Debates of Nov. 19th, 2001

Air Canada Public Participation Act

[The Acting Speaker (Ms. Bakopanos)]

The question is on the motion. Is it the pleasure of the House to adopt the motion?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[Some hon. members]

On division.

(Motion agreed to, bill read the third time and passed)

Mining Industry

[Guy St-Julien, Liberal, Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik, QC]

Madam Speaker, Canadian and Quebec taxpayers have contributed over $6 million to relocate highway 117 over some three kilometres in Val-d'Or.

The work is in connection with the expansion of activities at the McWatters Sigma mine in order to provide access to buried treasure of some 2 million ounces of gold, which, at today's price, is worth over $500 million.

The work is complete, and Quebec transport will inaugurate access to the new road on November 21.

McWatters will be accountable to the taxpayers of Val-d'Or, the workers in the Sigma mine and to the ordinary creditors.

Funding has been in place since September, and the only outstanding question is that of the creditors, who are waiting for a settlement to have the Sigma mine project start up again.

Are taxpayers and mine workers going to be left waiting after December 12?

Nelson Mandela

[Werner Schmidt, Canadian Alliance, Kelowna, BC]

Madam Speaker, today Canada bestowed honorary Canadian citizenship upon Nelson Mandela. The Nobel Peace Prize winner who ended apartheid and spent 27 years of his life imprisoned for his beliefs graciously accepted this honour.

They call him the lion of Africa. Everywhere he goes he is greeted with the cheers of gratitude of thousands who understand the great legacy this man leaves in his wake.

Mr. Mandela and his wife Madam Machel travel the world fighting poverty and HIV. He has the opportunity to speak with many of the world's most powerful people, but the most important by far are the thousands of children he meets in many countries during those journeys.

He imparts hope in these young hearts and minds. Into their young and agile hands he places the legacy he has paid such a high price to realize: that there is a place for all people, that simplicity and humility are the greatest values, and that ordinary people can change the world.

Literary Awards

[Walt Lastewka, Liberal, St. Catharines, ON]

Madam Speaker, last week the Canada Council for the Arts announced the recipients of this year's Governor General's Literary Awards.

These awards recognize the best in Canadian fiction, poetry, drama, non-fiction, children's literature and translation. Through these works Canadians see a reflection of our own hopes and dreams, trials and triumphs. It is through its literature that a society truly expresses itself.

I ask the House to join me in congratulating this year's recipients. In particular, let us congratulate Richard B. Wright, whose book Clara Callan also won the prestigious Giller prize in Toronto last week.

Other winners include: novelist Andrée Michaud, poets George Elliot Clark and Paul Chanel Malenfant, playwrights Kent Stetson and Normand Chaurette, non-fiction authors Thomas Homer-Dixon and Renée Dupuis, children's authors Arthur Slade and Christine Duchesne, illustrators Mireille Levert and Bruce Roberts, and translators Fred Reed, David Homel and Michel Saint-Germain.

We thank each of these authors for enriching our lives through their words and we wish them all the best for the future.

Ymca

[Judy Sgro, Liberal, York West, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the YMCA in North America was born 150 years ago today in Montreal. Since that day the YMCA has been working to build strong kids, strong families and strong communities across our country and around the world. Its focus is simple: the development of people in spirit, mind and body.

This great organization touches every region of our country and nearly 130 countries around the world, from the YMCA Big Cove Camp's impact on thousands of young Atlantic Canadians to the partnership between the YM-YWCA of greater Victoria and the YMCA of Gambia in West Africa.

The YMCA helps people find work. It helps new Canadians settle in their new communities. It provides child care services for thousands of Canadian children. It teaches people to swim and play basketball, and the list goes on.

I ask all hon. members to join me in congratulating the thousands of YMCA workers, volunteers and staff on a successful 150 years and wish them all the best in the next 150 years.

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

Mr. Speaker, today marks the 150th anniversary of the YMCA, first established in Montreal in 1851.

For the past century and a half, the YMCA has shown the way, been a model of community spirit and action, inspired and expressed by thousands of volunteers across Canada.

Today the YMCA provides programs and projects to one and a half million people of all ages, creeds and walks of life in 250 communities across Canada. Through its trail-blazing programs in the field of education, health and life skills training, the YMCA and its 30,000 volunteers play a key role in community building in our nation.

It is part of an international network present in over 40 countries in the world. The YMCA is truly a model of community social justice and harmony.

We congratulate the YMCA on its excellent community work and wish it a long life in our midst.

Terrorism

[Scott Reid, Canadian Alliance, Lanark—Carleton, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the government seems confused as to why Canadians are unimpressed by its approach to terrorism. We are unimpressed because we know the Liberal history of being soft on criminals but tough in times of crisis on the civil liberties of innocent Canadians.

Allow me to take members on a guided tour: first, from 1914 to 1920 the Union Conservative-Liberal government dispossessed Ukrainian Canadians and sent them to internment camps; second, in 1940 the Liberals set up a firearms registry that included a question on racial origin and then confiscated guns belonging to German and Italian Canadians; third, in 1942 the Liberals sent 20,000 Japanese Canadians to internment camps; and, fourth, in 1970, 400 Quebecers were arrested and held without charge, without compensation and without apology because of imagined connections to the FLQ.

