House of Commons Hansard #112 of the 39th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament's site.) The word of the day was loan.

Topics

TaxationOral Questions

11:45 a.m.

Liberal

The Speaker Liberal Peter Milliken

The hon. member for Burnaby—Douglas.

Copyright ActOral Questions

11:45 a.m.

NDP

Bill Siksay NDP Burnaby—Douglas, BC

Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives' new copyright regime is far from being a made in Canada solution. It is a knock-off. It is a bootlegged cheap copy of the American law, a ripoff of DMCA.

The government claims users have the right to copy their CDs onto a digital device, but not if the record company does not want them to. All it takes is one picked digital lock and music lovers are on the hook for $20,000 in fines.

Will the Conservatives admit their made in the U.S.A. law will get Canadian consumers sued?

Copyright ActOral Questions

11:45 a.m.

Oshawa Ontario

Conservative

Colin Carrie ConservativeParliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Industry

Mr. Speaker, that is just flat wrong. We have a made in Canada approach. The educational exemptions are made in Canada. The format shifting exemptions are made in Canada. The time shifting exemptions are made in Canada. The private copying of music exemption is made in Canada. The Internet service provider liability provisions are made in Canada. The statutory damages provisions are made in Canada.

My friend's comments about the U.S. DMCA are total rubbish.

Copyright ActOral Questions

11:45 a.m.

NDP

Bill Siksay NDP Burnaby—Douglas, BC

Mr. Speaker, the bill does not balance the rights of artists with the rights of consumers. The bill is about satisfying the big corporations. The Conservative copyright regime will, as noted expert Michael Geist says, “...strongly encourage the use of technological locks and lawsuits”.

Is the government really certain it wants to brand this anti-consumer, class action, waiting to happen Copyright Act as a Canadian product?

Copyright ActOral Questions

11:45 a.m.

Oshawa Ontario

Conservative

Colin Carrie ConservativeParliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Industry

Mr. Speaker, our approach is a balanced approach. We have the comments of the stakeholders on this, and most people are very happy. It is a difficult approach, but we are quite confident that Canadian consumers will be happy with this balanced approach.

Foreign AffairsOral Questions

11:45 a.m.

Liberal

Mario Silva Liberal Davenport, ON

Mr. Speaker, yesterday the United States Supreme Court ruled that Omar Khadr and other detainees at Guantanamo Bay had been denied the basic right to challenge the legality of their detention. I will remind the minister that Omar Khadr remains the only citizen of a western country still being held at Guantanamo because the Conservative government has ignored his case.

How many more rulings will it take before the Conservative government intervenes and brings Omar Khadr back to Canada to face justice in a fair court of law?

Foreign AffairsOral Questions

11:45 a.m.

Calgary East Alberta

Conservative

Deepak Obhrai ConservativeParliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs and to the Minister of International Cooperation

Mr. Speaker, perhaps the member should ask the member from his party for Pickering—Scarborough East, who said, on November 8, 2005, that the charges against Omar Khadr were very serious.

As we have said, Mr. Khadr faces serious charges. Any questions regarding whether Canada plans to ask for his release are premature and speculative at this time.

Foreign AffairsOral Questions

11:45 a.m.

Liberal

Mario Silva Liberal Davenport, ON

Mr. Speaker, I do not think the member understood the question, so I will try it in French.

The government cannot continue making excuses to avoid the situation. The courts have concluded a number of times that Omar Khadr was not receiving the fair treatment that every Canadian citizen should be entitled to expect. Worse still, the government has abandoned young Omar Khadr.

Why does the government refuse to grant the same consideration to Omar Khadr that every other western democracy grants its citizens?

Foreign AffairsOral Questions

11:45 a.m.

Calgary East Alberta

Conservative

Deepak Obhrai ConservativeParliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs and to the Minister of International Cooperation

Mr. Speaker, again, he should ask the member for Pickering—Scarborough East, who said that Mr. Khadr faced serious charges. It was the Liberal government that initiated this policy. He should ask members of his party all the questions he has asked this government, as it is the same policy.

However, questions of Mr. Khadr coming here are speculative at this time.

EthicsOral Questions

11:45 a.m.

Liberal

Brent St. Denis Liberal Algoma—Manitoulin—Kapuskasing, ON

Mr. Speaker, amazingly the Conservative Party has produced a self-incriminating affidavit from the widow of the late Chuck Cadman. In the sworn affidavit she refutes most of the key arguments made by the government to claim its innocence in the 2005 Cadman affair. Contrary to the government's line, Dona Cadman confirmed that on May 17 two Conservative Party officials had indeed offered her late husband a million dollar insurance policy in return for his vote.

