Debates of June 13th, 2001

[The Deputy Speaker]

As is our practice on Wednesday we will now sing O Canada, and we will be led by the hon. member for Halifax West.

Yukon Territory

[Larry Bagnell, Liberal, Yukon, YT]

Mr. Speaker, in the summer of 1896 three men, Skookum Jim, George Carmack and Tagish Charlie, found large gold nuggets in the gravel bottom of Bonanza Creek. Their cry of joy started the world's greatest gold rush.

Approximately 200,000 men and women from all over the world converged on the Klondike in search of gold. More than 40,000 of them found it.

In 1898 Dawson City was the largest Canadian city west of Winnipeg and Yukon, for so long the proud home of first nations people, was created from the western area of the Northwest Territories. On June 13, 1898, assent was given to the Yukon Act and four years later in 1902 we sent our first member to parliament, James H. Ross, a Liberal.

I stand to commemorate the 103rd anniversary of the founding of Yukon Territory. I invite all members and their families to come north this summer to see, as is described in the tourism brochure that I gave to members, what is really meant by the true north strong and free.

Transportation

[Paul Forseth, Canadian Alliance, New Westminster—Coquitlam—Burnaby, BC]

Mr. Speaker, as someone who spends about 10 hours a week on an airplane flying from Vancouver to Ottawa, I have confidence in the abilities of our skilled airline pilots to take their precious cargo of passengers to Canada and to the world.

However it alarms me to learn of our pilots perhaps sleeping in the cockpit because they are so exhausted from long hours and organizational stress.

Sadly Canada's transportation operation hours are some of the most liberal throughout the world. Our standards are low. This not only affects pilots. It also affects train engineers, truck and bus drivers. Public safety is at risk in the air and on the ground, the consequence of operators perhaps making a fatigue mistake.

We need to take immediate action to improve our operational standards as a safeguard. The Liberal government must do what is needed to address this urgent problem. May it also not be found snoozing on the job.

Venice Biennale

[Anita Neville, Liberal, Winnipeg South Centre, MB]

Mr. Speaker, the Venice biennale is considered the most prestigious international competition of contemporary visual art, indeed the Olympics of visual art. As such, it brings me the greatest honour to acknowledge the accomplishments of Canadians at this competition.

Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller's production, The Paradise Institute , was the recipient of the Venice biennale special award, the most prestigious award offered at the competition. It is the first time Canadians have been awarded this honour.

The 15 minute audio-video production was commissioned by Wayne Bearwaldt, the adjunct curator of the Plug In Gallery. I am very proud that this gallery, nestled in the exchange district of Winnipeg, played such a pivotal role in this accomplishment and proved that it is capable of handling shows of the highest international standard.

I look forward to Mr. Bearwaldt's planned exhibition of The Paradise Institute at the Plug In Gallery and urge everyone to come out and view this highly acclaimed piece.

Vancouver Kingsway

[Sophia Leung, Liberal, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I was delighted to attend this past weekend the ninth annual community festival at the Little Mountain and Riley Park. This event brings together people of all ages for a day of games, crafts and conversation to mark the beginning of the summer program. I thank the organizers and volunteers of the Little Mountain and Riley Park Community Centre for their contribution to our community.

I also attended a unique concert of Chinese poetry, music, dance and a display of calligraphy. It was a creative celebration of Chinese art and culture that many enjoyed. My thanks to Mr. Chai-man Cheng for organizing this event and to the many artists and musicians who made it a success.

The Environment

[Tony Valeri, Liberal, Stoney Creek, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the delay of the Red Hill Creek expressway project is an ongoing concern for me as the federal representative for Stoney Creek.

The project has been subjected to rigorous scrutiny and numerous assessments over the last 35 years, yet remains at an impasse currently due to the federal government's decision to appeal a lower court ruling. This recent ruling confirmed that the Red Hill Creek project was a unique situation.

It was started and irrevocable decisions had been taken prior to the CEAA taking effect. I was disappointed by the government's decision to appeal, as it was my belief that the ruling was focused on the Red Hill project.

Therefore, given that Bill C-19 will be back before the House in the fall, and taking into consideration the desire of both the federal government and the city of Hamilton to expedite the process, I will be proposing an amendment limiting the application of the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act and specifically exempting the Red Hill Creek expressway project.

I ask all colleagues, and specifically my local colleagues, to support this amendment when it comes before the House and to ensure that this necessary project be completed without further delay.

Volunteerism

[James Lunney, Canadian Alliance, Nanaimo—Alberni, BC]

Mr. Speaker, it is my privilege to pay tribute to some fine Canadians today. The story involves the struggle of a young man from Victoria named Andy Horn. Andy suffered much of his life battling cystic fibrosis. He needed a new pair of lungs and it became necessary for him to relocate to Toronto to improve his chances of finding a donor.

The Victoria community really took Andy's case to heart. To help with expenses, community and professional organizations including several Lions Clubs and hundreds of caring Canadians donated thousands of dollars.

When Andy made the difficult move to Toronto with his mother and fiancée, his uncle called on his Canadian navy family for assistance. Bob Dalgleish was quick to answer the call, going above and beyond the call of duty in hosting Andy and his family.

