Debates of Dec. 12th, 2002

Canada Post Corporation Act

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

moved for leave to introduce Bill C-342, an act to amend the Canada Post Corporation Act (mail contractors).

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased today to introduce an amendment to the Canada Post Corporation Act. This bill deals with the rural route mail couriers who deliver mail in the country. The mail carriers are considered by Canada Post to be independent contractors. Our point is that these are not independent contractors as such. They are wholly dependent on Canada Post for all they do. Therefore, the relationship is more of an employer and an employee than that of an independent contractor who can rely on numerous sources for employment and income.

However, the Canada Post Corporation Act specifically bars them from bargaining collectively. They are not allowed to organize into a union or take part in free collective bargaining. I think this is wrong. They are the only group of workers in the country who are specifically barred from organizing a union. This bill would eradicate one clause in the Canada Post Corporation Act and allow them to bargain collectively.

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

Citizenship Act

[John Reynolds, Canadian Alliance, West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast, BC]

moved for leave to introduce Bill C-343, an act to amend the Citizenship Act.

Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to introduce my private member's bill, an act to amend the Citizenship Act. My bill is designed to remedy an injustice in the Canadian Citizenship Act, whereby Canadian children whose parents took out United States citizenship between 1946 and 1977 automatically lost their Canadian citizenship through no conscious decision of their own.

Regrettably, amendments to the Citizenship Act of 1977 did not make these the citizenship of these individuals retroactive. My bill would make it possible for these individuals to regain their Canadian citizenship without being established as a permanent resident in order to do so.

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

Petitions

[Larry Spencer, Canadian Alliance, Regina—Lumsden—Lake Centre, SK]

Mr. Speaker, it is my privilege today to rise on behalf of a number of citizens of Canada who have chosen to exercise their right to petition Parliament when they feel there are deficiencies in legislation.

I have three petitions. The first one calls upon Parliament to modify legislation to ensure that both parents are actively involved with their children after divorce through specifically defined shared parenting, and to modify the support guidelines to make sure that the support goes to the child.

[Larry Spencer, Canadian Alliance, Regina—Lumsden—Lake Centre, SK]

Mr. Speaker, the second petition is from a number of citizens who call upon Parliament to protect our children by taking all the necessary steps to ensure that all materials which promote or glorify pedophilia or sado-masochistic activities involving children are outlawed.

[Larry Spencer, Canadian Alliance, Regina—Lumsden—Lake Centre, SK]

Mr. Speaker, the third petition calls upon the Parliament of Canada to ban embryo research and direct the Canadian Institutes for Health and Research to support and fund only ethical research that does not involve the destruction of human life.

[Francine Lalonde, Bloc, Mercier, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I have the honour this morning of presenting two petitions, one with 198 names and the other with 98 names.

The petitioners are calling upon Parliament to order a public inquiry, which is the only way to shed light on the close ties between the Liberal Party, its ministers and certain advertising agencies that have received millions of dollars in contracts from the Liberal government in the past few years, and on the entire federal government contracting system.

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

Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present a number of petitions this morning.

The first petition was signed by a number of residents of Richmond representing the views of over 4,000 signatures of an earlier petition with respect to a fundamental issue of democracy. The petitioners note that members of Parliament are elected by voters using a ballot which identifies each candidate by an official party designation and that voters use the party designation in many cases to make their decisions. They point out their concerns about violating the intention of voters when a member of Parliament changes parties.

The petitioners call upon Parliament to enact legislation which would require all members of Parliament who wish to change their official party designation in the House of Commons to resign and run in a byelection. Certainly the important Defend Democracy Richmond organization with Adrian Wade and others should be saluted for that.

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

Mr. Speaker, the second petition is presented by the Catholic Organization for Development and Peace. It was signed by residents of Montreal. Some 180,000 petition postcards have been sent to the Minister for International Trade so far.

It is on the important subject of patenting of life, seeds and living organisms which are part of our collective heritage. The petitioners call upon Parliament not to promote policies that heighten poverty, threaten the environment, and increase hunger throughout the world. They oppose the patenting and private control of seeds, and all other forms of life.

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

Mr. Speaker, I have a couple of other petitions signed by a number of people from Yukon, in particular, David MacKinnon of the Transboundary Watershed Alliance who coordinated it. They are concerned about the magnificent transboundary rivers and watersheds in the province of British Columbia that are of major concern in that region. They point out that these rivers and watersheds face a variety of ecological threats, both inside and outside their boundaries such as the Bradfield Canal-Craig River Road proposal.

They call upon Parliament to adopt an ecosystem sustainable development policy for the region that promotes and protects the rights of workers, communities and the environment, respects cultural diversity, and ensures the capacity of these transboundary rivers and watersheds to meet the needs of this and future generations.

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

Finally, Mr. Speaker, a petition that has over 510 signatures which were collected over the course of 12 hours on one trail leading down to the beach at Wreck Beach in British Columbia, the well known clothing optional beach. Judy Williams of the Wreck Beach Preservation Society was instrumental in collecting these signatures.

The petitioners note that the Canadian Coast Guard is in desperate need of a new hovercraft to replace the one that is scheduled for decommissioning in October this year. They are concerned about cuts in funding for the Coast Guard.

They call upon Parliament to make the Coast Guard an independent body to protect those sunbathers. It should be an independent body whose priority is the saving of lives and it should be separated from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. The Coast Guard should be issued a new hovercraft to enable it to perform rescues of those in peril and certainly new uniforms as well.

