Debates of March 31st, 2004

Housing Bill of Rights

[Libby Davies, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

moved for leave to introduce Bill C-509, an act to provide for secure, adequate, accessible and affordable housing for Canadians.

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague, the member for Winnipeg Centre, because I know he has been a very strong advocate for housing rights in the country and in his riding.

I am very proud to present the bill today because it is a bill about respecting the dignity and worth of all people in Canada by protecting their human rights; for the provision of secure, adequate, accessible and affordable housing and security in its enjoyment.

The bill would ensure that housing reflects the needs of local communities, including aboriginal communities; that people are not paying more than 30% of their income for rent; that there is appropriate housing for different needs and provides reasonable design options, including access for the elderly and the disabled; and that there is adequate housing for people who are homeless, as specified in a section of the bill.

I thank all the groups that assisted in my bringing the bill to light in the House. It has strong support across the country.

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

Public Service Employment Act

[Bill Casey, Progressive Conservative, Cumberland—Colchester, NS]

moved for leave to introduce Bill C-510, an act to amend the Public Service Employment Act and the Public Service Employment Act, enacted by section 12 of chapter 22 of the Statutes of Canada, 2003 (area of selection).

Mr. Speaker, the bill would stop the government from using geographic criteria to determine a person's eligibility to have a job in the national capital region.

It affects almost all of us, including you, Mr. Speaker. Just today I took seven jobs off the Internet. These are seven jobs, with a wide variety of qualifications, for seven different departments. Only those people who live in the national capital region can apply for them. The people in Timmins—James Bay cannot apply. The people in Red Deer and the people in Cumberland—Colchester cannot apply. Even you, Mr. Speaker, cannot apply.

It is an offensive practice and I want to stop this discrimination by postal code and I want to stop it now with the bill.

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

Committees of the House

[Judi Longfield, Liberal, Whitby—Ajax, ON]

Mr. Speaker, if the House gives its consent, I move that the 15th report of the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs presented to the House earlier this day be concurred in.

(Motion agreed to)

Petitions

[Carole-Marie Allard, Liberal, Laval East, QC]

Mr. Speaker, pursuant to Standing Order 36, I have the honour to present to the House a petition asking the government for regulations banning children's programs that show violence as a normal means of conflict resolution and prohibiting the broadcasting of extremely violent films until after 10 p.m.

[Elsie Wayne, Progressive Conservative, Saint John, NB]

Mr. Speaker, I have five petitions to present today with regard to the definition of marriage as being the lasting union of one man and one woman to the exclusion of all others and that it cannot and should not be modified by a legislative act or a court of law.

The first petition is signed by 116 residents of Saskatchewan.

The second petition is signed by 326 residents of Calgary, Alberta, and it is also in favour of marriage as being between one man and one woman.

The third petition, which contains 313 signatures of residents of Saskatchewan, once again is asking that we do not change the definition of marriage.

The fourth petition is signed by 228 residents of Pictou, Nova Scotia, who state that marriage is the lasting union of one man and one woman to the exclusion of all others and cannot and should not be modified by a legislative act or a court of law.

The fifth petition has 314 signatures of residents of Ontario, who are also asking that marriage be the union between one man and one woman.

[Val Meredith, Canadian Alliance, South Surrey—White Rock—Langley, BC]

Mr. Speaker, it is my pleasure, as one of my last acts here in Parliament, to present a petition on behalf of some of my constituents.

The petitioners call upon Parliament to pass legislation to recognize the institution of marriage in federal law as being the lifelong union of one man and one woman to the exclusion of all others.

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

Mr. Speaker, I have two petitions that I wish to present today.

The first petition is from people in eastern Ontario who acknowledge that the federal government has abandoned rural communities under the weight of urban socialism. The freedoms, the over-regulation and the over-taxation is attacking these people from the very corners of their way of life.

The petitioners therefore call upon Parliament to correct the mistake of 1982 and amend the Constitution to include the right to own, use and earn a living from private property.

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

Mr. Speaker, the second petition asks that Parliament redefine the definition of marriage as being the union of one man and one woman to the exclusion of all others.

[Grant McNally, Canadian Alliance, Dewdney—Alouette, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I have one petition to present today signed by 53 people in my riding who are opposed to war.

The petitioners would like to see peaceful resolutions through the United Nations whenever possible. They are also against the military action which took place in Iraq.

[Norman E. Doyle, Progressive Conservative, St. John's East, NL]

Mr. Speaker, I have two petitions to present on behalf of the residents of St. John's East.

The petitioners state that the assistance of the Government of Canada is required for the provision of affordable disability support, such as an adaptive device program for all Canadians who are blind, visually impaired, or deaf and blind.

The petitioners call upon Parliament to enact legislation permitting the Government of Canada to work with other levels of government to ensure that all Canadians receive access to affordable adaptive devices.

[Libby Davies, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to present a petition signed by close to 700 residents of Toronto who are very concerned about the housing crisis there. They call upon Parliament to adopt the 1% solution put forward by the Toronto Disaster Relief Committee to eliminate the national disaster of homelessness in Canada.

