearms Act, and redirect the hundreds of millions of tax dollars being wasted on licensing 8 million law abiding, responsible firearms owners and registering 21 million legally owned guns to real crime fighting measures. These 35,000 petitioners also provide the government with a list of higher priority criminal justice programs where these billion dollars of public money could be much better spent such as putting more police on the street and fighting organized crime and biker gangs. Many people are appalled that the RCMP is cutting back on essential services while the government has wasted $200 million more on gun registration.

[Garry Breitkreuz, Reform, Yorkton—Melville, SK]

Mr. Speaker, the second petition I am pleased to present has 311 pages of petitions with signatures of 7,644 concerned Canadians from Quebec, Ontario, Alberta, Manitoba and my home province of Saskatchewan.

For those who are keeping track that is a total of 11,918 signatures of people who are demanding better protection of property rights in federal law. These Canadians are concerned that there is no provision in the charter of rights and freedoms that prevents government from taking anything they own without compensation. They are concerned that there is nothing in the charter which restricts the government in any way from passing laws which prohibit the ownership, use and enjoyment of their private property or reduces the value of their property.

These petitioners request parliament to support my private member's bill which would strengthen the protection of property rights in federal law and which died after only one hour debate in the House.

The Liberals opposed the motion to even study the concerns of these thousands of people and it is not a lost cause as I will be reintroducing the bill.

[The Speaker]

My colleagues, of course I give you as much room as I can, but I wish we would not editorialize. These are after all petitions and should be presented as such.

[Bryon Wilfert, Liberal, Oak Ridges, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. I seek the support of the House to return to motions in order to seek the unanimous consent of the House to withdraw Bill C-370.

[The Speaker]

Is that agreed?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

Holidays Act

[Bryon Wilfert, Liberal, Oak Ridges, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I seek the unanimous consent of the House to withdraw Bill C-370 which is No. 5 on the order paper.

[The Speaker]

Is that agreed?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

(Order discharged and bill withdrawn)