House of Commons Hansard #31 of the 36th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament's site.) The word of the day was criminal.

Topics

Recognition Of Crimes Against Humanity ActPrivate Members' Business

6:50 p.m.

Some hon. members

No.

Recognition Of Crimes Against Humanity ActPrivate Members' Business

6:50 p.m.

Liberal

Sarkis Assadourian Liberal Brampton Centre, ON

Mr. Speaker, I will try a third approach. I ask for unanimous consent of the House to refer the subject matter of Bill C-224, the recognition of crimes against humanity act, to the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage for review and report no later than April 14, 2000.

Recognition Of Crimes Against Humanity ActPrivate Members' Business

6:50 p.m.

The Acting Speaker (Mr. McClelland)

Does the House give its unanimous consent?

Recognition Of Crimes Against Humanity ActPrivate Members' Business

6:50 p.m.

Some hon. members

Agreed.

Recognition Of Crimes Against Humanity ActPrivate Members' Business

6:50 p.m.

Liberal

Derek Lee Liberal Scarborough—Rouge River, ON

Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. I am assuming that along with the unanimous consent of the House we are acknowledging that the proceedings on this item have expired, or will shortly expire, and that the item will be dropped from the order paper in accordance with Standing Order 96(1). Then the House would have unanimously decided to refer the subject matter in the way expressed by the member.

Recognition Of Crimes Against Humanity ActPrivate Members' Business

6:50 p.m.

The Acting Speaker (Mr. McClelland)

I will have to seek clarification. As I understand it we are referring it to committee, but let me do a bit of consultation.

We are referring the subject matter of the bill to committee and not the bill. The bill will die at the conclusion of these proceedings but the subject matter will be referred to the committee. Is everyone clear on that?

Recognition Of Crimes Against Humanity ActPrivate Members' Business

6:50 p.m.

Some hon. members

Yes.

Recognition Of Crimes Against Humanity ActPrivate Members' Business

6:50 p.m.

The Acting Speaker (Mr. McClelland)

Is there unanimous consent to refer the subject matter to committee with the understanding that Bill C-224 will die today?

Recognition Of Crimes Against Humanity ActPrivate Members' Business

6:50 p.m.

Some hon. members

Agreed.

Recognition Of Crimes Against Humanity ActPrivate Members' Business

6:50 p.m.

Liberal

Clifford Lincoln Liberal Lac-Saint-Louis, QC

Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. Because I happen to be the chair of that committee I want to make sure what we are talking about.

We have a very long agenda right through to well after the recess. I want to know the importance of this matter. Is it purely in principle so that we take whatever time is available? It could be many months before it ever comes up.

Recognition Of Crimes Against Humanity ActPrivate Members' Business

6:50 p.m.

The Acting Speaker (Mr. McClelland)

That would be the purview of the committee. The subject matter would be referred to the committee and it would be at the pleasure of the committee, one would assume. Once again I will check.

It has been brought to my attention that I neglected to add a written addendum, so I will read the motion again because there is a time limit on it.

This is what we will be deciding. The hon. member for Brampton Centre has requested unanimous consent of the House to refer the subject matter of Bill C-224, the recognition of crimes against humanity act, to the Standing Committee on Heritage for review and report no later than April 14, 2000.

I see there is ongoing discussion so we will just stall for a minute.

Recognition Of Crimes Against Humanity ActPrivate Members' Business

6:55 p.m.

Liberal

Clifford Lincoln Liberal Lac-Saint-Louis, QC

Mr. Speaker, certainly I would like to try to accommodate my colleague if he would be more flexible. We have a huge amount of work before us. If he would say before the June recess or something like that, we certainly would try our best to see how we could do it. If he says April, I do not know. I would not like to commit myself in that there is so little time to handle matters right now.

Recognition Of Crimes Against Humanity ActPrivate Members' Business

6:55 p.m.

The Acting Speaker (Mr. McClelland)

It is highly unusual to have negotiations of this nature in the House. The sponsor of the bill has to be in his place to say anything.

Recognition Of Crimes Against Humanity ActPrivate Members' Business

6:55 p.m.

Liberal

Derek Lee Liberal Scarborough—Rouge River, ON

Mr. Speaker, just to allow some time for animus revertendi to take place here, if the hon. member sponsoring the bill were to extend the date for return from the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage to June 15, 2000, that would satisfy the hon. member who just spoke and might allow the House to adopt the unanimous consent.

Recognition Of Crimes Against Humanity ActPrivate Members' Business

6:55 p.m.

The Acting Speaker (Mr. McClelland)

The Speaker is not able to negotiate something of this nature.

Recognition Of Crimes Against Humanity ActPrivate Members' Business

6:55 p.m.

Liberal

Sarkis Assadourian Liberal Brampton Centre, ON

Mr. Speaker, I am quite happy to extend it to June 15, 2000. It will be a brand new beginning for the new century.

Recognition Of Crimes Against Humanity ActPrivate Members' Business

6:55 p.m.

The Acting Speaker (Mr. McClelland)

We will start all over again because we need to be absolutely clear on what we are doing here.

The hon. member for Brampton Centre has requested unanimous consent of the House to refer the subject matter of Bill C-224, the recognition of crimes against humanity act, to the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage for review and report no later than June 15, 2000. Is there unanimous consent?

