Debates of Feb. 13th, 1998

Foreign Affairs

[Ted McWhinney, Liberal, Vancouver Quadra, BC]

We will continue our policy of constructive engagement with China. We are maintaining an administration of justice program. We are training Chinese judges. We are training Chinese police officials.

Let us face it. We do not make invidious comparisons. We apply human rights to every government we deal with.

Citizenship And Immigration Act

[Madeleine Dalphond-Guiral, Bloc, Laval Centre, QC]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration.

In response to the publication of the Trempe Report on January 6, the focus of which was an in-depth revision of the Citizenship and Immigration Act, the minister decided to hastily throw together eight days of consultations in eight Canadian cities, refusing any involvement by MPs.

What is the minister's reply to the 30 or so bodies, headed by the Canadian Council for Refugees, who are calling for her to extend the consultations so that the process—

[The Deputy Speaker]

The Minister of Citizenship and Immigration.

[Lucienne Robillard, Liberal, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration]

Mr. Speaker, I congratulate the new Bloc Quebecois immigration critic, who has just replaced the hon. member for Hochelaga—Maisonneuve in that position.

We have indeed just extended the duration of the consultations on the immigration report I received. We have added one day in Vancouver, one in Toronto and one in Montreal.

I am also pleased to announce to the House that one day will be added in Ottawa and one in Edmonton.

Canada's Asbestos Industry

[Mark Assad, Liberal, Gatineau, QC]

Mr. Speaker, last month the parliamentary assembly of the Council of Europe recommended that member states eliminate the use of asbestos products. That recommendation is very likely to result in the devastation of the asbestos industry in Canada.

Can the Minister of International Trade tell this House how the Government of Canada intends to protect Canada's asbestos industry?

[Julian Reed, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to Minister for International Trade]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister intervened on a number of occasions on behalf of the industry at the highest levels of government in both France and Britain. We continue to believe that through continued diplomatic efforts the safe use of asbestos can be promoted.

The minister believes that the playing of politics with this issue can cause enormous damage in achieving our common objective. The best strategy, we believe, is to pursue a common front among all stakeholders.

Employment

[Rob Anders, Reform, Calgary West, AB]

Mr. Speaker, the snack pack likes its bacon but when it comes to pork we raise our forks to the Liberals.

Who is the latest to leave the sty for the public trough? His name is Stephen Gaon. He was the riding president for Ottawa South, the home riding of the Minister of Industry. Mr. Gaon is now a chairperson of the EI board of referees.

My question is for the little minister who went to market. There are millions of Canadians who need work. Do they need a Liberal Party membership to qualify for the Liberals' promise of jobs, jobs, jobs?

[Herb Gray, Liberal, Deputy Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, we are talking about somebody who is giving up his time two or three days a month to act in a temporary capacity, helping to deal with appeals on employment insurance matters.

Surely the hon. member should praise that type of activity. The person appointed is a person of competence. If the person had Liberal credentials at one time that does not make him less competent, any more than being a Reform person makes a person competent.

[Rob Anders, Reform, Calgary West, AB]

Mr. Speaker, the Liberal cabinet just keeps on dishing out pork patronage appointments and the little piglets keep on chowing down.

What a coincidence that in the city of Edmonton, a city of 800,000 people, one person qualifies to be on the National Parole Board, Elizabeth McKall, the wife of the riding president in the justice minister's riding. It is slim pickings for Liberal patronage appointments in Alberta these days.

To the little minister who ran all the way home to appoint her riding president's wife to a patronage position, will the Liberals' job creation strategy ever include a Canadian who does not slurp at the party trough?

[Herb Gray, Liberal, Deputy Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, when we deal with appointments we are dealing with matters of merit. If my hon. friend does not accept that then he is insulting his own former colleague, Colonel Jack Fraser.

Multilateral Agreement On Investment

[Gordon Earle, NDP, Halifax West, NS]

Mr. Speaker, it took the Minister for International Trade less than 20 hours to do a complete flip-flop on protecting culture. Yesterday he unequivocally stated to the House that he would walk away from the table unless there was a complete carve-out for culture on the MAI.

This morning he contradicted his comments to the House by stating that he would instead be fine with a country specific reservation, which we all know means little or nothing.

Was the government being up front with Canadians yesterday, or did the minister's comments this morning show what is really in store for Canadian culture?

[Herb Gray, Liberal, Deputy Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, no deal has been signed. It is under negotiation. The basic point about our position, which the minister stated more than once in the House of Commons, is that if it is not a good deal we will not be signing it.

