Debates of March 20th, 2001

Privilege

[Rahim Jaffer, Canadian Alliance, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

Mr. Speaker, I have been doing a lot of soul-searching over the past three days and would like to share my thoughts.

I came to Canada as a baby, fleeing Idi Amin's Uganda in the arms of my parents. It was their dream to live in a great and free democracy. Canada is their promised land.

Four years ago, I became the first Muslim elected to Canada's parliament and one of the first refugees. I am very proud of this honour, not just to be chosen by the people of Edmonton—Strathcona and not just to serve in this great institution, but because I knew that my being elected as an MP was the last milestone in my family's road from tyranny to freedom, the final destination in my people's journey from being refugees who belong nowhere to being full citizens of Canada, the greatest country in the world.

That is why the events of the last few days have been so hurtful.

On Saturday, my partner and I opened up a new business, a cafe that employs a dozen young people in the heart of Edmonton. However my assistant had booked me on a radio show at the same time. He tried to call me at the cafe to let me know when I was to appear on the show but he could not reach me. With only a few minutes left until air time, he panicked and did the radio interview himself pretending to be me without my knowledge or consent.

It was a bad decision, an error in judgment, made in the stress of the moment. It has never happened before and it will never happen again. It was wrong.

Right after the show, my assistant drove to the cafe and told me what he had done. Shortly after that, the radio station phoned me and asked me about the interview. At first I covered for my assistant, a man who has competently and loyally worked for me and our constituency from the beginning. I told the producer that it was actually me on the radio. I lied.

It was wrong for my assistant to appear on the radio claiming to be me and it was wrong for me to cover that up.

My assistant and I have since telephoned the show to apologize and my assistant has resigned. He is sorry for pretending to be me. I am sorry for trying to gloss over his error.

I have already apologized to Peter Warren, the host of the show, and to all of his listeners across Canada. Today, Mr. Speaker, I would like to offer to you, as the Speaker of this legislature and my friend, my apologies for not living up to the standards of the House.

To my fellow MPs, I offer my regrets for not living up to their standards of integrity. I apologize for embarrassing them. I pledge my loyalty again to my leader and the whip, who have dealt with me firmly, yet compassionately.

To the people of Edmonton—Strathcona, I offer my sincere apologies for my momentary lapse in judgment. It has been a unique honour to work for my constituents in parliament and to serve them in the riding. I hope they will continue to look at me and judge me by the sum of my words and deeds and not by this one error.

More than anyone, I want to address my parents, Nizar and Razia Jaffer, who have been hurt the most by my mistake. For 30 years they have put their own interests and wishes aside to give everything they had to my brother and me. I would not have been able to get here to Canada without them. I would not have been able to get to parliament without them. All of my achievements have been because of their love and devotion. I am sorry I let them down. More than anything, that has hurt these last few days.

Mr. Speaker, I thank you for this opportunity to clear the air. Let me close by pledging to continue doing in years ahead what I have done for the past four years, to serve the people of Edmonton—Strathcona as best I can and, just as important, to live up to my parents' example as best I can.

[The Speaker]

I am sure all hon. members appreciate the kind words of the hon. member for Edmonton—Strathcona. I am sure that his parents and his electors will be very proud of him.

[Derek Lee, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to Leader of the Government in the House of Commons]

Mr. Speaker, I do not want to be seen or in any way derogate from the rather complete and forthright way in which this matter has been dealt with by the hon. member, but it occurs to me that in the facts as I have heard them there was a decision and an act by another individual, the staffer of the hon. member, who made a decision to do something which I believe would be contrary to the rules of the House and could constitute and be seen as contempt.

I would suggest that although there is probably a will to put closure to this, it having been addressed well by the hon. member, it seems to me that the staffer involved should be providing a written apology to the House for the actions or decisions that he made, if I have understood the facts properly.

It would be my view that the matter should not close until that individual has acknowledged the error that he appears to have made. I would like to suggest that an apology should come from that person.

In any event, I wanted that to show on the record, having heard all of the facts. Again I do not want it to derogate at all from the rather fulsome and complete way that the hon. member has dealt with this today.

[Joe Clark, Progressive Conservative, Calgary Centre, AB]

Mr. Speaker, I think it is time to put closure to this.

[The Speaker]

I agree.

