Loyola Hearn

[Health, October 25th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, if the Minister of Health did not know what he was doing in the Apotex affair why was he not advised that he was breaking the law by the minister responsible for patents, the Minister of Industry?

Was it because this minister is also unaware of the law or was there another reason why he left his colleague to bear the cross?

[Employment Insurance, October 22nd, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, this is the time of year when many Canadians throughout the country who live in areas where there is a lot of seasonal employment find that they have not had enough work this year to qualify for employment insurance.

The minister the other day told the House the government had programs in place. There is nothing in place to help those who have not qualified for employment insurance, unless one lives in the district of the Minister of Industry who apparently is using ACOA money to provide programs that give people benefits.

I have no problem with that. I am glad the people in that area of the province did very well. However if it is fair for them it is fair for every other seasonal employee in the country. The minister should be careful because if he is to help the Minister of Industry he should also help foreign affairs, health, heritage, culture and finance, just to make sure we have a level playing field in the leadership race.

[Infrastructure, October 19th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, a short while ago in the House, the Prime Minister mentioned he was considering advancing infrastructure funding to give a kick-start to our sagging economy.

The provinces, cities and towns will solidly support this as they are crying out for infrastructure improvements. I mention especially St. John's where we have severe water and sewer needs, and have been devastated by flooding from the recent tropical storm.

When can we expect to see the suggestion by the Prime Minister become a full commitment by the government?

[The Parliament of Canada Act, October 18th, 2001]

Madam Speaker, before I get into what I want to say about the bill let me comment on what the previous speaker said. I have no problems with the Bloc not supporting the bill. I am not sure whether my party will either. Her first remarks perturbed me a little because she mentioned that it would perhaps entice poets from English Canada more so than poets from French Canada.

There have been some tremendous French writers and poets and perhaps it will take a poet to create a vision of Canada in which members of the Bloc, members of the House and Canadians can find a home where we all feel we are part of this great nation as equals, because as we always say, the pen is mightier than the sword. Maybe we should not cut off our nose to spite our face, as the saying goes.

When the bill was first brought to the House on April 24, I believe, when I spoke on the bill I delivered my speech in what some people might call poetry. I am not sure whether it was or not, but it was in some type of verse. There were two interesting things about that.

One was that because I did it that way I got more coverage than I ever did on any other topic I spoke about in the House. We have raised many topics that are important to my district, important to my province and important to my country. However, perhaps because I did something different, more media were interested in it than they were in the more important topics. I am not sure what that says about the poem, on the one hand, or on the other hand about what the press is really interested in.

At the time it was spring. It was a time, as people say, when a young man's fancy turns to love. I am not trying to say I am a young man, but perhaps my colleague from my party would be considered as such. It was a time when we were approaching summer, a time when we walked out of here and grass was turning green and the flowers were blooming. We thought about the upcoming summer and we thought about sharing it with our families. Everyone seemed to be in a good mood so we could take some time to write such a poem and to be a little trivial in the House. It was a time when we met our friends, smiled at them and said hello. It was also a time that when we met strangers we smiled and spoke to them. It was a time before September 11.

Since that time things have changed. Today I thought about again speaking in verse to the bill, but it is extremely hard to be trivial when we are living in such serious times. I just cannot bring myself to think about things that do not seem important when there are so many important issues. Perhaps like my colleagues from the Bloc who do not support the bill, I am not sure it is a very appropriate time to be talking about something which perhaps is not very significant in the order of things as they appear before us every day.

I talked about looking at our friends last spring when we could smile at them and talk to them. We did not look at them with suspicious eyes to see what colour their skin was or where they were going or what they had in their pockets. Times have changed tremendously since we first talked about this bill. One might ask this question: because of what happened on September 11, do we need a poet to capture the events so that we will always remember them?

I do not think we do. I think of a poem written by a great Newfoundlander poet, E.J. Pratt, who wrote some wonderful stuff. He wrote one poem called Erosion . I may not have every word correct but it went something like this:

It took the sea a thousand years, A thousand years to trace The granite features of this cliff, In crag and scarp and base. It took the sea an hour one night, An hour of storm to place The sculpture of these granite seams Upon a woman's face.

We all know the power of the sea and the losses that occur in a storm. We can imagine what happens to a family who is told it has lost its loved ones at sea.