Given the litigious nature of the Conservative Party when confronted by its own wrongdoing, will the Prime Minister be suing Mrs. Cadman for defamation?

EthicsOral Questions

11:50 a.m.

Port Moody—Westwood—Port Coquitlam B.C.

Conservative

James Moore ConservativeParliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Public Works and Government Services and for the Pacific Gateway and the Vancouver-Whistler Olympics

Mr. Speaker, we have said from the very beginning and the RCMP has now said that this government, the Conservative Party and the Prime Minister have done nothing wrong in this matter.

Dona Cadman says that she believes the Prime Minister is telling the truth and she believes that because the Prime Minister is telling the truth. Nothing inappropriate happened here and the Liberals ought to recognize the truth when they see it. They have not. We will see them in court.

EthicsOral Questions

11:50 a.m.

Liberal

Brent St. Denis Liberal Algoma—Manitoulin—Kapuskasing, ON

Mr. Speaker, I think we can assume that Mrs. Cadman is safe from Conservative lawsuits for now.

The parliamentary secretary repeatedly talks about a meeting on May 19, but last week he handed out a sworn affidavit from Mrs. Cadman in which she swore that the insurance offer was made to her husband on May 17, which is not May 19.

Why did the parliamentary secretary hold a press conference to distribute information that contradicted the Prime Minister's version of events? Why not simply explain what happened on May 17?

EthicsOral Questions

11:50 a.m.

Port Moody—Westwood—Port Coquitlam B.C.

Conservative

James Moore ConservativeParliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Public Works and Government Services and for the Pacific Gateway and the Vancouver-Whistler Olympics

Mr. Speaker, not at all. What we said in the press conference was that the tapes the Liberals had been using to launch false attacks against the Prime Minister of the country had been doctored. Two experts have said that. Mr. Owen and Mr. Gough are both testifying in affidavits for the Ontario Superior Court that the tapes are in fact false.

The Liberals may not want to believe the RCMP when it said that nothing wrong happened. They may not want to believe Dona Cadman when she said that the Prime Minister was telling the truth, and that is fine. We will see them in court and they will pay.

Official LanguagesOral Questions

11:50 a.m.

Bloc

Raymond Gravel Bloc Repentigny, QC

Mr. Speaker, on May 29, the Minister of Canadian Heritage, Status of Women and Official Languages said to us in this House that, “The government will table the second phase of the action plan very soon, in the spring”. Spring will be over in two weeks and we have not seen anything yet. We have been waiting since March 31; today is June 13 and nothing has been done.

Is the minister sneaking out the back door because she does not have the ability to present this plan and, in fact, she has nothing concrete to propose?

Official LanguagesOral Questions

11:50 a.m.

Glengarry—Prescott—Russell Ontario

Conservative

Pierre Lemieux ConservativeParliamentary Secretary for Official Languages

Mr. Speaker, our government is taking the necessary action in the interest of minority language communities and is ensuring the vitality of French and English in Canada. I would also like to point out that our government has taken steps to ensure that official language minority communities continue to receive funding after March 31, 2008.

The minister said we that we will table the second phase of the action plan before the end of spring and that is what we will do.

Official LanguagesOral Questions

11:50 a.m.

Bloc

Raymond Gravel Bloc Repentigny, QC

Mr. Speaker, we can see how unimportant French is to this Conservative government. There was the plaque at Vimy that was riddled with mistakes, the website for the Office for Disabilities Issues that is full of errors and now we see that Health Canada's website is full of translation errors. What is more, we have learned that the minister will not be attending the FCFA annual general meeting tomorrow, June 14, in Quebec City.

Is it because she is ashamed of her government's lack of interest in French, the common language of the Quebec nation?

Official LanguagesOral Questions

11:50 a.m.

Glengarry—Prescott—Russell Ontario

Conservative

Pierre Lemieux ConservativeParliamentary Secretary for Official Languages

Mr. Speaker, it is the Bloc that should be ashamed. We have promised to table the second phase of the action plan a number of times. This promise was made in our Speech from the Throne and in budget 2008. And we still intend to announce the next phase before the end of spring.

However, it should be noted that the Bloc voted against the Speech from the Throne, against budget 2008 and against official language minority communities.

