Debates of Feb. 13th, 2007

Black History Month

[Raymonde Folco, Liberal, Laval—Les Îles, QC]

Mr. Speaker, since 1995 as a result of the dedication by the former member for Etobicoke—Lakeshore, Parliament Hill today celebrates our 12th annual Black History Month.

This year also marks the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade in the British colonies. In remembering our history we pay homage to Olivier Le Jeune, the first black person known to have lived in Canada from 1628; Mathieu Da Costa, the navigator and interpreter; Marie-Joseph Angélique, the slave hanged for burning down her master's Montreal home; and many others whose legacy of dogged determination continues.

The tradition continues through leaders like Jean Augustine, Afua Cooper, Roz Sonshine, Christine Williams, Garth Taylor and others.

On behalf of all Canadians and the citizens of Laval--Les Îles, I invite all members and staff to join us in Room 200 West Block in celebration of the slaves' walk to freedom.

Senate Tenure Legislation

[Rahim Jaffer, Conservative, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

Mr. Speaker, we know it took only eight days to travel to the moon and back and 80 days to travel around the world. It takes 102 days to bike the 5,000 miles across Canada and 180 days to play an entire season of NHL hockey. What is the connection between these events? They all took less than 259 days to complete.

What has not taken less than 259 days is the unelected, unaccountable Liberal dominated Senate's continued filibuster of Bill S-4 which limits the term of senators to eight years. What is surprising is that the Liberal senators continue to defy the will of their leader who is on record as supporting term limits for senators.

When will the Leader of the Opposition start to exert some leadership and tell his Senate Liberal colleagues to stop their filibuster of this bill?

Immigration

[Chris Charlton, NDP, Hamilton Mountain, ON]

Mr. Speaker, on Thursday yet another family will be deported from my riding of Hamilton Mountain.

The Valencias have been in Canada for five years. Sergio and Blanca have established themselves in our community and have well paying jobs and family here. Their children are on the brink of success by excelling at their education.

Last week I delivered petitions with thousands of signatures to the minister asking that the Valencias be allowed to stay. This afternoon I am forwarding even more petitions and powerful letters of support.

In 1990 the Askov decision by the Supreme Court established the right to a trial in criminal matters within a reasonable amount of time as essential for protecting fundamental justice. Refugees deserve the same. No one should have to put their lives on hold for five years.

The Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, which was passed in 2002, calls for the establishment of an appeals division to deal with cases in a time sensitive manner. The Liberals refused to enact this part of their own legislation. The refugee appeal division, RAD, costs just $2 million to establish. We have a surplus of over $13 billion.

I urge the government to act today, because for families like the Valencias, justice delayed is justice denied.

International Trade

[Navdeep Bains, Liberal, Mississauga—Brampton South, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister and his government are selling out Canadians for trade deals that score cheap political points but undermine Canadian jobs.

We know that the Prime Minister sold out the Canadian softwood lumber industry. He bullied our producers into signing agreements and quotas. Despite the Prime Minister's claims, the government only recovered $3.5 billion out of the $5 billion paid out to the U.S. in illegal tariffs.

Now, rather than negotiating a fair trade deal with the European free trade agreement countries, it is selling out to Norway by scrapping tariffs on the shipbuilding industry which could directly eliminate 5,000 jobs as well as thousands of spinoff jobs, and it gets worse. It is about to sell out Canada's auto industry by not negotiating fair trade with South Korea. Just last week we saw 2,000 jobs lost at two Canadian car manufacturing facilities.

How many more jobs will we have to lose before the government acts? When will the government stop selling out Canadians?

Summer Career Placements Program

[Robert Bouchard, Bloc, Chicoutimi—Le Fjord, QC]

Mr. Speaker, since mid-January, 55 non-profit organizations in my riding of Chicoutimi—Le Fjord have sent a letter to the Minister of Human Resources and Social Development and the Minister of Labour, calling on the government to maintain the entire budget allocated to the summer career placements program.

