House of Commons Hansard #59 of the 36th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament's site.) The word of the day was metis.

Topics

Foreign AffairsOral Question Period

11:40 a.m.

Liberal

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 ActOral Question Period

11:40 a.m.

Bloc

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—

Citizenship And Immigration ActOral Question Period

11:40 a.m.

The Deputy Speaker

The Minister of Citizenship and Immigration.

Citizenship And Immigration ActOral Question Period

11:40 a.m.

Westmount—Ville-Marie Québec

Liberal

Lucienne Robillard LiberalMinister 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 IndustryOral Question Period

11:45 a.m.

Liberal

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?

Canada's Asbestos IndustryOral Question Period

11:45 a.m.

Halton Ontario

Liberal

Julian Reed LiberalParliamentary 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.

EmploymentOral Question Period

11:45 a.m.

Reform

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?

EmploymentOral Question Period

11:45 a.m.

Windsor West Ontario

Liberal

Herb Gray LiberalDeputy 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.

EmploymentOral Question Period

11:45 a.m.

Reform

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?

EmploymentOral Question Period

11:45 a.m.

Windsor West Ontario

Liberal

Herb Gray LiberalDeputy 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 InvestmentOral Question Period

11:45 a.m.

NDP

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?

Multilateral Agreement On InvestmentOral Question Period

11:45 a.m.

Windsor West Ontario

Liberal

Herb Gray LiberalDeputy 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.

Multilateral Agreement On InvestmentOral Question Period

11:45 a.m.

NDP

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?

Multilateral Agreement On InvestmentOral Question Period

11:50 a.m.

Ottawa South Ontario

Liberal

John Manley LiberalMinister 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 DefenceOral Question Period

11:50 a.m.

Progressive Conservative

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?

National DefenceOral Question Period

11:50 a.m.

Perth—Middlesex Ontario

Liberal

John Richardson LiberalParliamentary 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.

National DefenceOral Question Period

11:50 a.m.

Progressive Conservative

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.

National DefenceOral Question Period

11:50 a.m.

Perth—Middlesex Ontario

Liberal

John Richardson LiberalParliamentary 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—

National DefenceOral Question Period

11:50 a.m.

The Deputy Speaker

The hon. member for Mount Royal.

JusticeOral Question Period

11:50 a.m.

Liberal

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?

JusticeOral Question Period

11:50 a.m.

Ahuntsic Québec

Liberal

Eleni Bakopanos LiberalParliamentary 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—

JusticeOral Question Period

11:50 a.m.

The Deputy Speaker

The hon. member for Cypress Hills—Grasslands.

EmploymentOral Question Period

February 13th, 1998 / 11:50 a.m.

Reform

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?

EmploymentOral Question Period

11:55 a.m.

Kenora—Rainy River Ontario

Liberal

Bob Nault LiberalParliamentary 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 SecurityOral Question Period

11:55 a.m.

Bloc

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?