The record shows a congenital Liberal preference for maintaining order by suspending the civil liberties for thousands of law-abiding Canadians rather than by securing our borders in the first place.

Nelson Mandela

[Irwin Cotler, Liberal, Mount Royal, QC]

Mr. Speaker, on behalf of my rainbow riding of Mount Royal and of all Canadians, and also as someone who took part in the anti-apartheid movement for 20 years, I would like to wish a warm welcome to Nelson Mandela, a great citizen of the world, who became an honorary Canadian citizen during a historic ceremony this morning.

This honorary citizenship will have a historic and inspiring resonance for Canadians, for good relations between Canada and Africa, and for the reaffirmation of our common humanity.

Nelson Mandela is a metaphor and message of the long march toward freedom, of the struggle against racism and hate, and of the struggle for human rights, human dignity, democracy and peace.

Above all, as a person who endured 27 years in a South African prison and emerged to become president of South Africa and to preside over the dismantling of apartheid, he is a metaphor of hope for citizens everywhere, particularly the young people of our time.

[Madeleine Dalphond-Guiral, Bloc, Laval Centre, QC]

Mr. Speaker, this morning, at the Canadian Museum of Civilization, Nelson Mandela was granted honorary Canadian citizenship, following the unanimous adoption, on June 12, of Motion M-379.

With today marking the beginning of Quebec citizenship week, we cannot forget the deep meaning that Nelson Mandela, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993, gave to the word citizen.

Convinced of the right of his people to full and total freedom and democracy, Nelson Mandela spent his whole life pursuing that objective. Without ever giving up, even when he was in South African jails, and freer than ever, he led his people to demand and assume the respect to which they were entitled.

We are all responsible for democracy. Through his courage, his tenacity and his commitment to his people, Nelson Mandela is a model for us all. May he guide our daily actions as responsible citizens.

[John McCallum, Liberal, Markham, ON]

Mr. Speaker, this morning, Canada gained a new citizen. In my opinion, Nelson Mandela is the entire world's number one citizen.

In the last century, there have been three great champions who have fought for the freedom of their people: Ghandi, Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela.

Emerging from prison after 27 years, Mandela forgave his tormenters and in so doing averted bloody civil war in his country. Yesterday in a gesture that was vintage Mandela, our new citizen said he wanted to speak to the hon. member who had initially blocked his citizenship. In the event that hon. member declined to return Nelson Mandela's call.

Tobacco Taxes

[Ted White, Canadian Alliance, North Vancouver, BC]

Mr. Speaker, the government's latest cigarette tax is a huge incentive for the resumption of cigarette smuggling through the Akwasasne reserve, but we have not even laid charges yet for the last round of smuggling seven years ago.

In February of 1994 the Deputy Prime Minister said that 700 RCMP officers would be dedicated to anti-contraband operations and that anyone participating in cigarette smuggling in any capacity whatsoever would be subject to the full range of sanctions and penalties provided under the law. Four years later, in 1998, an affiliate of RJR Reynolds tobacco was fined $15 million in the United States for helping smugglers slip exported Canadian cigarettes back into Canada through the Akwasasne reserve.

I wonder if the Deputy Prime Minister can tell us why, after seven years on the case, his 700 dedicated RCMP officers still have not laid a single charge in Canada. Are they simply incompetent or have they been told to keep their hands off the Prime Minister's golfing buddies?

Nelson Mandela

[Claude Drouin, Liberal, Beauce, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I take great pleasure in drawing to the attention of the House the fact that Nelson Mandela was this morning proclaimed an honorary citizen of Canada. The former president of South Africa fought doggedly to abolish apartheid.

Today, he is focusing his efforts on raising funds for the children of Africa. A staunch defender of human rights and freedoms and the rule of law, his accomplishments are a source of inspiration for all of us who defend those same rights.

Like many other Canadian men and women, I salute the important contribution Mr. Mandela has made to world history.

We are proud to welcome him to Canada, where from now on he can feel at home.

Welcome home, Mr. Mandela.

[Svend Robinson, NDP, Burnaby—Douglas, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I too this morning had the great privilege of joining with colleagues from all sides of the House at the ceremony awarding honorary Canadian citizenship to Nelson Mandela. The only other time this recognition has been extended was to the Swede Raoul Wallenberg who helped saved the lives of thousands of Jews in World War II.

Nelson Mandela is a hero to the world, a man previously reviled by some as a terrorist and revered by many others as a freedom fighter in his long struggle to end the evil of apartheid in South Africa. He served 27 long years in prison on Robben Island and yet emerged in 1990 without bitterness, rancour or hatred. He went on to win the Nobel Peace Prize and lead his country with the African national congress as its first president of a democratic, multiracial South Africa.

My colleagues and I join today in congratulating Nelson Mandela and his wife Graca Machel, and in calling on the government and indeed all Canadians to contribute generously to the Nelson Mandela children's fund.