I am saddened to report that although Andy survived the surgery, he succumbed to related infections on June 2. Nonetheless the surgery and the hope it offered were made possible by the generosity of many. In this Year of the Volunteer we extend special thanks to Bob Dalgleish and the many citizens of Victoria for showing that they care.

Thyroid Month

[Judy Sgro, Liberal, York West, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to inform the House and all Canadians that June is Thyroid Month.

Over one million Canadians of all ages have some form of thyroid disease. When left untreated, this disease often results in serious physical and/or emotional problems. Thyroid disease strikes five to ten times more women than men.

The Thyroid Foundation of Canada is a voluntary health organization that has 23 chapters across Canada offering information and support to thyroid patients and their families.

The Thyroid Foundation also raises funds for thyroid research and awards yearly fellowships in partnership with the Canadian Institute for Health Research.

I would like to wish the Thyroid Foundation and its many volunteers a very successful Thyroid Month.

Fête Nationale Des Québécois

[Stéphane Bergeron, Bloc, Verchères—Les Patriotes, QC]

Mr. Speaker, this coming June 24, Quebecers will be celebrating their Fête nationale. For the second straight year, the theme will be “Et si on se lançait des fleurs...”

This celebration will be an opportunity to take time out to spend time together, to take the measure of our accomplishments to date and to pay tribute to those who showed their confidence in the future by building this Quebec we love so much.

This popular event is a time of rejoicing, an opportunity for us to show our great attachment to and pride in our land, our visceral attachment to this rich and fertile land in which our increasingly diverse roots go so deep. Our people have set themselves the goal of making sure that our land flourishes in the world like some great flower pointing into the firmament.

In this spirit of celebration and friendship, I wish all Quebecers a wonderful Fête nationale on behalf of the Bloc Quebecois.

Peacekeeping

[Shawn Murphy, Liberal, Hillsborough, PE]

Mr. Speaker, on June 28, 2000, the Governor General of Canada announced the creation of the well deserved Canadian Peacekeeping Service Medal for members of the armed forces, RCMP and local police who have served abroad as United Nations peacekeepers.

Almost 125,000 Canadians have served in peacekeeping missions over the past 53 years, a record unsurpassed by any other nation. I personally wish to congratulate the more than 130 Prince Edward Islanders who were awarded this medal as well as the 44,000 other Canadians who have been honoured for their past service at ceremonies across the country.

Sadly, our valiant efforts to inspire peace around the world has not been without loss. The red stripping in the medal's ribbon is symbolic of the blood shed by Canada's 113 peacekeepers who have lost their lives in service to this country while on peacekeeping and observer missions.

On behalf of all residents of Prince Edward Island—

[The Deputy Speaker]

The hon. member for Red Deer.

The Environment

[Bob Mills, Canadian Alliance, Red Deer, AB]

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to discuss the serious shortcomings of the Liberal government in the clean-up of contaminated sites.

More information has come forward indicating that the federal government has known of serious health threats to the people of Sydney, Nova Scotia and yet the only action taken was dumping millions of dollars into short term solutions. Sydney is only one glaring example of thousands of known and unknown contaminated sites across Canada.

The government is also currently faced with the clean-up of the Giant Gold Mine near Yellowknife. It is again leaning toward the cheapest, short term solution that will almost certainly cost Canadians their health, the health of their environment and the health of communities over the long term.

The government cannot boast about Canada's environmental superiority until it cleans up its act and takes responsibility for its own actions. Canada's own house must be put in order and critical contaminated sites across the country must be cleaned up now.

Layla Zana

[Irwin Cotler, Liberal, Mount Royal, QC]

Mr. Speaker, there are few cases of the right to self-determination that are more compelling than that of the Kurdish people. However, there are few peoples whose right to self-determination has been more persistently and pervasively repressed, yet whose tragedy remains engulfed in a deafening silence.

Kurdish political prisoner and Nobel prize nominee, Layla Zana, has come to symbolize a case and cause that should commend itself to parliamentary democracies everywhere and to parliamentarians in this place.

Elected to the Turkish parliament in 1991 as the only Kurdish woman ever to serve in the Turkish parliament with over 80% of the vote of her Turkish constituents, she was arrested, prosecuted, convicted and sentenced in 1994 to 15 years in prison for nothing other than simply expressing support for the idea of self-determination. This criminalization of freedom of expression and association invites universal condemnation.

The Turkish government should undertake all necessary measures to secure the release of all prisoners held for the expression of non-violent opinion, including Layla Zana and three other imprisoned former Kurdish deputies, and put an end to this criminalization of Kurdish identity.

Bill C-15

[Bill Blaikie, NDP, Winnipeg—Transcona, MB]

Mr. Speaker, in recent days there have been charges and countercharges of people playing politics with Bill C-15.

I just wanted to put on the record that as far as we are concerned here in the NDP, it is the Minister of Justice who is playing politics with Bill C-15. She did not have to put the omnibus bill together the way she did in the first place. She could have dealt with a number of items separately.

