House of Commons Hansard #123 of the 41st Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament's site.) The word of the day was copyright.
The Speaker Conservative Andrew Scheer
Order. Does the hon. member for Richmond—Arthabaska have the unanimous consent of the House to respond?
Justice and Human RightsCommittees of the HouseRoutine Proceedings
Conservative
Dave MacKenzie Conservative Oxford, ON
Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present, in both official languages, the 11th report of the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights in relation to Bill C-309, An Act to amend the Criminal Code (concealment of identity). The committee has studied the bill and has decided to report the bill back to the House with an amendment.
Joe Preston Conservative Elgin—Middlesex—London, ON
Mr. Speaker, pursuant to Standing Orders 104 and 114, I have the honour to present, in both official languages, the 23rd and the 24th reports of the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs, both regarding memberships to the committee of the House. If the House gives its consent, I intend to move concurrence in both the 23rd and 24th reports later today.
David Tilson Conservative Dufferin—Caledon, ON
Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present, in both official languages, the third report of the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration entitled Bill C-31, An Act to amend the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, the Balanced Refugee Reform Act, the Marine Transportation Security Act and the Department of Citizenship and Immigration Act.
David Sweet Conservative Ancaster—Dundas—Flamborough—Westdale, ON
Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present, in both official languages, the second report of the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology in relation to its study of the main estimates 2012-13.
Public Safety and National SecurityCommittees of the HouseRoutine Proceedings
Conservative
Kevin Sorenson Conservative Crowfoot, AB
Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present, in both official languages, the fourth report of the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security in relation to its study of Bill C-350, An Act to amend the Corrections and Conditional Release Act (accountability of offenders), with an amendment.
Pierre-Luc Dusseault NDP Sherbrooke, QC
Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present, in both official languages, the third report of the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics concerning the statutory review of the Lobbying Act.
Pursuant to Standing Order 109 of the House of Commons, the committee requests that the government table a comprehensive response to the report.
Charlie Angus NDP Timmins—James Bay, ON
Mr. Speaker, I am very honoured to rise on behalf of the New Democratic Party with its response to the ethics and privacy committee's review of the Lobbying Act.
We felt that in this committee all parties managed to do some very good work on the issue of lobbying. However, there are serious shortcomings that have to be pointed out and addressed, because Canadians expect accountability on the issue of lobbying.
While we support the overall recommendations, we have to note that the government restricted the witness list. It restricted it in such a way that Guy Giorno, former chief of staff to the Prime Minister, a man I would never normally quote except in an accusatory fashion, said that the committee had “larded the witness list” with consultant lobbyists who have a biased point of view.
The other really disturbing issue was the fact that the government members continually refused to allow the RCMP to be heard.
As a result, we have a number of recommendations.
We recommend that the lobbying commissioner be empowered to carry on investigations that have been handed over to the RCMP, because the RCMP has never followed through; that consultant lobbyists must report the ultimate client of their lobbying work in their monthly communications report, not just the firm for which they work; that we enshrine immunity provisions to protect the Commissioner of Lobbying and her delegates; that the Commissioner of Lobbying must retain a formal mandate to educate lobbyists and the members opposite; and that a list of all designated public office holders must be maintained—
Access to Information, Privacy and EthicsCommittees of the HouseRoutine Proceedings
Conservative
The Speaker Conservative Andrew Scheer
Order. I will stop the member there.
The dissenting reports are supposed to be succinct and be somewhat similar in time to the amount of time that the member presenting the report took to do that.
Joe Preston Conservative Elgin—Middlesex—London, ON
Mr. Speaker, if the House gives its consent, I move that the 23rd and 24th reports of the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs, presented to the House earlier today, be concurred in.
The Speaker Conservative Andrew Scheer
The question is on the motion. Is it the pleasure of the House to adopt the motion?
Procedure and House AffairsCommittees of the HouseRoutine Proceedings
Some hon. members
Agreed.
Ray Boughen Conservative Palliser, SK
Mr. Speaker, I rise to present a petition with strong support on behalf of residents of Saskatchewan, many of them living in my riding of Palliser.
The petitioners, all 4,642 signatures, would like to draw the attention of the House of Commons to section 810 of the Criminal Code, which states that the current protection for victims of stalking and criminal harassment is limited to a term of one year, and that victims of stalking and criminal harassment are re-victimized by the necessity to renew this protection on a yearly basis .