Government Response To Petitions

[Derek Lee, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to Leader of the Government in the House of Commons]

Mr. Speaker, pursuant to Standing Order 36(8) I have the honour to table, in both official languages, the government's response to five petitions.

Committees Of The House

[Nancy Karetak-Lindell, Liberal, Nunavut, NU]

Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present, in both official languages, the first report of the Standing Committee on Aboriginal Affairs, Northern Development and Natural Resources relating to Bill C-4, an act to establish a foundation to fund sustainable development technology. It was agreed on Thursday, March 15, 2001 to report it with amendments.

[David Pratt, Liberal, Nepean—Carleton, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present, in both official languages, the first report of the Standing Committee on National Defence and Veterans Affairs with regard to the third report of the committee entitled “Procurement Study”, which was presented to the House on June 14, 2000 during the second session of the 36th parliament.

Pursuant to Standing Order 109 of the House of Commons, the committee requests that the government provide a comprehensive response to this report.

Canadian Environmental Assessment Act

[David Anderson, Liberal, Minister of the Environment]

moved for leave to introduce Bill C-19, an act to amend the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act.

(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)

[Stan Keyes, Liberal, Hamilton West, ON]

moved for leave to introduce Bill C-305, an act to amend the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act (inventory of brownfields).

Mr. Speaker, I consider it a privilege to introduce a bill, which is the first step of what I intend to be a three stage process, aimed at identifying, assessing and remediating what are known as brownfields. The term brownfields refers to industrial properties which lie vacant or neglected due to concerns of environmental contamination.

The bill will amend the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act to expand the existing registry so that any member of the public can report suspected contaminated sites with the express purpose of building an easily accessible national registry of brownfields.

The bill would also allow the federal government, together with provincial, municipal and private partnerships, to assist with the often prohibitive costs of environmental assessments.

To solve a problem one first has to identify the problem. Ultimately, I see this is as a three stage process: identification, assessment and remediation. The bill addresses the first two stages directly. First, we identify the extent of the brownfields nationally. Once we know where these sites are, we can begin to assess the costs of the clean up.

Having this information open and available to all levels of government and private enterprise will foster co-operative and innovative solutions. The advantages of the remediation of brownfields are obvious: job growth, revitalization of our downtown cores and reversal of urban sprawl, as well as the clean up of potentially environmental hazardous sites right in our own back yards.

The bill is a small but crucial step toward reclaiming these commercially useful sites, revitalizing our city centres and combating urban sprawl.

(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)

Broadcasting Act And Income Tax Act

[Caroline St-Hilaire, Bloc, Longueuil, QC]

moved for leave to introduce Bill C-306, an act to amend the Broadcasting Act and the Income Tax Act (Closed-captioned Programming).

Mr. Speaker, I am greatly honoured today to introduce this bill which requires broadcasters to provide closed captioning for their video programming by September 1, 2003. It also, generally speaking, allows income tax deductions to broadcasters for their purchase of closed captioning technology.

I would like to remind hon. members that over 10% of Quebecers and Canadians have hearing problems and that this House has passed a motion recognizing the importance for the public and private sectors to provide deaf and hard-of-hearing persons with the tools required for them to take their place in an increasingly communications-oriented world.

(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)

Petitions

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

Mr. Speaker, it is my honour pursuant to Standing Order 36 to present a petition signed by residents of the city of Val-d'Or and the Vallée-de-l'Or RCM concerning the Sigma-Lamaque and Beaufor mines.

The petitioners call upon parliament to put in place a financial assistance program for the mines with a thin capitalization structure in Quebec's resource regions and call upon government to ease up on the rules of existing programs and ensure they are used in the resource regions.

[Dale Johnston, Canadian Alliance, Wetaskiwin, AB]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to table on behalf of my constituents a petition that calls upon the House to amend and repeal section 13(5) of the Canada Post Corporation Act dealing with rural route mail couriers. I am pleased to present the petition on their behalf.

[John M. Cummins, Canadian Alliance, Delta—South Richmond, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to present a petition this morning organized by a constituent of mine, Mr. Cran Campbell.

The petition deals with violent material on the Internet and on interactive video and computer games. It addresses the problems associated with that material and the negative impact it has on our children. It brings to the fore the notion that the term obscenity in the criminal code has a linkage between sex and violence. It suggests that the linkage should be eliminated and that we should be able to deal with the notion of violence alone.

