Debates of March 22nd, 2000

Petitions

[Gurmant Grewal, Reform, Surrey Central, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I am honoured to present a petition containing about 75 signatures of concerned Canadians, mostly from my riding of Surrey Central.

The petitioners feel that the illegal immigrants who arrived on the Vancouver shores are causing undue hardship for bona fide, honest refugees. They maintain that our immigration laws encourage international people smugglers to target Canada.

They are calling on parliament to enact immediate changes to Canada's immigration laws governing refugees. They want to allow for the deportation of those who are obviously and blatantly abusing the system.

[Gurmant Grewal, Reform, Surrey Central, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I am also honoured to present two petitions with about 135 signatures of concerned Canadians, mostly from Ontario. They are drawing the attention of the House to the discrimination they declare is caused by Canada's old age security system.

The act discriminates against seniors from certain countries. Therefore, the petitioners call on parliament to grant old age security benefits to all seniors over the age of 65 years irrespective of their country of origin.

However, we know that the weak Liberal government, like the head tax, continues to discriminate against immigrants from certain parts of the world. It only follows that the Liberal government would discriminate against immigrants by—

[The Deputy Speaker]

The hon. member knows he is to give a short summary of the petition and not make a speech. I would invite him to comply with the rules in that regard. If he has other petitions, I will hear them, otherwise we will move on.

[Gurmant Grewal, Reform, Surrey Central, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I am honoured to present six petitions with just over 500 signatures on them. These signatures are by concerned Canadians, mostly from my constituency of Surrey Central again.

The petitioners are asking why parliament was not recalled immediately to invoke section 33 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the notwithstanding clause to override the B.C. court decision and ensure that the possession of child pornography in B.C. is illegal.

We know that this government will not—

[The Deputy Speaker]

We will move on.

[Peter Adams, Liberal, Peterborough, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I present a petition on behalf of rural route mail couriers. These couriers often earn less than minimum wage and their working conditions are not good. They have not been allowed to bargain collectively, yet private sector workers who deliver mail in rural areas are allowed to do the same, as, of course, are Canada Post employees who deliver mail in urban areas.

Therefore, these petitioners call on parliament to repeal section 13(5) of the Canada Post Corporation Act.

[Lorne Nystrom, NDP, Qu'Appelle, SK]

Mr. Speaker, I have a petition signed by people from St. Catharines, Thorold and other parts of Ontario, the city of Saskatoon in Saskatchewan and so on.

The petitioners say that the Senate of Canada is an undemocratic institution. They are saying that it is composed of non-elected members who are unaccountable to the people of this country and that it costs the taxpayers of the country some $50 million a year. Because of that, Mr. Speaker, you would be surprised to note, that they want to make sure that we take the measures now to abolish the Senate.

[Clifford Lincoln, Liberal, Lac-Saint-Louis, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I have two petitions. The first one was signed by 124 members of the London and region chapter of the Breast Cancer Society of Canada.

The petitioners ask parliament to enact legislation to establish an independent governing body to develop, implement and enforce uniform and mandatory mammography quality assurance and quality control standards in Canada.

[Clifford Lincoln, Liberal, Lac-Saint-Louis, QC]

I would like to present a second petition signed by several people from my region in Quebec. The petitioners are calling upon the Parliament of Canada to continue urging the Chinese government to release all arrested Falun Gong practitioners in China immediately, to lift the ban on Falun Gong practice, to withdraw the international arrest warrant for Mr. Li Hongzhi and to achieve a peaceful resolution through open dialogue.

[Gilles Bernier, Progressive Conservative, Tobique—Mactaquac, NB]

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in the House to present a petition.

The petitioners say that whereas the majority of Canadians understand the concept of marriage as only the voluntary union of a single male and a single female and whereas it is the duty of parliament to ensure that marriage, as it has always been known and understood in Canada, be preserved and protected, they call on parliament to enact legislation such as Bill C-225 so as to define in statute that a marriage can only be entered into between a single male and single female.

[Janko Peric, Liberal, Cambridge, ON]

Mr. Speaker, it is about time. Pursuant to Standing Order 36, I have the privilege to present to the House a petition with 167 signatures from concerned citizens of my riding of Cambridge.

The petitioners are horrified by the existence of pornography that depicts children and are shocked by legal determinations that possession of such pornography is not criminal.

