Debates of Nov. 19th, 2007

Airbus

[Pat Martin, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

Mr. Speaker, the public inquiry might never happen, and the terms of the 1997 payment to Mr. Mulroney clearly stated that Mr. Mulroney agreed there was no political interference or vendettas in the Schreiber affair.

Now he says people are “still conducting their vendetta” and the government House leader says, “It was a previous Liberal government that launched a political vendetta against one of their enemies, and it had to pay the price for it”.

The agreed to terms of settlement have been breached. Why wait? The government can commence the process to reclaim the $2.1 million. We want our money back and we want it now.

[Rob Nicholson, Conservative, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada]

Mr. Speaker, again, members will remember last week the moral outrage of the NDP members, they were demanding a public inquiry. I can tell they were a little bit disappointed when they actually got what they asked for. We have an independent third party that is having a look and setting the parameters for that public inquiry, and I think that should proceed.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police

[Ujjal Dosanjh, Liberal, Vancouver South, BC]

Mr. Speaker, there continue to be many unanswered questions about the tragic death of Robert Dziekanski. He arrived in Vancouver around 4 p.m. on October 13, but for some unknown reason, he did not clear customs until after midnight. He waited for hours without assistance.

How did this happen? Why has the Canada Border Services Agency been silent on this matter?

[Stockwell Day, Conservative, Minister of Public Safety]

Mr. Speaker, we share the concern about what happened to this particular individual. It is one of the reasons that we have asked for answers. That is one of the reasons there are at least three independent reviews going on right now in terms of what took place.

We want everything to be put in place to see that something like this would never happen again. Those answers are being sought after intensively right now, and I hope the member opposite would exercise patience as these investigations continue, so that we can find out exactly what did happen.

[Ujjal Dosanjh, Liberal, Vancouver South, BC]

Mr. Speaker, instead of explaining the CBSA's role, the Minister of Public Safety complained over the weekend that compared to the Dziekanski tragedy, the public does not show enough outrage over the damage done by drunk drivers.

While drunk driving is a serious issue, why is the minister detracting from what happened to Mr. Dziekanski? Why is he questioning the legitimacy of Canadians' concerns, and why has he not initiated an independent, national, public and comprehensive review on the use of tasers in Canada?

[Stockwell Day, Conservative, Minister of Public Safety]

Mr. Speaker, the kindest words I could find is that is one of the most unfortunate, deliberate torques of a very serious situation that I have heard in a long time.

I might also add that when it comes to the situation of tasers and what happened in that very tragic incident, the first province to introduce and encourage taser use was the province of British Columbia. That was done while that particular member was the attorney general and while there were many concerns being raised about taser use.

We have raised concerns about taser use. That gentleman brought them into his province without questioning them. We are raising questions about them.

The Environment

[John Godfrey, Liberal, Don Valley West, ON]

Mr. Speaker, yesterday, the Minister of the Environment claimed that he supported UN scientists' work on climate change, but in reality, the government is trying to hide the fact that it has already given up the fight against climate change.

The minister has given no new funding to research, knows nothing about the data, and has proposed a plan that is not based on science, so why should Canadians believe that the current government supports the work of UN scientists?

[John Baird, Conservative, Minister of the Environment]

Mr. Speaker, I reject totally the premise of the member's question. This government is taking real action to fight climate change, something that was not done for 10 years.

When Kyoto was signed, it was a 10 year marathon to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and when the starting pistol went off on that marathon, this member and the Liberal Party began running in the opposite direction. We are working hard to clean up the mess left to us by the previous government.

We welcome the report that came forward from the United Nations panel. We think it should form part the important work that will take place at the next UN conference in Indonesia.

[John Godfrey, Liberal, Don Valley West, ON]

Mr. Speaker, as members have just heard, the minister falsely claims the government has an aggressive plan to fight climate change, but no one seriously believes that that is true. From the C.D. Howe Institute to the Deutsche Bank, every organization that has studied the minister's plan has said that it is weak, will fail, and will cause greenhouse gases to rise.

The UN report outlines exactly what needs to be done to address the climate change crisis. When will this government finally take the advice of scientists and present a plan based on their conclusions, instead of on Conservative delusions?

[John Baird, Conservative, Minister of the Environment]

Mr. Speaker, let us look at the facts. Greenhouse gas emissions are now 32.9% higher than they were supposed to be, than the Liberals promised internationally. The Liberals have besmirched Canada's reputation on the world scene because they failed to act.

All the Liberal Party wants to do is examine, investigate, probe, commission reports, analyze, debate and study. This government is taking real action.

[Paule Brunelle, Bloc, Trois-Rivières, QC]

Mr. Speaker, several times now, the French president has called for Europe to bring in a carbon tax. The French minister of foreign affairs said that the purpose of the tax would be to ensure that no business in any country that failed to comply with the accord could have an unfair advantage. Canada is failing the Kyoto accord.