I asked if we needed a poet to recall the events of September 11. I do not think we do because all of us will have forever indelibly etched on our brain the picture of that plane crashing into the towers in the United States, the picture of those two great towers crumbling. These visions will last forever. No poet could ever capture such memories for us.

Whether there are other events that poets would do a better job of recording, I am not sure. Undoubtedly poets have over the years been instrumental in preserving historical events. In fact a lot of our history has been recorded in poetry, but do we need to designate one individual to do it? We did not have to designate Pratt. We did not have to designate Robert Service. We did not have to designate John McCrae when he wrote In Flander's Fields . These people responded to the challenge, to the events of the time that for them were so important. They penned poetry so that they and we could always remember it.

There was a British poet, Seigfried Sassoon. Reading one of his poems today, I saw that it ties in with the events of September 11 and the memory of war and what happens and the shock that will always be recalled. In part of his poem called The Dugout , which was a place in which soldiers huddled during the war, he says to a young soldier:

And you wonder why I shake you by the shoulder; Drowsy, you mumble and sigh and turn your head.... You are too young to fall asleep forever; And when you sleep you remind me of the dead.

These are very powerful words that send chills down our spines. We remember the horrors of war because of poems like this and because of poems like John McCrae's and those of Robert Service, who wrote many other great poems besides his great poems about the Yukon.

Out there in society we have a tremendous number of poets who rise to the occasion and when a special event occurs they will respond without having us tell someone that they cannot be the poet laureate for this occasion, that we have designated someone who has to do this job. I think, as someone said, that we might be infringing upon the rights of poets, of private enterprise, if we want to say that. Poets now have the opportunity to rise to the challenge.

I mentioned at the end of my original poem that our jury is still out. At the final hour of debate we will decide then whether we will support the bill. I think we have great poets in Canada and I am not sure whether we have to select someone for special occasions when we have someone who may respond in a greater way. We should not inhibit the great abilities of these people.

[Foreign Missions and International Organizations Act, October 18th, 2001]

Madam Speaker, I have two questions, one which I do not expect him to answer and one on which I would like his comments.

First, what would have happened to the gentleman who kicked him if he had done it to his colleague from Wild Rose instead? The member may not want to answer that one.

Second, with respect to his comments in relation to protestors, to a large degree I agree him. We seem to have two types of protestors these days. People who protest because they have concerns about what is going on in society, and I support that in every way. I agree with the right to protest peacefully. I would think again if the avenues were opened up, they would be heard in proper circles and would not have to protest to get a message across. In some cases, they do have the opportunities and they protest anyway. I am aware of that also.

With respect to those who exceed the right to peacefully demonstrate and seem to go not only from event to event, but from country to country, there are two things that concern me. Where do they get the financing to go to these events? Where do we draw the line between those who peacefully protest and those who step over the line, and what should we do about it?

[Privilege, October 16th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, I also listened with interest to the member. She knows as well as all of us do that we are certainly not living in ordinary times. If they are not ordinary times then I guess they are extraordinary times and quite often extraordinary times require extraordinary measures.

When the hon. member expresses concern about us perhaps infringing upon the rights of some of our citizens, I wonder if we talked to all the citizens in the country in light of what has happened and in light of what can happen, where the trade-off would be. Most people I talk to are certainly willing to give up some of our rights and freedoms for the protection of life and liberty that we all stand for and fight for.

I wonder where the member draws the line. It is easy enough to say that we cannot infringe upon the rights of individuals, but individuals caused the problems we have today. If we do not take measures to eradicate the type of thing that happened on September 11, then undoubtedly the rights and freedoms that we possess and brag so much about will not be much good to us if we end up like a lot of people did on September 11.

[Supply, October 15th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, would the member comment on the response from the parliamentary secretary who talked about how much the government is spending and how much extra it is spending? Is the government spending enough?

I hope September 11 was a wake up call for the government. How prepared are we to defend ourselves if we have to do so? How prepared are we to play our part in the international protection game to protect the countries we have always protected and need to protect in the future? Are we spending enough? Would the member comment on that?

[Canadian Airline Industry, October 1st, 2001]

Madam Chairman, I would like to thank my colleague from Fundy--Royal for sharing his time. Coming from the far east of the country, we are certainly affected by what is happening as much as anyone in the country, and more than most except for the people from the far west, including my colleague from South Surrey--White Rock--Langley.

