Debates of April 23rd, 2001

Armenia

[Sarkis Assadourian, Liberal, Brampton Centre, ON]

Mr. Speaker, April 24 marks the 86th anniversary of the Turkish genocide of the Armenians. Over the past 86 years the prayer of millions of Armenians around the world has been a simple one: please do not forget our suffering, please do not forget our humanity.

This weekend I joined with members of the Canadian Armenian community at the Armenian General Benevolent Union and again at the Toronto Armenian Association to share in commemorative ceremonies of the Armenian genocide.

Gradually the truth is being recognized. On January 29, 2001, the government of France became the first of the G-7 nations to officially recognize the Armenian genocide of 1915 with the adoption of law 2001-70, joining many other nations in shedding light on one of history's darkest crimes.

In 1996 the House designated April 20 to 27 of each year as the week of remembrance of inhumanity of people toward one another. During this week let us honour the victims of genocide and of crimes against humanity. Most importantly, let us recognize these horrors and pledge to eliminate this evil from our society forever.

The Environment

[Joe Comartin, NDP, Windsor—St. Clair, ON]

Mr. Speaker, over lunch on the weekend the Prime Minister claims to have educated President Bush on the location and potential of the Alberta tar sands and at the same time committed to allowing the Americans to buy as much Canadian energy as possible without any commitments or conditions.

After lunch Mr. Bush said “Canada is going to be the largest exporter of crude oil to the United States”, and then referred specifically to the Alberta tar sands.

According to the David Suzuki Foundation, a typical tar sands plant, just one of them, will produce greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to 1.3 million new cars on the road per year.

If the Prime Minister wants to continue educating the American president, could he please teach him how important the Kyoto protocol is as well as the importance of developing new renewable energy sources and energy efficient methods rather than new ways to exploit scarce resources and increase greenhouse gas emissions?

World Book And Copyright Day

[Robert Lanctôt, Bloc, Châteauguay, QC]

Mr. Speaker, on this World Book and Copyright Day, I wish to remind hon. members that books are one of the greatest paths to knowledge and learning. I congratulate and thank all those who create these paths.

The Government of Quebec decided to help facilitate this means of access to knowledge by eliminating its sales tax on books, whereas the federal government refuses to follow suit with the GST, despite its huge surplus.

What is more, this government has not yet remedied the Minister of Industry's lack of sensitivity in inflicting chronic underfunding on the Copyright Board.

In order to put this situation right, the hon. member for Québec and Bloc Quebecois heritage critic will this afternoon be introducing a bill placing responsibility for the Copyright Act under the Department of Canadian Heritage, something that has been called for virtually unanimously by copyright holders.

National Defence

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

Mr. Speaker, on April 12 the Minister of National Defence made his long awaited and much anticipated announcement to move the Second Battalion Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry to CFB Shilo. I can tell the minister personally that the decision was warmly received by the people of southwestern Manitoba.

The minister made it official following the military's business case report that revealed the best option for restructuring Manitoba's land forces would be to relocate 2-PPCLI to CFB Shilo to share the training facility with 1-RCHA.

Today I would like to thank all the people who had a role to play in that final decision. I wish to express my thanks to community organizations in Brandon and Shilo, the defence department staff, the military leadership and, yes, the Manitoba Liberal caucus.

Finally, I would like to thank the Minister of National Defence. He said in the House that the final decision should be based on logic and military operational requirements, not politics. He is a man of his word. We accept the 2-PPCLI in our community with pride.

World Curling Champions

[Geoff Regan, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

Mr. Speaker, Canada rocks. Our Canadian women's curling champion, Colleen Jones, and her team won the world's curling championship in Lausanne, Switzerland on April 8 in great style.

On this trip, their third to the world championships, skip Colleen Jones, third Kim Kelly, second Mary-Anne Waye and lead Nancy Delahunt beat Sweden 5-2 to take the women's curling crown.

Hailing from the Mayflower Curling Club in Halifax, the team lost their first two games of the competition but went on to sweep nine straight wins to finish in first place in the round robin, treating Canadians to some fantastic curling.

On behalf of Canadians coast to coast and all parliamentarians, I wish to extend congratulations to our new world curling champions.