[Larry Bagnell, Liberal, Yukon, YT]

Mr. Speaker, pursuant to Standing Order 36 I have two petitions to present. Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, diabetes, cancer, muscular dystrophy and spinal cord injury are still diseases. Progress has been made on research with adult stem cells with no immune rejections or ethical problems.

My first petition calls on the government to focus its legislative support on adult stem cell research.

[Larry Bagnell, Liberal, Yukon, YT]

Mr. Speaker, the second petition deals with child pornography. The people who signed this petition believe that the creation and use of child pornography is condemned by a majority of Canadians, and that the courts have not applied existing laws so that every case has stiff penalties for child exploitation. They call upon Parliament to outlaw materials which promote or glorify pedophilia or sado-masochistic activities with children.

[Gurmant Grewal, Canadian Alliance, Surrey Central, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I rise on behalf of the residents of Surrey to present this petition signed by around 6,000 people. The petitioners draw attention to the sad story of Komagata Maru , a vessel carrying 376 passengers of Indian origin, mostly British subjects, that arrived in Vancouver Harbour on May 23, 1914. When the freighter anchored, Canadian immigration officials refused to allow the passengers to disembark. After two months of detainment the Canadian navy forced the ship out of Canadian waters under threat of violence and 19 of 352 passengers were massacred by the British government of India and others were arrested and imprisoned.

The petitioners contend that this incident was a result of a racist, discriminatory and exclusionist Canadian immigration policy. They ask that Parliament issue an apology to correct the wrong that remains a black scar on Canadian history, and hurts the community. Justice delayed or forgotten is justice denied.

[Gurmant Grewal, Canadian Alliance, Surrey Central, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I have another petition on behalf of the constituents of Surrey Central concerning child pornography. The petitioners ask that Parliament protect our children by taking all necessary steps to ensure that the material that promotes pedophilia or sado-masochistic activities involving children be outlawed.

[Gurmant Grewal, Canadian Alliance, Surrey Central, BC]

Finally, Mr. Speaker, I am presenting a petition on behalf of my constituents signed by 165 people. The petitioners call upon Parliament to affirm the opposite sex definition of marriage in legislation and ensure that marriage is recognized as a unique institution.

[Myron Thompson, Canadian Alliance, Wild Rose, AB]

Mr. Speaker, I have the privilege of tabling three petitions today. The first one is from the Olds and Bowden district. Several hundred petitioners are asking the government to bring in legislation, and use the notwithstanding clause if necessary, to preserve and protect the current definition of a marriage between one man and one woman.

[Myron Thompson, Canadian Alliance, Wild Rose, AB]

Mr. Speaker, the second petition is from the Strathmore area and Calgary region is from a group of petitioners that call on the government to immediately raise the age of sexual consent from 14 to 16.

[Myron Thompson, Canadian Alliance, Wild Rose, AB]

Mr. Speaker, the third petition is from the Strathmore region. Approximately 3,500 people in my riding are calling on the government to do something about the legislation protecting our children regarding pornography, indicating that there is no public good, no artistic merit, no value whatsoever in child pornography, and it should be abolished in total.

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

Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to table two petitions signed by close to one hundred residents of the riding of Verchères—Les-Patriotes and of greater Montreal.

They note that the report of the Auditor General to the Minister of Public Works and Government Services on three contracts awarded to Groupaction points out that all the contracting rules were broken in this affair; that none of the investigations currently underway focus on shedding light on the ties between government suppliers and the various departments; and that the ethics counsellor is appointed by the Prime Minister, and acts exclusively in his interest.

Therefore, the petitioners are asking Parliament to enact a public inquiry, the only way to get to the bottom of the close ties that exist between the Liberal Party, its ministers and certain advertising agencies that received millions of dollars in government contracts from the Liberal government in recent years, as well as on the entire federal government contracting system.

[Judy Wasylycia-Leis, NDP, Winnipeg North Centre, MB]

Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to present two petitions. The first one is signed by a number of Canadian residents on behalf of hundreds of thousands of Canadians who suffer from debilitating illnesses.

The petitioners would like Parliament to send a message to Health Canada to ensure that research is conducted with respect to ethical stem cell explorations. They call upon all of us to encourage research that would find cures and therapies necessary to treat illnesses and diseases of many Canadians.

[Judy Wasylycia-Leis, NDP, Winnipeg North Centre, MB]

Mr. Speaker, the second petition is a very important and timely one and it concerns the Canada Health Act. The petitioners indicate that this legislation is the foundation of medicare and that the federal government ought to preserve and enforce this act.

They call upon Parliament to enshrine the Canada Health Act and the five principles of medicare in the Canadian Constitution to guarantee national standards of quality publicly funded health care for every Canadian citizen as a right.

[John Reynolds, Canadian Alliance, West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I have a petition from over 300 people of the wonderful city of Powell River who ask Parliament to recognize the institution of marriage in federal law as being a lifelong union of one man and one woman to the exclusion of all others.

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

Mr. Speaker, I have a petition signed by more than 4,000 people calling on Parliament to request that the member for Richmond resign and run for re-election. Unfortunately, the clerk of petitions determined that the petition did not contain a clear and respectful--

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh.

[The Speaker]

Order, please. The hon. member cannot stand and say this kind of thing in the presentation of petitions. He can only present ones that have already been certified. I am sure he is aware of that. I am glad he has one that has been and I am sure he will proceed with that at once.