Alexa McDonough

[Apec Summit, September 22nd, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, my question is also for the Prime Minister.

A federal government lawyer claims that the Prime Minister has no relevant testimony to give before the Public Complaints Commission.

Is the Prime Minister pretending that he never discussed the handling of protesters or the accommodating of Suharto's sensitivities with any of his officials?

[Apec Summit, September 21st, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, Canadians want their Prime Minister to be a statesman, not a doormat for brutal foreign dictators. Will the Prime Minister admit today that he was wrong to put the dictates and the demands of a brutal foreign dictator ahead of the democratic rights and civil liberties of Canadians?

[Apec Summit, September 21st, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, it is clear that the Prime Minister and his staff made a decision to sacrifice the democratic rights of Canadians in order to create a comfort zone for a brutal foreign dictator. Today I ask the Prime Minister one simple question. Was it worth it?

[Health, June 11th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, no wonder there is no strategy or deadline to deal with the crisis. The minister continues to refuse to recognize that there is a crisis. Sleepwalking through the problem is what one Health Canada official called it today.

Scientists in the minister's own department today revealed that drug companies are influencing approvals of questionable safety. What will it take for the minister to admit that there is a crisis in his own department?

[Health, June 11th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, as children do, the Minister of Health is going through the no stage.

According to him, there is no problem at health protection, no problems with toxic toys and no problems with blood products and prescription drugs. An independent report, however, points to an organization in crisis.

When will the minister act like an adult, stop playing with the health of Canadians and acknowledge that not everything is rosy at the health protection branch?

[Environment, June 10th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, why would we sign on to an agreement that we have no intentions of honouring? What Canadians need is not loopholes but leadership on climate change. That is what the environment commissioner is looking for as well.

Why is the government telling Canadians one thing and saying something completely different behind closed doors in Bonn?

[Environment, June 10th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, I have a question for the Prime Minister.

Canada agreed in Kyoto that greenhouse gas emissions reduction begins at home. It begins by cleaning up our own act. But today we have evidence that Canada is behind closed doors in Bonn promoting instead unlimited emissions trading, a massive loophole to escape responsibility for domestic emissions reductions.

What happened to Canada's Kyoto commitment? Was it a sham?

[Hepatitis C, June 9th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, how low can you go? How sick can you get?

The Prime Minister signalled again yesterday his government's refusal to put another nickel into hepatitis C compensation.

Is the Prime Minister simply trying to lessen the resolve of hepatitis C victims to fight for fair compensation? Why is the Prime Minister actively sabotaging the success of negotiations for fair compensation?

[Hepatitis C, June 9th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, it was downright sick for the Prime Minister to choose a youth audience in Regina yesterday to argue that compensating hepatitis C victims will open the door to compensation for smoking related cancers. There were no warning labels on the blood that infected hepatitis C victims; no labels that said “This blood is dangerous to your health”. Why does the Prime Minister not just slap a label on his lapel saying “This government is dangerous to your health”?

[Labour, June 5th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, that does not sound like standing up for Canadian workers to me.

For decades federal and provincial governments have dangled the promise of offshore jobs over the heads of unemployed Atlantic Canadians. Now the government is fudging and fidgeting around about interpretations that may do those Canadian workers out of those jobs.

Again, is the minister prepared to stand up for Canadian workers?