Debates of Nov. 3rd, 2004

Health

[The Speaker]

The hon. member is asking about events that happened before the Prime Minister became a member of the House. I am afraid that it is out of order. I do not know whether there is an attempt to tie it in with something that has happened now because I could not hear the question with all the noise. However, the minister may wish to reply.

I did not say where the noise came from. I just said that there was too much noise. I could not hear everything and therefore I will have to review the question and decide later if it is in order.

[Réal Ménard, Bloc, Hochelaga, QC]

Mr. Speaker, over the past few days, the Canadian Hemophilia Society and numerous other organizations representing the interests of the victims of the hep C virus have been asking the federal government to follow up on the Krever recommendation and to compensate all those who got hepatitis C from contaminated blood transfusions, or from the administration of blood products, regardless of the date of infection.

Can the minister confirm that close to $1 billion remains unused in the compensation fund, and that it is outrageous that the government would refuse to extend eligibility to people who contracted the virus before January 1, 1986, or after July 1, 1990?

[Ujjal Dosanjh, Liberal, Minister of Health]

Mr. Speaker, last night during the take note debate the hon. member agreed that we were pursuing the right course of action to approach the objective that he and I share.

Last night we had a wonderful discussion. We will be taking these steps in the next few weeks. We want to deal with the issue that he raises, which is a very serious issue.

Business of Supply

[The Speaker]

It is my duty, pursuant to Standing Order 81(14), to inform the House that the motion to be considered tomorrow during consideration of the Business of Supply is as follows:

That this House deplore the attitude of the Prime Minister of Canada at and following the first ministers conference of October 26, 2004, and that it call on the federal government to immediately implement its pledges of June 5 and 27, 2004 to allow the provinces of Newfoundland and Labrador and Nova Scotia to keep 100% of their provincial offshore oil and gas revenues.

This motion, standing in the name of the hon. member for Calgary Southwest, is votable.

Copies of the motion are available at the Table.

Presence in Gallery

[The Speaker]

I would like to draw to the attention of hon. members the presence in the gallery of former member of Parliament Madeleine Dalphond-Guiral, who will be awarded the Legion of Honour of the French Republic.

I should add that she is accompanied by former member of Parliament Suzanne Tremblay.

[Some hon. members]

Hear, hear!

[The Speaker]

On the occasion of Veterans Week, I would like to draw to the attention of hon. members the presence in the gallery of three World War II veterans: Guy Robitaille, 22nd Royal Regiment, escorted by Air Force Captain Jean Taylor; Betty Brown, a nursing sister who served in the Italian campaign, escorted by Army Master Warrant Officer Timothy Power; and Robert Campbell, tank commander, escorted by Navy Leading Seaman Barbara Mackinnon.

[Some hon. members]

Hear, hear!

Veterans

[Albina Guarnieri, Liberal, Minister of Veterans Affairs]

Mr. Speaker, each year an entire week is set aside for paying tribute to our veterans. Veterans Week 2004 will be from November 5 to 11, and will include the 60th Remembrance Day since the end of the second world war.

This week is one way we can thank the veterans of the past century's wars, soldiers on peacekeeping missions and Canadian Forces veterans. They are national treasures and part of our tradition of peace.

This year and every year we wear poppies to honour those Canadians who lost their lives in defence of our country. Lieutenant Chris Saunders and Corporal Jamie Murphy were two of those Canadians. Their tragic loss this past year reminds us all that risk, noble purpose and sacrifice are enduring realities for Canadian Forces personnel and their families.

Veterans Week is part of our never-ending mission to thank the veterans who stepped out of ordinary times to do the extraordinary and left our nation with an endowment of peace.

For Canada's veterans, nothing is more important than the honour and recognition of those who have served Canada.

Recently, we followed the trail of one generation of veterans who surrendered the comfort and safety of home to become exporters of peace and freedom 60 years ago.

Across Italy, France, Belgium and Holland, we found witnesses to their courage, proof of their humanity and monuments to their sacrifice. Most of all, we found ourselves in the shadow that is forever cast by those who stood tall in the fight for freedom.

None stood taller than Smoky Smith. Smoky has always been one of a kind. Now he is also the last of his kind, the last living Canadian who earned the Victoria Cross. Smoky and every other Victoria Cross recipient put their stamp on our history, and this year we put their history on our stamp.