The petitioners call upon parliament to enact appropriate legislation to protect our children from these violent videos.

[Howard Hilstrom, Canadian Alliance, Selkirk—Interlake, MB]

Mr. Speaker, I have a petition representing rural route mail couriers of Canada who feel they have not been allowed to bargain collectively in order to improve their wages and working conditions. They are asking parliament to repeal section 13(5) of the Canada Post Corporation Act.

[Peter Adams, Liberal, Peterborough, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I rise to present a petition that has attracted a great deal of attention in the greater Peterborough area. The petitioners are people who are interested in Canada fulfilling its commitments to the Kyoto protocol by developing sustainable transportation, such as rail services.

They point out that a commuter rail service running between Peterborough and Toronto would be environmentally and otherwise beneficial. This rail service would result in dramatic cost savings to society through reduced car usage and accidents. They point out that the commuter service would be economically beneficial by enhancing the employment mobility of Peterborough area residents and make the greater Peterborough area more accessible to students and tourists.

The petitioners call upon parliament to authorize the recommencement of a VIA service between Peterborough and Toronto. I know I am not supposed to endorse petitions, but I would like to say that the people of Peterborough are on the right track with this one.

[Peter Adams, Liberal, Peterborough, ON]

Mr. Speaker, my second petition is from people who are concerned about children in Iraq. They call upon parliament to accept the recommendations of the standing committee on foreign affairs for the lifting of sanctions and the establishment of a diplomatic presence in Baghdad.

Questions On The Order Paper

[Derek Lee, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to Leader of the Government in the House of Commons]

Mr. Speaker, I ask that all questions be allowed to stand.

[The Speaker]

Is that agreed?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

Request For Emergency Debate

[The Speaker]

The Chair has received an application for an emergency debate from the hon. member for Pictou—Antigonish—Guysborough.

[Peter MacKay, Progressive Conservative, Pictou—Antigonish—Guysborough, NS]

Mr. Speaker, pursuant to Standing Order 52, I contacted your office this morning. I wanted to bring this matter forward in a timely fashion because there is a great urgency.

Farmers in Prince Edward Island are currently facing a very devastating decision. They must decide within the next few weeks whether to plant their potato crops given the situation that exists in terms of the market that would be there for them in the United States.

It is important, as you, Mr. Speaker, would be quick to agree, that members of parliament be given the opportunity to express their concern and also to urge the government to act in a significant way. We know that there has been a compensation package offered to Prince Edward Island potato farmers in the range of $14.1 million. This was less than half of the amount of money that the Prince Edward Island government has put into this issue already itself. It was much lower than the amount that they were requesting.

I will put this situation into perspective as to the seriousness of the issue itself. Canada and Prince Edward Island agree that approximately 6.3 million cwt. of potatoes in storage currently is surplus resulting from the closed U.S. border, restricted shipments to Canada and the price protection in the rest of Canada. What Prince Edward Island did in absorbing this loss was to protect the rest of the potato market for the entire country at a huge expense to those individual farmers.

To summarize, United States protectionism is devastating the Prince Edward Island potato industry. The hurt that was suffered by the island is testament to the fact that this problem is Canada-wide, but it is being absorbed by a single province in this instance. Both short term economic and long term financial market re-entry needs must be addressed in the package.

I would urge the Chair to accept this application given the urgency, particularly the urgency pertaining to the necessity for farmers to decide whether to reinvest in their farms and to put potatoes in the ground for the coming season. I stress again that the border is currently not open for farmers to assess whether they should make this reinvestment.

[The Speaker]

The Chair has certainly read the letter that was forwarded by the hon. member and has heard his remarks today. I note that the subject of the debate today, an opposition day, is in fact agriculture as chosen by the official opposition. The motion will be put to the House in a few minutes.

In the circumstances, it would be premature for the Chair to allow this application at this time. We should hear how the debate progresses today. The issue may be discussed during the debate, as I suspect it might be. If the hon. member feels that perhaps the issue has not received a reasonable airing, he could bring the application before the House on another occasion. At this time I will say no.

Business Of The House

[The Speaker]

Before I call orders of the day, since today is the final allotted day for the supply period ending March 31, 2001, the House will go through the usual procedures to consider and dispose of the supply bills.

In keeping with recent practice, do hon. members agree to have the bills distributed now?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.