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

[Cheryl Gallant, Canadian Alliance, Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the summit of the Americas was an opportunity for Canada's publicly funded national network to keep the world informed.

Imagine my disappointment on behalf of all Canadians when, during the height of the demonstrations, with the acrid stench of tear gas in the air, summit participants were forced to turn to CNN rather than the CBC to find out what was happening in the streets of Quebec City.

We were sequestered as a group, observers and participants from the 34 summit nations, locked within the perimeter, not knowing if all of Quebec City was on fire.

Canadians from across this nation have been telling me that the money given to the CBC would be better spent on things like truly accessible health care and more affordable housing.

Once again the CBC has squandered an opportunity to demonstrate that the billion or so dollars of taxpayer money spent on the CBC is not a waste of money.

Summit Of The Americas

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

Mr. Speaker, this past weekend was a sad one for democracy in Quebec City and in our hemisphere.

While I totally condemn the unacceptable violence suffered by some of the police officers, I must draw attention to the disturbing and illegal actions of the police who attacked peaceful protestors outside the wall.

I was there, near the rue Saint-Jean, when the RCMP, without provocation, attacked over 200 peaceful demonstrators, who were sitting in the street chanting. They attacked the crowd with tear gas and plastic and rubber bullets. I was hurt in the leg, myself, by one of these bullets.

My colleagues and I demand a public and an independent inquiry into the events. The leaders spoke of democracy inside the wall. Outside the wall, democracy was under attack.

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

Mr. Speaker, having attended the summit of the Americas conference, I have no problem at all congratulating the organizers of the summit, the security forces and the government for generally a good job in hosting the conference.

We have of course some concerns in a couple of areas. We do believe that by the year 2006 there will be great progress in terms of jobs and economic opportunity throughout the Americas.

However, in the area of softwood lumber and P.E.I. potatoes, could the Prime Minister tell us why there was a lack of progress on those specific areas? This is about jobs right now in Canada.

[Pierre Pettigrew, Liberal, Minister for International Trade]

Mr. Speaker, I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his kind words on the successful Quebec City summit that I think reflects very well for all Canada.

I would like to reassure the Leader of the Opposition that there has been progress and a lot of diplomacy on both on the softwood lumber issue and the P.E.I. potatoes. I have raised the issue of P.E.I. potatoes with Secretary Veneman and my colleague, the minister of agriculture, was on hand as well participating in that conversation. We have also had a number of conversations on the softwood lumber issue with Bob Zoellick and Don Evans and—

[The Speaker]

The hon. Leader of the Opposition.

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

Mr. Speaker, let me be even more specific on the subject of softwood lumber.

Did the Prime Minister propose to President Bush that representatives be appointed in the matter of softwood lumber, and, if so, did the Americans agree to this?

[Pierre Pettigrew, Liberal, Minister for International Trade]

Mr. Speaker, at one point, we did indeed contemplate appointing eminent persons on both sides of the border to take a look at the long term solutions in this matter. This idea remains an option, but I think it has been overtaken by the current situation.

In the meantime, the American industry has submitted petitions to the U.S. Department of Commerce. The department will have to decide today, by 11.59 p.m. this evening, whether it accepts the industry's allegations and will investigate.

However, our government clearly expressed its point of view last week during consultations.

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

Mr. Speaker, Canadians believe that Canada can be a lighthouse illuminating a pathway on the seas of democracy for those emerging democracies that want to move in that direction.

I wonder what the Prime Minister advised leaders from emerging democracies on specific items like parliamentary reform, MPs being allowed to vote freely in the House of Commons and having parliamentary safeguards like an independent ethics commissioner. What specific advice did the Prime Minister give to emerging democracies on those specific items?

[Herb Gray, Liberal, Deputy Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, I am sure the Prime Minister did not say anything about encouraging party leaders to hire spies against their opponents.

The declaration of Quebec City included a democracy clause under which any unconstitutional alteration of a state's democratic order will prevent participation of that state's government in the summit of the Americas process, including the free trade area of the Americas. The Prime Minister took the lead in getting an important consensus on this from the 34 sovereign countries.

Agriculture

[Monte Solberg, Canadian Alliance, Medicine Hat, AB]

Mr. Speaker, Canada has a long history of trade disputes with the U.S. over agriculture, one of our most important industries.