Newfoundland is often referred to as the rock, even though those who know it know it certainly is not. It is a tremendous place. Ottawa is often referred to as a hard place in which to get anything done. I guess I am always caught between a rock and a hard place. I am at the mercy of Air Canada because basically it is the only regular airline we have coming in. It is basically a monopoly.

What does it do for service? Let me say this: not very much.

Like all my colleagues who have spoken, I have concern about what is happening. We saw a tremendous change in the air industry after September 11. In fact, while I am on my feet I should pay tribute to the numerous Newfoundlanders who played a tremendous part in assisting all those who were affected and who helped out the many people who had to land in Newfoundland, at St. John's, Gander and some others, perhaps at Goose Bay and Stephenville. I guess even Deer Lake was affected to a large degree by the people who landed there and had to stay there for quite some time.

In fact one person was met by a friend of mine. He said “So are you stuck here for a few more days?” The person said “I'm not stuck. I've never had such a time in my life”. That speaks pretty well for the members of the Newfoundland and Labrador constituencies and it is no surprise to anyone who knows the area.

However these people from Newfoundland and Labrador who were so gracious are also greatly affected themselves, not only the people who work in the airports, but as others mentioned, the people who work in the hotels, the taxi drivers, the truckers, the tourism industry, the stores. I could go on and on because everyone is affected. Consequently, if we are to help one, we must help all. If we are to help one airline, we must help all airlines.

There are two things we must look at: first, that we do have what we call a national carrier, and second, that a way must be found to keep it flying, but not at the risk of negatively affecting others who are in competition because it is competition that makes the world go round.

In Newfoundland if we had more competition we would not have to put up with some of the poor service we have been getting. I will take a minute or so just to illustrate a couple of examples. I can use personal examples from the weekend.

I left here on Friday, rushed to the airport to find out my flight was delayed and got into Halifax to find out we did not have a plane. Finally one was found and when we were ready to board, after another hour and a half wait, there were mechanical difficulties with the plane and more delays. Finally we got into St. John's and I got home at 1 or 1.30 in the morning after driving from the airport.

When I was coming back on Sunday, most people on the flight I was on would have left home at 12 o'clock to get to the airport in time to check in. We got on our flight, got to Halifax and were told we had an hour's wait. We got up to get off the plane and were told we could not get off the plane unless we were changing planes; if we got off we would not be allowed back on. We waited for an hour and a quarter and then came on to Ottawa. Between St. John's and Halifax, we had a bag of peanuts. Between Halifax and Ottawa, we had a bag of peanuts. It was about eight hours from the time people would have left home until they got to Ottawa, and others probably went further, and they had two bags of peanuts, including a person who had a diabetic condition and needed some sugar. There was no fruit or anything on the plane to give to that person. That is the type of service we get for paying $2,200, round trip.

The dangerous thing I heard here tonight was the suggestion that there is a possibility that an influx of money might be put into Air Canada but it would be the responsibility of the Minister of Industry, Captain Canada, as someone said, the person who arrested the Spanish fishermen's boat, gave back the fish, gave them extra quota, apologized, kissed them and sent them on their way.

Government should challenge the private sector to get involved here. What an opportunity. Change the rules so that it can do so and let us get on with the business.

[Housing, September 28th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Public Works and Government Services.

Seventy-five hundred people in British Columbia have had to declare personal bankruptcy due to the leaky condo crisis. The personal stress and hardship cannot be measured.

When will the government show some leadership, step in and help the quarter of a million British Columbians who are affected by this crisis?

[Tropical Storm Gabrielle, September 28th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, tropical storm Gabrielle dumped 120 millimetres of rain on the Avalon Peninsula of Newfoundland within a few hours. The result was severe flooding. Roads were washed away, sewers overflowed and houses and businesses flooded. The city of St. John's declared a state of emergency.

The province has established a disaster assistance committee to deal with those affected. Municipal and provincial affairs minister Oliver Langdon says he is certain Ottawa will come up with the lion's share of a flood aid package, but to date no word has been received on federal approval. What's the problem? Why is the government hesitating?

The province of Newfoundland, the city of St. John's, businesses and individuals particularly need assistance now. Why does the government not do something different for a change? Why does it not respond quickly to this situation?