For this reason, the petitioners call on the Parliament of Canada to take all necessary measures to protect the most vulnerable members of our society from sexual abuse. The petitioners request that parliament take steps to ensure that the possession of child pornography remains a serious criminal offence and that police forces be directed to enforce this law for the protection of Canadian children.

Mr. Speaker, I know you do not agree, but I do support my constituents.

[The Deputy Speaker]

The hon. member knows it is improper for him to say whether he agrees or not and he may wait much longer the next time if he persists. That is two days in a row.

[Nelson Riis, NDP, Kamloops, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I have 27 petitions but I have narrowed them down to three for today.

The first one contains almost 45,000 signatures. The petitioners are primarily concerned about the hideous GST tax. They suggest that the Government of Canada take action to phase out this tax as a very progressive tax measure.

[Nelson Riis, NDP, Kamloops, BC]

Mr. Speaker, the second petition is from people in Kamloops who are concerned about keeping God in our constitution and have a very strong case to make. I will pass it along to you later to have a look at, Mr. Speaker. Basically they want to keep God in the constitution.

[Nelson Riis, NDP, Kamloops, BC]

Mr. Speaker, the last petition I have is from people who are very concerned about changes to the Criminal Code of Canada, and they want to amend the code to prevent persons convicted of serious crimes from being released from custody pending the hearing of their appeal except in very exceptional circumstances.

[Irwin Cotler, Liberal, Mount Royal, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I am honoured to present a petition on behalf of the constituents of Mount Royal calling for an immediate moratorium on the cosmetic use of chemical pesticides, having regard for the serious and demonstrable evidence of the risk to the health of Canadians from coast to coast as a result of the use of these pesticides.

This moratorium is to last until such time as their use has been scientifically proven to be safe and the long term consequences of the application are known.

[Beth Phinney, Liberal, Hamilton Mountain, ON]

Mr. Speaker, in my first petition, the petitioners are asking parliament to ensure that the possession of child pornography remains a serious criminal offence and that police forces be directed to give priority to enforcing this law for the protection of children.

[Beth Phinney, Liberal, Hamilton Mountain, ON]

Mr. Speaker, in my second petition, the petitioners are calling on parliament to enact legislation to establish an independent governing body to develop, implement and enforce uniform and mandatory mammography quality assurance and quality control standards in Canada.

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

Mr. Speaker, I have three petitions.

Two of the petitions urge parliament to fulfill the promise of the 1989 House of Commons resolution to end child poverty by the year 2000.

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

Mr. Speaker, in the second petition, the petitioners pray that parliament refrain from enacting legislation to remove references to the name of God or to the supremacy of God from the Canadian Constitution or the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

[Karen Redman, Liberal, Kitchener Centre, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to table two petitions in the House on behalf of my constituents of Kitchener Centre.

The first petition is from the rural route couriers who believe they are being discriminated against. They call on parliament to repeal section 13(5) of the Canada Post Corporation Act.

[Karen Redman, Liberal, Kitchener Centre, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the second petition requests that parliament take all necessary steps to ensure that the possession of child pornography remains a criminal offence and that police forces be directed to give priority to enforcing this law for the protection of our children.

[Peter Stoffer, NDP, Sackville—Eastern Shore, NS]

Mr. Speaker, you have saved the best for last.

The first petition I have is from my riding of Lower Sackville. The petitioners pray that parliament withdraw Bill C-23, affirm the opposite sex definition of marriage in legislation and ensure that marriage is recognized as a unique institution.

[Peter Stoffer, NDP, Sackville—Eastern Shore, NS]

Mr. Speaker, I have three other petitions from the fabulous provinces of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island.

The petitioners call on parliament to investigate the powers and the undemocratic actions of the unelected Canada-Nova Scotia Offshore Petroleum Board and the National Energy Board and remove NS98-2—Parcel 1 off the western coast of Cape Breton Island from the very hazardous conditions of our fragile lobster and fishery sites.

[Paul Szabo, Liberal, Mississauga South, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to present a petition on poverty.

The petitioners, from right across Canada, including from my own riding of Mississauga South, want to draw to the attention of the House that one in five children live in poverty in Canada.

The petitioners remind us that in 1989 the House passed a resolution to seek to achieve the elimination of poverty by the year 2000. Therefore, the petitioners call on parliament to use budget 2000 to introduce a multi-year program to improve the well-being of Canada's children. As we all saw, there were important steps taken in that budget.