Mr. Speaker, earlier this week at a press conference after a fundraiser the Prime Minister suggested terrorism is not such a big problem in Canada. What does the Prime Minister consider to be big? Would he care to explain what he meant by that comment to the families of the 329 victims of the bombing of Air India flight 182 in 1985? That flight came out of Vancouver.
In 1988 Tara Singh Hayer, a prominent newspaper publisher, was shot, paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair as a result. He had been vocal in his criticism of terrorism. In 1998 he was shot and killed in his driveway. Many suspect Sikh extremists in his unsolved murder.
The question now being asked is whether journalists like Tara Singh Hayer will be protected under new anti-terrorist legislation as they are under the criminal gang laws. Perhaps the Prime Minister would explain to Mr. Hayer's son David, now a member of the B.C. legislature, why he thinks terrorism is not such a big deal in Canada.