Debates of April 27th, 1998

Hepatitis C

[Jake Hoeppner, Reform, Portage—Lisgar, MB]

Mr. Speaker, a constituent writes:

I am 32 years old, married and have three young sons. I work hard, pay my taxes and I do what I can for my country. But in the last several years, I find it increasingly difficult to go to work and take care of my young family, because hepatitis C is sucking the life out of me. I am always tired and find it hard, if not impossible, to be a dad to my boys and keep up with my responsibilities.

Not knowing how much longer I will be able to work, or how many years I have left, it would be of great comfort if the government would take responsibility and compensate all victims of tainted blood so I could slow down and preserve my health.

I pray and trust that the Government of Canada will take responsibility and do the right and honourable thing.

Ed Neufeld, Winkler, Manitoba.

I implore this government not to let innocent victims like Ed Neufeld down.

Port Moody—Coquitlam

[Lou Sekora, Liberal, Port Moody—Coquitlam, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I am delighted to rise from my seat representing the riding of Port Moody—Coquitlam. I take this opportunity to acknowledge the hard work of my predecessor who used to sit across the House, Mrs. Sharon Hayes. Mrs. Hayes was a strong candidate and we respect her reasons for leaving. We wish her, her husband and their family the best.

The citizens of my riding spoke loud and clear on March 30. They chose a party whose government speaks for all Canadians, a government that has eliminated the deficit and is practising strong financial management for the future of all Canadians. They elected a member with a long record of service to the community.

I am honoured to sit in a seat that belongs to the people of Port Moody—Coquitlam. I pledge to those who voted for me and the ones who did not that I am here to voice their concerns.

Poverty

[Christiane Gagnon, Bloc, Québec, QC]

Mr. Speaker, researchers from the University of Toronto's faculty of medicine recently published a study of mothers who have to rely on food banks to feed themselves and their children.

This study, commissioned by the health department, paints a gloomy picture. These women often have to deprive themselves of food so their children can eat. More than 26% of women who were interviewed said they had suffered from severe undernourishment during the last year. Seventy per cent of these women relied solely on social welfare to survive, and their meager income was just 52.8% of the amount needed to reach the poverty line.

The Bloc Quebecois strongly denounces the political choices made by the Liberal Party and accuses the government of being largely responsible for the increase in poverty—

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh.

[The Speaker]

Colleagues, I am sure these statements are all very important to us. I would ask you to keep these little side conversations toned down.

Does the hon. member for Québec have anything to add?

[Christiane Gagnon, Bloc, Québec, QC]

Yes, Mr. Speaker.

Scientists from the faculty of medicine at the University of Toronto have just released a study on mothers who depend on food banks to feed their children.

The study commissioned by the health department reveals a very alarming situation. In order for their children to eat, these women often go without food. Over 26% of the women surveyed said they had been seriously undernourished during the past year. Seventy per cent of them depended entirely on social assistance to survive and their meager income was only 52.8% of the amount needed to reach the poverty line.

The Bloc Quebecois strongly condemns the Liberal Party's political choices, and accuses the government of being largely responsible for the increase in poverty.

Globalization

[Bill Blaikie, NDP, Winnipeg—Transcona, MB]

Mr. Speaker, people around the world are recognizing the serious problems inherent in the current model for globalization. They are recognizing that the unfettered global marketplace is increasing social inequality and committing countries to a race to the bottom. People are demanding that governments live up to their responsibility to ensure that globalization serves democracy, equality and human need. Examples of the failure of the current model are everywhere. The Asia crisis has demonstrated that deregulated financial markets are a threat to sane and stable development.

Today at the MAI negotiations in Paris, the trade ministers of the 29 richest countries are discussing their publics' concern following an attempt to make the rights of working people and the environment subservient to investor rights.

Let the MAI die a well deserved death and let us seize the opportunity to explore ways of ensuring that globalizing markets serve the common good and not just the interests of the wealthy global elite. We call on this government to live up to its responsibility and engage the Canadian people in a debate about concrete ways to advance our values of social justice and equality in the—

[The Speaker]

The hon. member for Mercier.

Saskatchewan Francophones

[Francine Lalonde, Bloc, Mercier, QC]

Mr. Speaker, last Saturday marked the 10th anniversary of Bill 2 in Saskatchewan, an act abolishing French as an official language. Representatives of Franco-Saskatchewanians, who are 20,000 strong, but only 6,000 of whom still speak French at home, came to Ottawa looking for help.

However, the heritage minister refused to meet with them. She claimed the president of the Fédération des francophones de Saskatoon, Richard Nadeau, is a friend of the Bloc Quebecois. Again, according to her, the people protesting against the Liberals' UI reform were separatists masquerading as unemployed workers. In fact, in the opinion of the heritage minister, you either belong to the Liberal Party and wrap yourself in the flag or you are nothing but a separatist.

The heritage minister is trying to discredit a representative of the francophone community in Saskatchewan so as to downplay the urgency of this community's situation.

Francophones outside Quebec are only of interest to her when she can use them as weapons against Quebec sovereignists. Respecting their rights is secondary.

Hadassah Wizo

[Marlene Catterall, Liberal, Ottawa West—Nepean, ON]

Mr. Speaker, today Canadian Hadassah Wizo honoured women in public life. Hadassah Wizo is marking its 80th anniversary and the 50th anniversary of the birth of the state of Israel by creating a fund to provide a scholarship in women's studies at the University of Ottawa.

For 80 years the incredibly talented women of Hadassah Wizo, a grassroots network, have represented the spirit of volunteering in this country with special emphasis on women and children and their health and education needs. Over the decades Hadassah Wizo has evolved from a project called Youth Aliyah during the second world war to remove Jewish children to safety in Israel. Today its project “Women to Women” is helping abused women.