The government was made an offer by the opposition to deal with five elements of Bill C-15: child pornography, luring on the Internet, home invasions, disarming a police officer and improving the stalking laws. We could have passed all that and still had fully dealt with what was a single bill in the last parliament, but the Minister of Justice refused. She is the one who is playing politics with Bill C-15. She is the one who must answer to the Canadian public for what has not been accomplished on those files.

Quebec

[Monique Guay, Bloc, Laurentides, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the session ending today has allowed us to see once again that Quebec is boxed in in a system hostile to it. Ottawa is consistently rejecting Quebec's legitimate aspirations.

Quebec was denied access to the international discussions held within its own borders at the summit of the Americas.

Ottawa arrogantly refused to act on Quebec's desire to set up a parental leave plan, thus penalizing Quebec parents.

Ottawa refused to recognize Quebec's jurisdiction, imposing the social union agreement on it against its will.

Ottawa's strongest rejection came in the case of young offenders, in which it imposed a wall to wall law that will penalize young Quebecers.

This latest session illustrates the urgency of Quebec's deciding its own future alone to put an end to the federal government's underhanded measures opposing our deepest aspirations.

In other words: vive le Québec libre very soon.

Crtc

[Loyola Hearn, Progressive Conservative, St. John's West, NL]

Mr. Speaker, the CRTC, the federal broadcast regulator, is expected to tell CTV Newsnet that it can no longer broadcast live news coverage of routine events or regularly scheduled news shows, such as the very popular one now hosted by the veteran political reporter, Mike Duffy.

Will the culture and heritage minister just sit by while a handful of faceless regulators limit news competition among television networks, or will she allow the marketplace to make that decision, as it should?

Does it not bother her that CRTC is funded by her department, as is the complainant, the CBC? If so, what will she do about it? What will she do to ensure objectivity and to make sure that private sector jobs are not jeopardized for nonsensical action, or will we see just another cop out?

Access To Information

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

Mr. Speaker, yesterday we learned from the information commissioner that this government's secretive panel of bureaucrats may be poised to actually gut the Access to Information Act.

Openness and transparency in government are key ingredients in a vital democracy. It is simply wrong that an unelected panel of bureaucrats working behind closed doors would be in charge of reforming the laws that govern public access to public information.

Will the government call off the secret panel, follow the advice of the information commissioner and turn over any changes to the access law to a committee of the House of Commons so that elected officials can debate these things openly for all Canadians?

[Anne McLellan, Liberal, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada]

Mr. Speaker, let me reassure the House that there is nothing secret about the government's review of our access legislation.

In fact, we have appointed a task force and that task force is hard at work. We have also appointed an advisory council made up of representatives of key stakeholders who use our access legislation and seek information on a regular basis from the government. The general public, including members of the House, are encouraged to participate in this review process.

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

Mr. Speaker, the minister is ignoring the words of the information commissioner when he talked about the secretive panel.

The information commissioner said, and I quote, “It will terribly undermine the public's right to know”.

We know what lengthy delays are like. We know what it is like to have these requests for information unfilled. We want to hear what specific steps are being taken relating to what the information commissioner said about this terrible undermining of the public's right to know. What specific steps will we see taken to overcome the information commissioner's concern?

[Herb Gray, Liberal, Deputy Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, if there are changes to be considered to the act, the changes will need to be brought before the House by the government. The changes will be brought before the House in the form of legislation. They will be debated in the House and studied by a parliamentary committee. What is more open and democratic than that?

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

Mr. Speaker, whether we are talking about requests related to the HRDC scandal, the mishandling of the helicopter file or how taxpayer dollars are being spent, that reflects on the auditor general's question, “Who is minding the store?”. Whatever it is, the commissioner has named a list of departments. He has an actual list of departments that he says are seriously impeding the public's right to know.

Will somebody in the government stand and take responsibility for the specific list of habitual, serious offenders that the information commissioner has listed in terms of them continuing to undermine the public's right to know?

[Herb Gray, Liberal, Deputy Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, we will certainly study seriously and carefully the information commissioner's report. However I think we also want to take responsibility for the conclusion of the information commissioner that overall the act, and I quote, “is working remarkably well”.

[Grant Hill, Canadian Alliance, Macleod, AB]

Mr. Speaker, the information commissioner has been pretty specific when he talks about secrecy in the government. He talks about secrecy in ministers' offices. He talks about secrecy in the PMO, and the Prime Minister, quite frankly, is the leader when it comes to secrecy.

We have asked for his bill of sale on the golf course to be released for independent study. Will he now release that and shed this culture of secrecy?

[Herb Gray, Liberal, Deputy Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister has been very open. He tabled a copy of the document in the House. He stood in this place and said that the copy was a copy of the real document, and did so even though this related to a time when he was not Prime Minister and related to a private business transaction, not to his work or responsibility as Prime Minister. That is openness, true openness.

[Grant Hill, Canadian Alliance, Macleod, AB]

Mr. Speaker, for days now we have been asking for the original of that bill of sale to be released to an independent forensic analyst.

Why has that not been done? They want to keep it secret. Big surprise.

We wrote to the ethics counsellor, since the ethics counsellor said that he had seen the document, asking him to verify the date with an independent analyst. Is that not a perfect job for the ethics counsellor?