The Ministers of National Revenue and National Defence, together with Canada Post, released two special edition stamps in honour of the 94 Canadians who earned the highest award for valour. We point to their legendary courage as a portrait of thousands more Canadian veterans who are themselves symbols of national pride, survivors of a national struggle, and carriers of our national spirit. Every time one of these stamps is delivered, it will be a reminder of how our veterans delivered for Canada.

For this Veterans Week we have coined one more reminder of the price veterans paid for the freedom we enjoy. The universal symbol of remembrance, the red poppy, made famous by John McCrae, is now emblazoned on 30 million quarters, one for every Canadian who shares the duty to remember.

Every Veterans Week is a battle against the amnesia of time and a mission to remind all Canadians that we have reason to be proud of the achievements of our veterans and reason to be humbled by the scale of their sacrifice.

[Betty Hinton, Conservative, Kamloops—Thompson, BC]

Mr. Speaker, it is indeed an honour to rise in this place to pay tribute to Canada's veterans. As we prepare for the launch of Veterans Week, it seems to me that a week is an insufficient amount of time to remember the many accomplishments of our veterans and the sacrifices made on Canada's behalf.

We in fact should never forget for a moment that without these gallant men and women we as a nation would not be where we are today. We enjoy a reputation throughout the world as a nation that will come to the aid of those in turmoil. This reputation has been achieved at a very high cost to those who built it.

This year the theme of Veterans Week is “Canada Remembers the Italian Campaign”. I have just returned from Italy where I had the opportunity to accompany veterans of the Italian Campaign on a pilgrimage to the cemeteries that are the resting place for 5,900 of their comrades in arms. It is sobering to see row after row of headstones with the name and unit etched on them, but it is when one sees the age of these soldiers that it impacts a person the hardest. Many never reached their 20th birthday.

Veterans continue to give to this country by going to schools and reliving their experiences so that Canadian children have at least an idea of the pain of war. It is important that we know and remember what war is all about. It gives us the incentive to keep the peace.

As we don our poppies and take our places at cenotaphs across the country this November 11, I would like to share with my colleagues and Canada an inscription I read on a headstone in Italy. It was the headstone of one young Canadian soldier and it told the story of every Canadian family that lost a loved one. It read:

To the world he was only one, to us he was the only one.

[Gilles-A. Perron, Bloc, Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC]

Mr. Speaker, as veterans affairs critic for the Bloc Québécois, in this week that is dedicated to them, I am proud to pay tribute today to the women and men who have participated in war, whether in world conflicts or peacekeeping operations.

Our thoughts and respect go out to all those who fought on behalf of Quebec and Canada in World War I from 1914 to 1918, in World War II from 1939 to 1945, 175,000 Quebeckers among them, in the Korean war from 1950 to 1953, and more recently in the gulf war and the various UN and NATO peacekeeping missions.

Remembering our veterans means also caring for them, including the younger ones who often have trouble fitting back into society here and whose problems are not always acknowledged as being related to their combat experiences, post-traumatic stress for instance.

As I have done since first elected in 1997, I will continue to defend these women and men whom the government forgets too quickly once they are back from war or a mission. We owe them this recognition and support.

Since its inception 10 years ago, Veterans Week has offered us an opportunity to perpetuate the memory of our veterans and their exceptional sacrifices.

Let us show our recognition and respect to the thousands of women and men from this country who have sacrificed themselves in the defence of freedom and democracy.

I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Veterans Affairs on its most interesting web site. I discovered, for instance, the virtual war memorial on which I was able to find 17 people with the same last name as myself, Perron, and I wish to pay particular tribute today to those soldiers and their families.

Peace must remain the primary objective of our government. We must preserve our reputation, built up since the early years of the last century, often at the price of our soldiers' lives. Their contribution must be remembered with gratitude.

[Peter Stoffer, NDP, Sackville—Eastern Shore, NS]

Mr. Speaker, on a recent trip to Italy with my colleagues from the Ministry of Veterans Affairs I came across a gravesite that said it very clearly. This gravesite spoke for the 117,000 men and women we have buried in over 72 countries around the world. It said, “They gave the greatest gift of all, the gift of an unfinished life”. The Mayor of Casino said in a speech to the veterans that our sons have become their sons. That is a very poignant statement if I have ever heard one.

I was born in Holland. In 1956 my parents made the decision to come to this great country. As many immigrants to this country, the reason my father made that decision was because during the liberation of Holland he was a prisoner of war. He later said to my mother and to everyone who would listen, “If they have a military like that, can you imagine what kind of country they come from”. So the decision to come to this great Canada I call home was an easy decision for my father to make.