Thousands of students will soon be looking for work. In my riding, 165 jobs are jeopardized by the cuts and nearly 450 are at risk in the entire Saguenay—Lac-Saint-Jean area.

The Conservative government prides itself on cleaning up programs and, in the process, is doing away with an initiative that has proven effective and that helps thousands of students gain valuable experience.

Through the FECQ and FEUQ, some 160,000 college and university students recognize the value of the summer career placements program and are calling on the government to reverse its decision and stop making cuts to the program.

The Conservatives simply cannot ignore the cries of 160,000 students.

Homelessness

[Bill Graham, Liberal, Toronto Centre, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the supporting communities partnership initiative, SCPI, is an internationally acclaimed, award winning Canadian program to fight homelessness. It was selected as a best practice by the United Nations and has been incredibly successful in enabling local municipalities to address the issue of homelessness.

Despite the success of SCPI, the government has cancelled it in favour of a plan that is short on specifics but very long on its political agenda. Delays of up to six months before the start of funding under the new scheme are faced by agencies across the country. In my riding, agencies such as Street Health and the 519 are today forced to cancel programs because transition funding has not been established.

For the sake of homeless people in our country, the government must commit today to provide transitional funding so that municipalities receiving SCPI funds can continue to fund this vital service. The homeless in Canada should not suffer because the government is playing petty politics at their expense.

Anti-terrorism Act

[Rick Norlock, Conservative, Northumberland—Quinte West, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the Liberals are being quoted in the media claiming that they are going to vote down key elements of their anti-terrorism legislation because the government's motion does not reflect the changes recommended by the subcommittee.

As a member of the subcommittee, I am amazed by the lack of factual procedural integrity of the Liberals' arguments. A motion cannot amend the law. Only a bill duly passed can amend the law.

The sunset provisions as passed by a Liberal controlled Parliament demand that a non-amendable motion be laid before Parliament.

The government will address this issue in its response to the final reports of the House and Senate committees reviewing the Anti-terrorism Act. These reports have yet to be tabled in Parliament and their timelines exceed the deadline for the sunset clauses.

What the government has proposed is that these special powers be extended for three years. During such time, potential amendments can be considered and Canadians can continue to enjoy the protection of these balanced measures.

Judicial Appointments

[Stéphane Dion, Liberal, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister wrote in June 2000 that “serious flaws exist in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms”. He does not like the fact that the duty of the courts is to uphold the charter. In a blatant attempt to get around the charter that he does not like, the Prime Minister is stacking advisory committees to fill the bench with people who share his ideology.

When will the Prime Minister stop meddling with the courts and imposing his right wing agenda?

[Stephen Harper, Conservative, Prime Minister]

On the contrary, Mr. Speaker.

I have always defended the rights of the courts to rule under the charter of rights, although I think there could be changes. We believe on this side that property rights should be included in the charter.

At the same time, this party is committed to ensuring that we appoint men and women of the highest quality to the courts of our land to enforce and apply our laws. That is what we did when we named Justice Rothstein to the Supreme Court of Canada.

[Stéphane Dion, Liberal, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to quote the Prime Minister once again. This speaks volumes about what he thinks:

Yes, I share many of the concerns of my colleagues and allies about biased “judicial activism” and its extremes.

That is why he changed the makeup of the advisory committee: so that ultraconservative voices can dominate.

When will the Prime Minister stop abusing his power? When will he stop trying to fill the benches with ultraconservative judges?

[Stephen Harper, Conservative, Prime Minister]

On the contrary, Mr. Speaker, the advisory committees the government has just appointed include people with very diverse perspectives, and they will make recommendations to the government to appoint men and women of the highest quality to the courts of our land.

[Stéphane Dion, Liberal, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, even Canada's chief justice urged the government not to change the selection process. She said, “We believe this is necessary to protect the interests of all Canadians in an independent advisory process for judicial appointments”. Fairness and independence are being sacrificed in the name of a right wing political agenda.