[Diane Bourgeois, Bloc, Terrebonne—Blainville, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I have the honour and pleasure to present a petition in the name of the Association des secondes épouses et conjoints inc.

This petition calls on Parliament to amend the Divorce Act to take into account its effects on the day-to-day realities faced by second spouses.

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

Mr. Speaker, it is my pleasure to present a petition from my constituents in Red Deer. The petitioners call upon Parliament to immediately hold a renewed debate on the definition of marriage and to take all necessary steps to preserve marriage as the union of one man and one woman to the exclusion of all others.

[Rex Barnes, Progressive Conservative, Gander—Grand Falls, NL]

Mr. Speaker, I have a petition with regard to the availability of library print materials for people with disabilities. The petitioners call upon the Government of Canada to support the production of alternative format library materials for print disability Canadians, including persons who are blind, visually impaired and/or deaf and blind. I submit this to the House.

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

Mr. Speaker, I have a petition from folks in Swift Current, Saskatchewan, Trail, British Columbia, and Walkerton, Ontario. There are almost 350 signatures. The petitioners note that marriage is the lasting union of a man and woman to the exclusion of all others. They call upon Parliament to maintain the current definition of marriage and prevent any court from overturning that definition.

[Bill Casey, Progressive Conservative, Cumberland—Colchester, NS]

Mr. Speaker, it is my privilege to present this petition signed by 74 people from River Hebert in my riding. They are objecting to proposals by the post office to close down their community post office. They feel it will have a very detrimental effect on their community. They are asking the government to uphold the moratorium on post office closures.

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

Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to present 11 petitions. Seven are on the topic of alcohol warning labels. These petitioners call upon Parliament to enact the initiative that was taken by this place to ensure that there are warning labels on all alcohol beverage containers to deal with the rising and serious incidence of fetal alcohol syndrome.

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

Mr. Speaker, the other four petitions all have to do with immigration and family reunification. These are petitioners from all across Canada who believe that the federal government has fallen short of its own targets in recent years with respect to immigration and that family reunification is a cornerstone of our policy.

They call on the government and Parliament to support Bill C-436, an act to amend the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, which would allow people to sponsor, once in a lifetime, a relative not now eligible under the family reunification class.

I respectfully submit these petitions.

[Inky Mark, Canadian Alliance, Dauphin—Swan River, MB]

Mr. Speaker, I have the honour of tabling two petitions.

The first one is on behalf of the Chinese community in Canada dealing with redress. The petitioners call on the government to enact Bill C-333, the Chinese-Canadian recognition and restitution act, to recognize the injustice that was done to persons of Chinese descent and to provide for public commemoration and for restitution, which is to be devoted to education on Chinese Canadian history and the promotion of racial harmony.

[Inky Mark, Canadian Alliance, Dauphin—Swan River, MB]

Mr. Speaker, the second petition deals with the BSE issue across the country. The petitioners call on the government to take immediate action to develop an internationally recognized protocol designed to restore confidence in Canadian beef products and to open the international beef markets to Canadian producers.

[Reed Elley, Canadian Alliance, Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC]

Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to rise today in the House to present three petitions from Canadians in Ontario, Saskatchewan and Alberta. All of them are calling upon the government to enact legislation that would enshrine the traditional definition of marriage into law, that being the union of one man and one woman to the exclusion of all others. I am very proud to be able to present these today.

[Alexa McDonough, NDP, Halifax, NS]

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table two petitions on different subjects, actually a mountain of petitions with thousands of signatures, the first with 144 pages' worth of pleading with the government as part of the continuing campaign for Beads of Hope to address the global HIV-AIDS pandemic: by cancelling the debt burden on impoverished countries; by increasing Canada's overseas development assistance to the long promised 7% of GNP; by doubling funds to fight HIV-AIDS here at home; by increasing our global fund contribution; and finally, by ensuring access to life saving medicines to combat TB, malaria and HIV-AIDS.

[Alexa McDonough, NDP, Halifax, NS]

Mr. Speaker, it is my privilege to table another petition signed by thousands more Canadians urging the government to say no to star wars and work instead with Partners for Peace for more arms control, and also to end the production and sale of weapons of mass destruction. I am very pleased to table these petitions on behalf of a huge number of Canadians.

[Pat Martin, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

Mr. Speaker, I have eight separate petitions on two subjects. The first five petitions I would like to present represent Canadians from as far apart as St. John's, Newfoundland, to Quebec and the Six Nations of the Grand River Territory. The petitioners call upon Canada to recognize that fetal alcohol syndrome and fetal alcohol syndrome effects are a chronic problem and that women who are pregnant certainly should be warned and cautioned about the negative effects of drinking while pregnant.

They therefore call upon Canada to regulate that any beverage carrier must have a warning on it saying that drinking alcohol during pregnancy can cause birth defects. They call upon Parliament to implement that regulation.

[Pat Martin, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

Mr. Speaker, my second group of petitions deals with an immigration issue. The petitioners argue that new Canadians should be able to sponsor, once in a lifetime, one family member who would not normally qualify under the family reunification class; in other words, we would vote into effect Bill C-436, which would change the immigration act to broaden the family sponsorship category so that once during a person's life one family member could be sponsored who otherwise would not qualify.