Recognition Of Crimes Against Humanity ActPrivate Members' Business

6:55 p.m.

Some hon. members

Agreed.

Recognition Of Crimes Against Humanity ActPrivate Members' Business

6:55 p.m.

NDP

Wendy Lill NDP Dartmouth, NS

Mr. Speaker, when you say the subject matter being the crimes against humanity act, I understood the subject matter of the bill to be an exhibit of crimes against humanity. I need clarification on what exactly we are asking the committee to deal with.

Recognition Of Crimes Against Humanity ActPrivate Members' Business

6:55 p.m.

The Acting Speaker (Mr. McClelland)

With respect, we will put the question and members will have the option to say either yes or no, but it is not appropriate to debate it any more.

By unanimous consent the order will be discharged and the subject matter referred to the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage for review and report by June 15, 2000. Is there unanimous consent?

Recognition Of Crimes Against Humanity ActPrivate Members' Business

7 p.m.

Some hon. members

Agreed.

A motion to adjourn the House under Standing Order 38 deemed to have been moved.

Recognition Of Crimes Against Humanity ActAdjournment Proceedings

7 p.m.

NDP

Libby Davies NDP Vancouver East, BC

Mr. Speaker, today thousands of demonstrators were tear-gassed and pepper sprayed in Seattle in protest of the millennium round of the WTO and in defence of democracy. Thousands of students, seniors, trade unionists and concerned citizens travelled to Seattle from Vancouver to join the tens of thousands of people there to make it crystal clear to Canadian government representatives, including the Minister for International Trade, that Canada is not for sale.

The mobilization and opposition to globalization is widespread and more and more people are connecting and understanding how threatening the WTO agenda is to our democracy and public services.

If the Liberal government believes it can get away with quietly handing over control of our resources and services to the WTO it is absolutely mistaken. It is shameful that the Canadian government has supported and promoted the very narrow and anti-democratic definition of trade liberalization as envisaged in the WTO.

Whether it is the auto pact that protected Canadian jobs, farm income support or culture, Canada has already suffered from WTO rulings. We are threatened now with challenges to our drug patent laws that will force drug prices to go up even higher than they have been under NAFTA.

What is even scarier is that for the first time the federal government is looking to include health care and education as priorities for export. Any changes in the General Agreement on Trade in Services by reverting to a top down agreement will be devastating to our education and health care and allow them to become commodities for trade and subject to control by foreign corporations.

I cannot believe the Liberals are allowing this to happen. Who is serving whom? Surely the role of our federal government is to serve the public interest, meet the needs of Canadians and protect our valuable resources and services. All the evidence shows us that the Liberal government has gone on a wild binge of serving not ordinary Canadians but the corporate elites and the global market ideology.

Canadians who are at the battle in Seattle today and many more people who could not be there are saying to the government, “Stop the WTO sell out. We are opposed to the global hegemony. We are opposed to corporate rule. We are opposed to Canadian resources and public services being put on the WTO chopping block”.

We need rules that protect our services and rules that make multinational corporations operate within the confines of the public interest. Why will the government not make that its goal? It is what Canadians want.

Recognition Of Crimes Against Humanity ActAdjournment Proceedings

7 p.m.

Scarborough Centre Ontario

Liberal

John Cannis LiberalParliamentary Secretary to Minister of Industry

Mr. Speaker, that is our goal. The upcoming negotiations of the WTO, which will be launched in Seattle on November 30, have generated a lot of interest, and rightfully so. These talks are important to Canadians, as they should be.

One of the agreements that will be discussed is the General Agreement on Trade in Services. This is an important agreement for Canada, as we were in 1998 the 10th largest exporter of services in the world. Currently over 60% of our GDP and 12% of our exports are in the service sector and service exports are growing at a rate of over 9% per year.

Our service industries are a critical component of our growing knowledge based economy. As well, with advances in technology, an ever-increasing amount of our goods exported depend on a service component either in the production process, distribution or after sales service.

Globalization is pushing Canada to grow and develop markets outside our borders. This is benefiting Canadians and is an important contributor to job creation. Because we are trading beyond our borders, it is important to have rules to protect our interests. These multilateral rules, agreed to by the 134 member countries of the WTO, helped to create an orderly marketplace. This is why we participate in the World Trade Organization.

Canada has world class service firms in sectors including engineering, telecommunications, environmental, computer, tourism and financial services. In GATS negotiations, we will try to further open foreign markets for Canadian service exports. As in the case for goods, more exports of services means more jobs for Canadians.

At the same time, we are fully aware of domestic sensitivities in certain service sectors such as health, education and social services.

As has been stated already and stressed, in the WTO and under GATS, our universal health care and public education are not subject to any international trade rules unless Canada accepts such rules. This means that we will not be engaging in negotiations in these most important sectors. Canada's position is that our health care and public education system are not negotiable and will not be jeopardized in the current upcoming negotiations.

Recognition Of Crimes Against Humanity ActAdjournment Proceedings

7:05 p.m.

The Acting Speaker (Mr. McClelland)

The motion to adjourn the House is now deemed to have been adopted. Accordingly, this House stands adjourned until tomorrow at 2 p.m., pursuant to Standing Order 24(1).

(The House adjourned at 7.06 p.m.)