When will the Prime Minister restore the balance and independence of the selection committees?

[Stephen Harper, Conservative, Prime Minister]

Of course, Mr. Speaker, these committees are independent. The government does not even name all of the members.

On the contrary, if the leader of the Liberal Party wants to know why we should look at changing the process, just consider the fact that in 2002 his government appointed the wife of the national campaign manager of the Liberal Party to be chief justice of the Superior Court of Ontario.

[Michael Ignatieff, Liberal, Etobicoke—Lakeshore, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister has a long history of trying to undermine the credibility of the charter of rights and the independence of the Canadian judiciary. Rights are rights are rights and what the government wants to do with judicial appointments is just dead wrong.

When will the Prime Minister stop trying to undermine the independence of the judiciary? When will he stop trying to impose his conservative ideology on the Canadian court system?

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

Mr. Speaker, nothing could be further from the truth. The individuals who have been appointed and will be appointed will be of the highest calibre. There was certainly no attempt by the government to do anything other than that.

I have to say to the hon. member that we do not need any lessons from the Liberal Party on rights. It is this party that has consistently, throughout its history, stood up for the rights of individual Canadians and we will continue to do so.

[Michael Ignatieff, Liberal, Etobicoke—Lakeshore, ON]

Mr. Speaker, this minority government is casting doubt on the impartiality of the judiciary and is stacking judicial appointments committees with hand-picked partisans who share his social conservative agenda.

When will the Prime Minister rise in this House and confirm his dedication to the impartiality of the judiciary, which is a key principle of Canadian democracy?

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

Mr. Speaker, we are absolutely committed to the impartiality of the judiciary and any examination of the appointments that we made up to this point will confirm that.

As I indicated to the opposition members yesterday, all of the appointments that have been made by the government up to this point in time were made on the recommendations of the committees that were set up by the previous government. So what is their problem?

The Environment

[Gilles Duceppe, Bloc, Laurier—Sainte-Marie, QC]

Mr. Speaker, for the past few weeks, the Prime Minister has been trying every which way to get a green conscience.

Just yesterday, he made an announcement with the intention of allowing the Government of Quebec to implement its plan to achieve the Kyoto protocol targets.

[Some hon. members]

Bravo!

[The Speaker, Liberal, Peter Milliken]

Order, please. The hon. member for Laurier—Sainte-Marie.

[Gilles Duceppe, Bloc, Laurier—Sainte-Marie, QC]

Mr. Speaker, this is the first time they are applauding the Kyoto protocol.

The only problem is that the money is not on the table yet. We have to wait until the budget.

If the Prime Minister truly takes the environment to heart, why does he not transfer the money immediately to Quebec with no strings attached? Let him present a bill immediately.

[Stephen Harper, Conservative, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the leader of the Bloc Québécois for giving me this opportunity to discuss the announcement we made yesterday on Canada ecotrust, a major program that will be in effect across Canada. This program will help us to work in full cooperation with Quebec on environmental measures. In the meantime, this will also allow us to resolve the fiscal imbalance. With the infrastructure, UNESCO, this is good news—

[The Speaker, Liberal, Peter Milliken]

The hon. member for Laurier—Sainte-Marie.

[Gilles Duceppe, Bloc, Laurier—Sainte-Marie, QC]

Mr. Speaker, we are skeptical and for good reason. As late as this past December, the Prime Minister denied the very existence of greenhouse gases and he still rejects Kyoto.

If he is serious, I challenge him to present his plan immediately here in the House. Let him present his trust immediately, here in the House, and the budgets to go with it. Let us know the conditions. Let him act immediately if he is serious.

[Stephen Harper, Conservative, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, seriously, it is impossible to deny the hot air emissions when the Bloc is here.

This is a good announcement for Quebec for controlling greenhouse gas emissions. This announcement and other agreements with the other provinces will be in the budget. We expect the Bloc's support for this program, for Quebec and for the budget.