The names of Caen, Ortona, Vimy, Passchendaele, Dieppe and Hong Kong will forever be etched in the memories of all Canadians.

It is the responsibility of all members of Parliament to ensure that their memory and their history is passed on to our children so that they in turn can pass it on to their children.

At this time I want to thank the members of the legions and the ANAF clubs throughout Canada that keep the memory of our veterans alive. I wish to thank the military family resource centres, the 34 we have in this country and around the world, that dedicate their time to support the families of our current members of the armed forces. Every day these brave men and women put their lives on the line so that we can live in peace, freedom and harmony.

I would like to say very clearly that at the going down of the sun, we will remember them. God bless our veterans. God bless our armed forces personnel. God bless them all.

[The Speaker]

I would ask that all hon. members rise and observe a moment of silence for those veterans who gave their lives for our country.

[The Speaker]

The Chair has notice of a point of order from the hon. member for Sackville--Eastern Shore.

Points of Order

[Peter Stoffer, NDP, Sackville—Eastern Shore, NS]

Mr. Speaker, last night in the debate on hepatitis C I unfortunately made a disparaging remark toward the legal profession of this country. I would like to withdraw that remark and apologize unequivocally, and with sincere regret to the people in the legal profession of this country.

[An hon. member]

We accept.

[The Speaker]

The Chair has notice of a question of privilege from the hon. member for Don Valley East.

Privilege

[Yasmin Ratansi, Liberal, Don Valley East, ON]

Mr. Speaker, today the leader of Her Majesty's opposition and some members of his caucus have sullied my reputation by alluding that I am anti-American. On October 30 the Ottawa Citizen printed a clarification on an error it made. I would like to read that in the House for the record:

One hopes that in a democracy such as Canada, every individual, elected representative or not, has a right to a personal view on various issues. Surely, those viewpoints do not always have to mirror those held by other individuals--or foreign governments, for that matter. Being branded anti-American because one's beliefs and values are different from say, the foreign policy of the United States or that nation's current leadership is ludicrous. My views on the Iraq war itself would probably not differ from those of the almost three-quarters of Canadians who believe Canada made the right decision not to take part in the invasion of Iraq in the first place. Would it then be correct to say that, to some, every one of those Canadians is anti-American? I do not think so. As a Muslim woman, the first ever elected to the House of Commons, I do indeed adhere to basic beliefs found in the Koran--tolerance, peace, diversity, pluralism and respect for life. That is why I joined former party leaders Stockwell Day and Alexa McDonough this week in criticizing--

[The Speaker]

Order, please. The hon. member is getting herself into difficulty reading a letter to the editor because it has names of members in it. She cannot use those names in the House. The hon. member is going to have to come to the point of her question of privilege, perhaps without all the reading

[Yasmin Ratansi, Liberal, Don Valley East, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I would suggest that the point to my question of privilege is, as a Canadian citizen who espouses Canadian values, I have a right to an opinion, and I would demand an apology from the Leader of the Opposition and the caucus members.

[Jason Kenney, Conservative, Calgary Southeast, AB]

Mr. Speaker, in response to the member's question of privilege, insofar as I have twice quoted the remarks in question on the floor, I would submit that her submission does not constitute in any respect a question of privilege, prima facie or otherwise. I would be quite prepared to table the article in question from the Ottawa Citizen wherein she makes the remarks which we have cited.

I would emphasize that no one in this chamber has denied or challenged her freedom of expression in this place. What we have challenged is the substance of her words, and we simply ask the government to disavow her suggestion that the United States is the principal cause of world terrorism. That is entirely within our rights as members of the opposition.

[The Speaker]

I will review the question of privilege raised by the hon. member for Don Valley East, the response from the hon. member for Calgary Southeast and the transcript of today's question period. If I find there is a breach of privilege, I will come back to the House in due course with a ruling.

[Tony Valeri, Liberal, Leader of the Government in the House of Commons]

Mr. Speaker, in your deliberations and as you consider this matter, I just want to be perfectly clear that what the member was intending to do was point out very clearly that she is not anti-American and that--

[Vic Toews, Conservative, Provencher, MB]

Yes she is.

[Tony Valeri, Liberal, Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, ON]

There you hear it again, Mr. Speaker. The point the hon. member was making, for your consideration, was that she is not anti-American and she has been called anti-American, or to that effect, by the Leader of the Opposition. She would like you to consider that and consider whether it is a point that you would accept, and then therefore demand an apology from the Leader of the Opposition. I want to be perfectly clear that this is the request.