Art Hanger

[Petitions, February 7th, 1995]

Madam Speaker, there are 750 names on a petition dealing with euthanasia.

The petitioners pray that Parliament will ensure that the present provisions of the Criminal Code of Canada prohibiting

assisted suicide be enforced vigorously and that Parliament make no changes in the law which would sanction or allow the aiding or abetting of suicide or active or passive euthanasia.

I concur with all of these petitions.

[Petitions, February 7th, 1995]

Madam Speaker, I have a petition on immigration. The undersigned petitioners humbly pray and call upon Parliament to reduce immigration to the previous average level of one-half of 1 per cent of the population, or about 150,000 per year, with a basic intake of not less than 50 per cent of the total composed of carefully selected, skilled workers required by the Canadian economy and that our refugee acceptance rate be brought into line with the average of other asylum destination countries.

I concur with this petition.

[Petitions, February 7th, 1995]

Madam Speaker, I have two additional petitions on pro-life.

Petitioners, 126 in total, pray that Parliament act immediately to extend protection to the unborn child by amending the Criminal Code to extend the same protection enjoyed by born human beings to unborn human beings.

[Petitions, February 7th, 1995]

Madam Speaker, I have two petitions dealing with firearms.

The petitioners, 515 in total, request that Parliament support laws which will severely punish all violent criminals who use weapons in the commission of a crime, support new Criminal Code firearms control provisions which recognize and protect the right of law-abiding citizens to own and use recreational firearms, and support legislation which will repeal and modify existing gun control laws which have not improved public safety, have proven not to be cost effective or have proven to be overly complex so as to be ineffective and unenforceable.

[Petitions, February 7th, 1995]

Madam Speaker, I have several petitions to table today.

The first two, bearing 101 signatures, deal with sexual orientation. The petitioners pray and request that Parliament not amend the Canadian Human Rights Act or the Charter of Rights and Freedoms in any way which would tend to indicate societal approval of same sex relationships or of homosexuality, including amending the Canadian Human Rights Act to include in the prohibited grounds of discrimination the undefined phrase sexual orientation.

I concur with these two petitions.

[Immigration Act, February 6th, 1995]

Go to the immigration department and find out.

[Immigration Act, February 6th, 1995]

Madam Speaker, I have heard several times today from Liberal members about hitting the middle road when it comes to immigration, that they would like to pick the so-called balance and policy and compare the message of the Bloc with the message Reform delivers.

I do not think the hon. member across realizes that we are talking about apples and oranges when we compare messages the Bloc sends and what Reform has been saying for some time now. The Bloc already has an agreement on immigration levels and on the way it handles immigration policy which differs dramatically from the rest of the country. The levels that the Bloc has are probably more realistic than the levels set by this government for the rest of the country.

I am going to ask this hon. member what he has in his mind when he wants to tell the people of this country that they have struck a balance. I would suggest to this member that there is no balance struck by the Liberal government when it comes to immigration policy, that it is floundering. If a comparison is to be made between the Bloc and the Reform the member should abandon the comparison.

I would like to hear more comments from the member regarding the so-called balance he is talking about between the Reform and the Bloc.

[Immigration Act, February 6th, 1995]

Madam Speaker, I know that the parliamentary secretary likes to talk about flying as does the minister. He certainly has alluded many times to the planes that fly and land and the ones that crash. I believe the parliamentary secretary is still flying and she has not come down to earth yet to learn what is happening. She needs to put her feet on firmer ground.

The parliamentary secretary attended various meetings and listened to all kinds of experts dealing with Bill C-44. Several flaws have been pointed out in the removal provisions by these experts.

These flaws are in the existing legislation as well as Bill C-44. It is not going to change anything.

Could the parliamentary secretary tell me if the government is going to keep confined those violent criminals until travel documents to remove them are obtained rather than releasing individuals into society. I have the name of one here. Mr. Gregory George Jordan has been charged with second degree murder. He is an Australian with a deportation order against him. He is walking around on day parole. What is the parliamentary secretary going to do about individuals like that? Is she going to keep them confined until removal orders are present to remove them?

[Immigration Act, February 6th, 1995]

Madam Speaker, just a point of clarification from this member in reference to the search of mail coming through customs.

I ask the member what the government is going to do about the shortage of manpower in the area of customs in order to adequately search for the illegal documents. I am very much aware, as is the member, that there is a serious shortage of manpower to do this job. As the customs union representative pointed out the legislation would be moot. It would be of no value whatsoever.

What is your government going to do?

[Immigration Act, February 6th, 1995]

Madam Speaker, this member will recall that she sat in on a meeting with a group of Vietnamese people who expressed concerns about the undesirable elements among them. The gist of that meeting was that they indicated they wanted certain individuals removed from their midst.

I have the names of several of those individuals who have been causing problems in their community. Unfortunately half the Liberal members got up and walked out of the meeting when this group of Vietnamese concerned citizens wanted some deterrent and strong action on the part of the government.

An adjudicator just released several of these individuals into the community. Some have been charged with sexual assault with a weapon, B and E with a weapon. One was a gang member. Another one shot a kid in the face with a gun in Vancouver. One was just released from the Fraser Regional Institute. There is robbery, assault, trafficking in heroine and the list goes on and on. These individuals walk freely in the community. Why does Bill C-44 not deal with these very violent criminals?