Does the Minister of Industry realize that by rejecting the Kyoto accord in favour of big oil, he could end up penalizing all exporters, especially manufacturers?

[John Baird, Conservative, Minister of the Environment]

Mr. Speaker, that is not the case at all. France's prime minister, president and minister of the environment have all been very clear: these measures would not apply to Canada.

[Paule Brunelle, Bloc, Trois-Rivières, QC]

Mr. Speaker, if Canada continues to violate the Kyoto accord, we will not be able to escape the carbon tax, which will severely penalize Quebec exporters and manufacturers, who account for 40% of Canada's exports to France.

Will the Minister of Industry urge his government to respect Canada's commitments, thereby protecting Quebec's manufacturing industry, which is already in crisis, from an additional burden?

[John Baird, Conservative, Minister of the Environment]

Mr. Speaker, this government is going to keep its commitment to reduce in absolute terms the number of greenhouse gas emissions in this country by 20% by 2020.

I think it is fair to take criticism from the Bloc Québécois on this issue because at least it voted against the throne speech.

What we did see is, when we brought forward a new policy, the Liberal Party sit on its hands and allow that policy to become the law of the land.

Justice

[Carolyn Bennett, Liberal, St. Paul's, ON]

Mr. Speaker, a Canadian is about to die by lethal injection and the government insists, unbelievably, that this is not a reversal of Canadian policy on the death penalty.

For almost 30 years, the Government of Canada has had a policy of intervening to protect Canadians facing the death penalty in other countries.

Will the government immediately appeal to the Governor of Montana to protect the life of a Canadian citizen on death row? Or will it admit that, as Canadians suspect, the new Canadian government actively supports the death penalty?

[Rob Nicholson, Conservative, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada]

Mr. Speaker, the answer to both those questions is: no.

[Joy Smith, Conservative, Kildonan—St. Paul, MB]

Mr. Speaker, in Saudi Arabia, there have been disturbing reports that a woman who was the victim of a multiple rape has now been convicted by the Saudi courts and sentenced to 200 lashes.

Could the Minister for the Status of Women advise the House of the government's reaction to this news?

[Josée Verner, Conservative, Minister of Canadian Heritage]

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the hon. member for this very important question. On behalf of the government and, I am sure, all Canadians, I would like to express our deep dismay at seeing a victim of multiple rape being sentenced to 200 lashes and six months in jail.

It defies belief that a woman who had been raped would be further violated by such a barbaric sentence. Our government will express our condemnation of this event to the appropriate Saudi authorities.

Afghanistan

[Dawn Black, NDP, New Westminster—Coquitlam, BC]

Mr. Speaker, the NDP has obtained documents which prove our soldiers are under orders to hand over all captured Afghans to local prisons, including children.

Last week's forced release of documents reported on the trial of the Sarpoza prison warden who had been accused of raping a child. The judge determined the official was innocent because it would be “impossible for a drunken man in his 50s to commit an act of rape”.

When did the minister order Canada to stop transferring--

[The Speaker, Liberal, Peter Milliken]

The hon. Minister of National Defence.

[Peter MacKay, Conservative, Minister of National Defence and Minister of the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency]

Mr. Speaker, as I said in response to an earlier question in the House, my understanding is that there are current provisions within the Afghan detention system to segregate or to keep juvenile prisoners separate from others.

With respect to detainees or prisoners taken by Canadian Forces, we take a similar practice. They are not housed in proximity to other detainees.

Under this new arrangement, we have increased ability to monitor and to track detainees. Similarly, we have taken steps to improve the prison system through contributions to the independent Afghan--

[The Speaker, Liberal, Peter Milliken]

The hon. member for New Westminster--Coquitlam.

[Dawn Black, NDP, New Westminster—Coquitlam, BC]

Mr. Speaker, some say the first casualty of war is truth. The second casualty must be accountability.

The Conservative government marches in lockstep with the Bush White House. Jailing children and mismanaging reconstruction funds are the hallmarks of the Bush doctrine.

In the haste to try to prove to Canadians that this war is being won, money is being handed out with zero accountability, so much so that Afghan warlords are lining up for Canadian government subsidies, and they are getting them. Will the minister confirm today in the House that our government is handing out money to warlords?

[Peter MacKay, Conservative, Minister of National Defence and Minister of the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency]

Certainly not, Mr. Speaker. I guess the first casualty of the NDP is to immediately resort to torquing and smearing and going to great lengths to somehow try to cast aspersions upon this mission.

The member talks about money being well spent. I think Canadians are very much behind efforts to improve education and health care. Eighty per cent of Afghans now have access to basic health services, when only 9% had it before. Millions of children are now in school, where they were not before. Microfinance is available and democracy improving--

[The Speaker, Liberal, Peter Milliken]

The hon. member for Brampton West.