It has been a long walk to freedom for Nelson Mandela and for the people of South Africa. Nelson Mandela is a citizen of the world and today it is with great joy and pride that we welcome him to our family and as a citizen of Canada.

Parti Quebecois

[Diane Bourgeois, Bloc, Terrebonne—Blainville, QC]

Mr. Speaker, on November 15, 1976, as at the beginning of the quiet revolution, we felt the energy and dynamism of Quebec society focus on the political arena.

On that autumn evening in 1976, Quebecers took their destinies in hand and chose a new political vehicle, the first sovereignist government, in the hope that their energy and their dynamism would again be transformed into innovative and effective policies.

The first PQ government, and those that followed, have responded with determination and creativity to the expectations of the Quebec people.

Today, 25 years after that historic day in November 1976, although Quebec society has changed and become more diversified, it is just as dynamic and full of energy.

The government led by Bernard Landry is a responsible government that listens to what Quebecers have to say. I have no doubt that it will take up the challenge from the people of Quebec—

[The Speaker]

The hon. member for Notre-Dame-de-Grâce--Lachine.

Nelson Mandela

[Marlene Jennings, Liberal, Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Lachine, QC]

Mr. Speaker, as many of my colleagues in the House today have just stated, Nelson Mandela, world citizen, has become an honorary citizen of Canada, and what a great day this is.

After spending 27 years in prison, Nelson Mandela has shown himself a great world leader and a model for all humankind in the embracing of fundamental human life and in the embracing of peace, tolerance and respect of diversity.

This is a great day for Canada to be able to say that we have and can count in our Canadian family a world citizen of the stature of Nelson Mandela.

It is a great day for Canada, it is a great day for all Canadians, but it is an especially great day for Canadians of African descent to know that one of our community has been recognized by our government, by our country, as being worthy not only to be recognized around the world but within our own country.

Ymca

[Rick Borotsik, Progressive Conservative, Brandon—Souris, MB]

Mr. Speaker, the family YMCA of Brandon is a vital organization in my community. This year marks its 115th anniversary in the city of Brandon. I would like to thank Marty Snelling, his staff and his volunteers for their dedicated service.

Let us also celebrate today the remarkable achievements of YMCA Canada as it commemorates its 150th anniversary.

The YMCA is an organization that has always stayed one step ahead of the needs of our community and promotes the health and well-being of our children, youth and seniors. It is a leader in building strong kids, strong families and strong communities due to its enduring values and ability to continually adapt and change from generation to generation.

The YMCA is grounded in time honoured principles and values. It is an ethical and socially relevant charity that respects individuals with all their diversity and has a strong, effective and mutually supportive partnership of volunteers and staff.

I ask members of parliament to join with me today in celebrating the valuable contribution that the YMCA has made to Canadians over the past 150 years. Thanks goes to the YMCA.

National Defence

[Stockwell Day, Canadian Alliance, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry has a proud history and tradition of fighting for freedom. In the first world war it bravely fought at Vimy Ridge and at Ypres, and on the battlegrounds of Italy and Germany in the second world war. In the dangerous terrain of Korea, it was there in that conflict.

Now, in what appears to be a softening of our commitment to stand shoulder to shoulder with our allies, the Minister of National Defence is indicating that if there is full conflict these troops may be sent home.

Could the Prime Minister please explain what on earth he is talking about?

[Jean Chrétien, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, they have been selected, indeed they have a great history, and it is a great group of proud Canadians.

The principal role that we hope they will have whenever and they go there, because there is no final conclusion yet, will be to make sure that people who go into Afghanistan with food, clothing and so on can get to the people who need it. The troops will be there to help pave the way for the job to be done.

Of course, we do not want to have a big fight there. We want to bring peace and happiness as much as possible.

[Stockwell Day, Canadian Alliance, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, I do not know if the Prime Minister has been watching the news. There is a big fight there. There is a big fight all over the world in the war on terrorism. One of the most respected military leaders in our country, General Lewis MacKenzie, has criticized the Prime Minister for his statement that we will pull out if our troops face conflict there. This seems to be a reiteration of his policy during the gulf conflict where he said that it was good the troops were there but that if anybody started shooting they would come home.

Canadians will always work on plans for peace but we have never run from a fight for freedom.

[Jean Chrétien, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, we have done our job very well since September 11. We have attacked the problem of terrorism in many ways. When Canadian soldiers are asked to do their duty, they always do their complete duty as proud Canadians, and we have a great history to back this up.

[Stockwell Day, Canadian Alliance, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, we hear that our armed forces will be without heavy artillery and without helicopters. They will be dependent on the allies almost constantly.

Will the Prime Minister explain the risk our armed forces face because of insufficient support from his government?

[Jean Chrétien, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, in recent years, our soldiers have been just about everywhere in the world. Very often, they have been integrated with soldiers from other countries, sometimes Great Britain, sometimes France, be it in Bosnia or elsewhere in the former Yugoslavia.They have always performed well, they have always been properly equipped, and they have always done Canada proud.