The P.E.I. potato dispute is just the latest example. It is pretty clear that we need to spend time with the Americans whenever we can to make our position clear, which brings me to my question.

The Americans thought agriculture was an important enough issue to warrant the presence of their agriculture secretary at the summit of the Americas. It was probably a good opportunity for our agriculture minister to spend some time bending her ears to make our position clear. Why was he not there?

[Lyle Vanclief, Liberal, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister discussed the issue with President Bush on Thursday of last week.

I personally, along with my colleague, the Minister for International Trade, discussed the issue with Secretary Veneman. The Canadian ambassador to the United States and the United States ambassador was here. I discussed the issue in a conference call on Saturday morning with those people. Our officials are in Washington this afternoon to continue those discussions.

[Monte Solberg, Canadian Alliance, Medicine Hat, AB]

Mr. Speaker, nothing beats face to face meetings. The agriculture minister missed a glorious opportunity. The agriculture secretary of the United States understood that it was important for her to be at the summit of the Americas.

It was an important opportunity for our agriculture minister to get our position forward on Prince Edward Island potatoes. This is a dispute that is hurting farmers in Prince Edward Island. Why was he not there to make the point?

[Lyle Vanclief, Liberal, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food]

Mr. Speaker, the point was made very clearly. As the Prime Minister said, Prince Edward Island potatoes were served twice to the president of the United States and, as stated in a press release, they are all doing quite well.

One does not have to meet somebody face to face. I stressed very clearly that the decision should be based on science and that it should not be a protectionism decision. Our officials are in Washington again today to continue those discussions and to solve this based on scientific facts rather than protectionism, as it has been treated by the United States so far.

Summit Of The Americas

[Michel Gauthier, Bloc, Roberval, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the Quebec City summit gave civil society an opportunity to express to the heads of state who were gathered for the FTAA its disapproval of the fact that negotiations are being conducted behind closed doors, and it sent, through a peaceful protest by close to 30,000 participants, a clear message to the Prime Minister that these talks cannot go on without civil society's involvement.

Did the Prime Minister take note of the lesson in democracy civil society gave him, and does he realize that there can be no talks on the future of our fellow citizens without consulting them, without even discussing the issue?

[Herb Gray, Liberal, Deputy Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister himself promoted democracy with the other countries from the Americas and he also praised the 25,000 people who expressed their point of view in a peaceful fashion, under the authority of union leaders. These people deserve praise for the peaceful manner in which they expressed their point of view.

[Michel Gauthier, Bloc, Roberval, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister basically told those who wanted to be heard on this issue to run for office. That was his answer.

Is there not an extremely serious credibility problem when the Prime Minister tells people to get elected if they want to take part in the talks, considering that he himself kept all the members of this House in the dark and let only cabinet ministers have access to the documents?

[Herb Gray, Liberal, Deputy Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, I believe that members from every party were invited to attend the talks. In the case of Canada, the spokespersons are themselves elected members of parliament, while the leaders of the other countries all represent democratic countries.

[Pierre Paquette, Bloc, Joliette, QC]

Mr. Speaker, it is a bit incredible to tell us that we were invited to take part in the discussions, when we were not.

At the same time as the Prime Minister is inviting those opposed to the FTAA to run for office, he is urging Liberal members to boycott the parallel forums open to parliamentarians wishing to debate it transparently.

How can the Prime Minister, who claims to put elected representatives first, explain that not a single Liberal parliamentarian attended either the Conference of Parliamentarians of the Americas, COPA, or the people's summit, at which civil society democratically made known its views on the FTAA?

[Herb Gray, Liberal, Deputy Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, the proof that the federal government likes to promote discussion of such issues as free trade is based on the fact that the federal government paid $300,000 so that the parallel summit could be held, with support from the Government of Quebec as well. The federal government paid for this parallel summit. This is proof of our support for democracy.

[Pierre Paquette, Bloc, Joliette, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the federal government contributed. It did not pay for the People's Summit. I think its main reason for contributing was to buy peace.

The Prime Minister thinks he is entitled to sign a free trade agreement because he was elected.

Does the Prime Minister intend to give a firm undertaking to report in the House on the progress of future negotiations, and does he intend to allow parliamentarians access to the texts of negotiations, as these negotiations proceed?