I congratulate and thank Hadassah Wizo, Canada's largest Jewish women's organization, for its contribution.

Fisheries

[Norman E. Doyle, Progressive Conservative, St. John's East, NL]

Mr. Speaker, the 18,000 people in the province of Newfoundland about to be thrown off the TAGS program are crying out for a sign of compassion from the federal government. Scientific assessment of the cod stocks seems to indicate that it will be quite a while before many of these people can return to the commercial fishery. Therefore it comes as no surprise when we read in the media that the Premier of Newfoundland has personally informed the Prime Minister that the Newfoundland economy cannot possibly absorb these people if the TAGS program is cut off cold turkey.

I call upon the federal government not to turn this issue into another hepatitis C issue. The federal government is responsible for the mismanagement of the cod. It has a moral responsibility to compensate the people in the fishing industry who have been affected by the shutdown.

We need a post-TAGS program and we need it now.

Human Rights

[Deborah Grey, Reform, Edmonton North, AB]

Mr. Speaker, on Friday the Prime Minister offered publicly and promised to bring up the issue of human rights in Cuba. In fact he said “I am not shy”. But in a speech nationally televised across Cuba he failed to mention human rights even once. It appears that he would like to have that little chat behind closed doors where Cubans and Canadians will not hear a word of it.

Why were human rights not at the very top of the Prime Minister's public agenda? Why so shy?

[Herb Gray, Liberal, Deputy Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, I am surprised at the hon. member's question because if there is one thing the Prime Minister is not it is shy.

I am confident that the Prime Minister did put human rights at the top of his agenda, along with the other items on the agenda expressed by the memorandum of understanding that we have with Cuba.

Certainly I am confident that human rights is an important consideration of the discussions the Prime Minister is having.

[Deborah Grey, Reform, Edmonton North, AB]

Mr. Speaker, any discussions the Prime Minister may have had were a pure embarrassment for Canada.

Human rights was not the only thing the Prime Minister was silent on yesterday. He just stood there as Fidel Castro compared the peaceful economic sanctions of Cuba to the Holocaust. During the week in which we are celebrating the 50th anniversary of the state of Israel, this disgusting comparison must not be allowed to stand.

I would ask the Deputy Prime Minister, will the government do today what the Prime Minister should have done yesterday and condemn Castro for these disgusting remarks?

[Lloyd Axworthy, Liberal, Minister of Foreign Affairs]

Mr. Speaker, the fact of the matter is that we have been engaged now for a year and a half in a very active dialogue with the Cubans on a variety of human rights matters. We have actually seen some progress made. I know that members of the Reform Party would not be aware of it because they do not attend to human rights matters.

The purpose of the trip is to advance that file, to make progress in these areas and to ensure that we make the case, as has been made over the past several years, that we need the Cubans to establish themselves as adhering to a fundamental set of international standards on human rights.

[Deborah Grey, Reform, Edmonton North, AB]

Mr. Speaker, the fact of the matter is that the economic peaceful sanctions against Cuba right now may be questionable foreign policy, but they are not the Holocaust, they are not genocide and they are not the use of biological, chemical or nuclear weapons, as Fidel Castro said they were.

Let me ask the minister again, will he condemn Castro right here, right now, for the disgusting comparisons he made yesterday?

[Lloyd Axworthy, Liberal, Minister of Foreign Affairs]

Mr. Speaker, the fact of the matter is that nobody is endorsing the remarks of President Castro. The remarks he made are his remarks.

What we are saying is that it is time we started building some effective bridges into the western hemisphere so that the kind of transition and changes going on in Cuba can be reinforced.

The Reform Party is missing the whole point. The trip to Cuba is not to start a confrontation. The real purpose of the trip is to provide reconciliation.

Hepatitis C

[Grant Hill, Reform, Macleod, AB]

Mr. Speaker, it has been reported today that the government is ready to reopen its bad deal on hepatitis C. At least that is what the Liberal backbenchers are being told.

I ask the Deputy Prime Minister, is the government in fact ready to reopen the deal so that all victims of hepatitis C will be treated equally?

[Herb Gray, Liberal, Deputy Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, our position remains the same.

A deal has been made between the federal government and all of the provincial governments and we feel this deal is one that deserves the support of the House.

We continue to believe that when the House votes on the Reform motion tomorrow it will vote to defeat the motion and will endorse the position of all the provincial governments which is a part of the deal with the federal government.

[Grant Hill, Reform, Macleod, AB]

Mr. Speaker, maybe I should remind the Deputy Prime Minister that he is talking about things like a CPP disability plan for these victims, even though he knows that people have to line up for those plans. He is talking about medical plans for these people, even though health care provides those things.

He is offering not a single thin dime more to these victims.

Is it not true that he is offering these things just to keep the dissident backbench Liberals in check?

I will ask him the question again. Is he going to give equal treatment to all victims of hepatitis C in Canada: yes or no?

[Herb Gray, Liberal, Deputy Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, I am surprised by the nerve of the hon. minister talking about dissident backbench MPs after what his party did to Jan Brown and after what his party did to Jim Silye when they dared to say something different than the Reform Party line.

We have confidence in the fact that this deal is deserving of support—

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh.

[An hon. member]

It is time to retire, Herb.

[The Speaker]

I was having difficulty hearing the answer. I am sure we are as interested in the answers as we are in the questions. I will permit the hon. Deputy Prime Minister to finish his response.

[Herb Gray, Liberal, Windsor West, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think I have made my point, that the Reform Party is wrong in the way it is asking people to vote on its motion.