Youth Employment StrategyOral Questions

11:50 a.m.

Liberal

Marlene Jennings Liberal Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Lachine, QC

Mr. Speaker, the youth awareness initiative of the youth employment strategy is “delivered at the national, regional and local levels”. However, a project sponsored by Concert'Action Lachine was recently turned down because all the program's money is reserved for the Vancouver Olympics.

Why are national funds, which are sorely needed by youth across the country, being channelled to only one region?

Youth Employment StrategyOral Questions

11:50 a.m.

Blackstrap Saskatchewan

Conservative

Lynne Yelich ConservativeParliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Human Resources and Social Development

Mr. Speaker, on the fund about which the member is talking, I will have to find out which ministry it is under because I have not had any advisement on that, and I will get that together.

Rail TransportationOral Questions

June 13th, 2008 / 11:50 a.m.

Conservative

James Bezan Conservative Selkirk—Interlake, MB

Mr. Speaker, on June 5, the Transportation Safety Board released its final railway investigation report concerning the January 2006 main track derailment of a Canadian Pacific freight train in Buckskin, Ontario.

The Transportation Safety Board is calling for the removal of 12,000 wheel sets still in use on some CP, CN and U.S. freight cars.

Could the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities please tell the House what the government is doing in response to this report?

Rail TransportationOral Questions

11:55 a.m.

Fort McMurray—Athabasca Alberta

Conservative

Brian Jean ConservativeParliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Transport

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague for his hard work for Canadian farmers.

Let me first assure the House that this government did not wait for the final report before taking action. Our government's number one priority is the safety and security of Canadians. This morning the Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities issued an emergency safety directive to CN in order to identify and remove from use as quickly as possible any potentially faulty train wheel sets from service in Canada.

Our government is acting quickly and decisively to ensure that our railways are safe. We are getting the job done.

2010 Olympic and Paralympic GamesOral Questions

11:55 a.m.

NDP

Dawn Black NDP New Westminster—Coquitlam, BC

Mr. Speaker, recently, Washington state went looking for Canadian lobbyists to get a piece of the 2010 Olympic pie. Whom did it hire? None other than B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell's campaign manager, Patrick Kinsella.

In reports back to Washington state officials, Mr. Kinsella confirms his company lobbied the federal Olympic minister. The problem is that the lobbyists were never registered.

We know the floor-crossing member for Vancouver Kingsway has contempt for his own constituents, but can the government tell the House when he developed such contempt for the rules?

2010 Olympic and Paralympic GamesOral Questions

11:55 a.m.

Port Moody—Westwood—Port Coquitlam B.C.

Conservative

James Moore ConservativeParliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Public Works and Government Services and for the Pacific Gateway and the Vancouver-Whistler Olympics

Mr. Speaker, neither the minister for the 2010 Olympics nor I, as the parliamentary secretary, have met with Mr. Kinsella with regard to the 2010 games.

2010 Olympic and Paralympic GamesOral Questions

11:55 a.m.

NDP

Dawn Black NDP New Westminster—Coquitlam, BC

Mr. Speaker, the minister for the Olympics was entertaining the idea of sending the 2010 Olympic torch to Washington state for a day or two. A quote from the report of the unregistered lobbyist says that the minister's “office encouraged Washington state to talk with Vanoc about the possibility of having the 2010 torch relay travel through a portion of Washington state”.

Can the government explain why the minister is above the rules? Can it explain why it believes it is okay to meet with Gordon Campbell's unregistered American lobbyist?

2010 Olympic and Paralympic GamesOral Questions

11:55 a.m.

Port Moody—Westwood—Port Coquitlam B.C.

Conservative

James Moore ConservativeParliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Public Works and Government Services and for the Pacific Gateway and the Vancouver-Whistler Olympics

Mr. Speaker, it is just not true. Neither the minister for the 2010 games nor I have met with Mr. Kinsella with regard to the 2010 games.

The 2010 games are going forward. The member spoke about the torch relay and there will be some good news about that coming forward.

The 2010 games are going to be a fantastic success for Vancouver, for Whistler, for British Columbia, and for all Canadians. We are doing everything we can to work with Vanoc and with the province to ensure that the games are a huge success for this country.

The NDP can invent its scandals about this. We know that the NDP campaigned in British Columbia against the 2010 Olympic Games and Canada hosting the 2010 games. We are going to ignore that party's false scandals and ignore its advice on the 2010 games. The games are going to be a success for Canada.