Mr. Speaker, recently a group of college students said that if they were faced with the choice between saving their pet and saving a human being, they would choose their pet.
We jokingly call looters non-traditional shoppers. Killers are described as morally challenged.
The time has come for us to recognize that while we must debate controversial issues we must not forget that there are non-controvertible ethical issues at the core and that were settled a long time ago.
The great literature of the world including, the Koran, Aristotle's Ethics , Shakespeare's King Lear , the Bible and the Analects of Confucius reveal these basic moral values: integrity, respect for human life, self-control, honesty, courage and self-sacrifice. All the world's major religions offer some form of the golden rule.
We need to relearn these basic values, teach them in our schools, practice them in our businesses and reflect them in the Parliament of Canada.