Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present a petition which is signed by residents of my constituency of Burnaby—Douglas, as well as others. It notes that the Constitution Act, 1982 guarantees freedom of conscience and religion in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The petition notes that contributing to the Canadian military through payment of income taxes is regarded by the petitioners as an infringement of the freedom of conscience or religion of those citizens who conscientiously object to participating in any way in the military and associated activities. Therefore, they call upon parliament to establish peace tax legislation by passing into law the conscientious objection act which recognizes the right of conscientious objectors to not pay for the military, but to apply that portion of their taxes that was to be used for military purposes toward peaceful, non-military objectives.
In the House of Commons on November 22nd, 1999. See this statement in context.