Therefore, the petitioners call upon the House of Commons to increase the length of protection provided to victims of stalking and criminal harassment.
Glenn Thibeault NDP Sudbury, ON
Mr. Speaker, I rise to introduce two petitions. I will be brief on both.
With respect to the first petition, the petitioners would like the House to support the Act to Eliminate Poverty in Canada. The petitioners draw the attention of the House to the fact that poverty affects over 10% of Canadians and disproportionately affects aboriginal people, recent immigrants, people with disabilities and youth and children. Therefore, they call upon the government and Parliament to ensure swift passage of any bill that acts to eliminate poverty in Canada.
Glenn Thibeault NDP Sudbury, ON
Mr. Speaker, I once again bring forward petitions signed by hundreds of individuals in my community who are seeking justice for an aboriginal man who they believe was wrongly convicted. John Moore was accused and convicted of second degree murder in a case in which the crown agreed he was nowhere near the scene of the crime and in which a trial determined that he played no part in planning the crime.
The petitioners call upon the Minister of Justice and the Attorney General of Canada to review the conviction in the case of R. v. Moore, recognize that a wrongful conviction occurred, overturn the conviction and enter an acquittal.
Judy Foote Liberal Random—Burin—St. George's, NL
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to present a petition on behalf of people from Newfoundland and Labrador, particularly people from my riding of Random—Burin—St. George's in the Coast of Bays area of the riding, who take great exception to the government's decision to raise the age of eligibility for OAS from 65 to 67. In particular, they are upset with the impact this will have on people who work in physically demanding environments, such as in construction and fish plants, as well as those who work in mentally challenging environments.
The petitioners call upon the government to reconsider this decision in light of the impact it will have on those particular individuals.
Merv Tweed Conservative Brandon—Souris, MB
Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to present, on behalf of constituents of Brandon—Souris and many others in western Manitoba, a petition respectfully requesting the House of Commons not to introduce any legislation that would restrict either the right or access to abortion services in Canada.
Charmaine Borg NDP Terrebonne—Blainville, QC
Mr. Speaker, it is my honour to present another petition against the government's decision to stop funding the Katimavik program.
This petition in particular was brought to me by Rebeccah Redden, from Hamilton. She herself is so upset at the decision of the government to end the funding of Katimavik that she went out herself, started this petition and collected hundreds of signatures from people across Canada.
I hope the government will give due consideration to this petition and to the others that I will be presenting in the next days.
Andrew Cash NDP Davenport, ON
Mr. Speaker, it is an honour for me to rise today on behalf of the constituents in my riding of Davenport.
They care about public services. Often we hear the government say that some of these public services are not in its jurisdiction, but Canada Post is a public service that the people in my riding take very seriously. In particular, in the area around this one specific location, many people do not drive. They rely on it and they have relied on it for decades. Canada Post has sent out mixed signals as to whether it is keeping it open or closing it.
The petition speaks to this issue and to the importance many people in my riding attach to keeping the postal station open.
David Tilson Conservative Dufferin—Caledon, ON
Mr. Speaker, I have a petition from people from all over Ontario who are concerned about the proposed mega-quarry in Melancthon Township in Dufferin County in Ontario. It which would be the largest open-pit quarry in Canada at over 900 hectares, or 2,300 acres.
They are concerned with a number of things, one of which is that the proposed mega-quarry would initially have 150 truckloads per hour of aggregates leaving the quarry heading south and 150 empty truckloads returning to the quarry. Other trucks would be transporting 52 tonnes of explosives to the quarry per day. All of this traffic would take place on local roadways not designed to carry such traffic.
Petitioners are asking that the Government of Canada conduct an environmental assessment under the authority of the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act on the Highland Companies' proposed mega-quarry development.
Kennedy Stewart NDP Burnaby—Douglas, BC
Mr. Speaker, I am here to present a petition signed by 57,000 British Columbians and Canadians calling on the government to keep tankers out of the wild and pristine coastal waters of B.C. forever.
On top of these signatories, I have also had hundreds and even thousands of calls and contacts to my office concerned about the Enbridge northern gateway pipeline and the expansion of the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline. This is an issue that is a concern to all British Columbians, and I call on the government to take heed of this petition.
Elizabeth May Green Saanich—Gulf Islands, BC
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to present two petitions. The first is from residents of areas including Didsbury, Innisfail and Toronto. They are calling on members of the House to protect the national public broadcaster and to ensure that the CBC and Radio Canada receive adequate, sustainable and predictable funding.