[Gordon Earle, NDP, Halifax West, NS]

Mr. Speaker, the U.S. protects its shipbuilding workers and their families with the Jones act while over 7,000 shipyard jobs have been lost in Canada recently.

Will the government formally guarantee at the moment that the MAI will not prevent Canada from developing a national shipbuilding policy to put people in Nova Scotia and elsewhere back to work?

[John Manley, Liberal, Minister of Industry]

Mr. Speaker, there is a shipbuilding policy. It includes very generous write-offs for depreciation. It includes a very high tariff structure and it includes procurement preference for Canadian built ships.

Nothing in the proposed agreement would imperil any of those measures.

National Defence

[David Price, Progressive Conservative, Compton—Stanstead, QC]

Mr. Speaker, yesterday in the House the Minister of National Defence said he was sending the Toronto within missile range with the crew partially immunized against anthrax.

It is not like 1991 when Canada played an important role. The government has cut the military so much in the last four years that now we are only there for moral support. We are sending one 30 year old helicopter so there is no rush.

Will the minister assure Canadians that the Toronto will not enter missile range until the vaccine has taken full 100% effect?

[John Richardson, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to Minister of National Defence]

Mr. Speaker, yesterday the Minister of National Defence did say something. He said there was a series of inoculations. Protection starts with the very first one and builds up until there is very substantial protection.

Meanwhile when the last one has been given the antibiotics take over and there is full protection for our soldiers, sailors and airmen.

However I would like to say this. What is the point here? Is the opposition trying to score points for scaremongering? It knows that what we have in place is a first class protection agency.

[David Price, Progressive Conservative, Compton—Stanstead, QC]

Mr. Speaker, we are not scaremongering. We are asking serious questions.

I have here the vaccine manufacturer's instructions to the U.S. forces. It states:

If a person has not previously been immunized against anthrax, injection of this product following exposure—will not protect against infection.

Sending the Toronto within missile range is totally irresponsible, especially when there is complete protection available. I beg the minister to reconsider and hold Toronto until the vaccine takes full 100% effect.

[John Richardson, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to Minister of National Defence]

Mr. Speaker, we have recently placed a doctor on board the Toronto . The practice of ongoing nuclear, biological and chemical warfare is part of operation procedures for all soldiers and sailors going overseas and a fundamental part of the training of all our people in the forces.

The protective clothing equipment given to our sailors, soldiers and airmen is world class equipment. It will give protection to both hands and body. They are given instruction on how to decontaminate one another.

While the members of the Conservative Party are playing loose politics—

[The Deputy Speaker]

The hon. member for Mount Royal.

Justice

[Sheila Finestone, Liberal, Mount Royal, QC]

Mr. Speaker, some courts have now ruled the law on access to the counselling records of sexual assault complainants unconstitutional while others have rendered a different verdict. They have upheld that legislation.

What will the Minister of Justice do to bring consistency so as to protect the right to privacy for sexual assault complainants, privacy which once lost cannot be regained?

[Eleni Bakopanos, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada]

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

We are very pleased that the Supreme Court of Canada has decided to give leave to appeal to the Alberta Court of Queen's Bench in the Mills case. This case concerns the constitutionality of Bill C-46, a very important piece of legislation for victims of sexual assault which the government introduced in the last parliament and for which certain lower court decisions have led to uncertainty.

We would like to assure everyone that we will be supporting the leave to appeal Bill C-46 in the supreme court. We will intervene in order to uphold this very important piece of the legislation which strikes the right balance between victims rights—

[The Deputy Speaker]

The hon. member for Cypress Hills—Grasslands.

Employment

[Lee Morrison, Reform, Cypress Hills—Grasslands, SK]

Mr. Speaker, Human Resources Development has appointed John Murphy, a faceless, defeated Liberal backbench MP, to the National Council of Welfare.

This individual lacks the aggressive smarts to follow other defeated Liberal maritime MPs to the huge pork barrel, so he will get a $250 a day consolation prize, which is not bad.

Is this part of the minister's Atlantic jobs strategy?

[Bob Nault, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to Minister of Human Resources Development]

Mr. Speaker, let me make it very clear to the hon. member that the member to whom he talked that was in his place last term is also in his previous profession a health practitioner and one who has a significant amount of experience in this field.

For the member to besmirch this man's reputation is uncalled for, based not only on his education but his background in this field.

Airport Security

[Richard Marceau, Bloc, Charlesbourg, QC]

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

There is a double standard in Canada. While the airports in Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto and Ottawa are served by the municipal police, in Quebec it is the RCMP.

Since renovations at the Dorval terminal are now complete, when will the minister permit the ADM to put out tenders so security will be provided by local police forces?