Alexa McDonough

[Dalhousie University, February 13th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, yesterday I was privileged to attend the awarding to Dalhousie University of the largest federal government university research award in Atlantic Canadian history.

This $35 million investment, made possible through the collaboration of the Canada Foundation for Innovation, NSERC and SSHRC, places Dalhousie at the epicentre of vital international oceans research into fisheries management challenges in the face of climate change.

The Ocean Tracking Network, integrating species monitoring across 14 ocean regions spanning the world's five oceans, is a testament to the incredible talent of researchers and students choosing Dalhousie as their academic home.

Academics and the entrepreneurial community worked together to make this initiative a reality, reinforcing Halifax as a global hub of economic dynamism and innovation.

I urge the government to seize this occasion to renew its financial commitment to the Canada Foundation for Innovation.

[Questions Passed as Orders for Returns, January 29th, 2007]

With respect to landmines, cluster bombs and other explosive devices: (a) how many civilian and military Canadian Forces (CF) members have been killed or injured annually since 1995, by landmines, cluster bombs and other explosive devices in (i) Afghanistan, (ii) other countries annually; (b) how many landmines have been removed annually since 1995, by (i) CF members, (ii) other personnel under contract with the government; (c) how many cluster bombs remain in Canada’s munitions stockpile and, if any, does the government intend on destroying these cluster bombs and, if so, what is its declared timetable for their destruction; and (d) what is the government’s policy on the use of cluster bombs.

[Foreign Affairs, December 12th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, this situation gets worse. Not only did the Prime Minister stage a photo op with this shadowy warlord, he rolled out the welcome mat for Naqib to visit Canada.

Is offering hospitality and a handshake to the warlord credited with subverting the police investigation into these tragic Canadian deaths the Prime Minister's concept of justice for the families of diplomat Glyn Berry and three of our soldiers wounded in action? Or, given Mullah Naqib's close association with the Taliban leadership, is this the Prime Minister's notion of dialogue with combatants? Which is it?

[Foreign Affairs, December 12th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, yesterday's Globe and Mail carried a picture of the Prime Minister shaking hands with Afghan warlord Mullah Naqib, a man who admits using his influence to free a leading suspect in the masterminding of the suicide bombing that killed Canadian diplomat Glyn Berry and injured three of our soldiers.

Can the Prime Minister explain Canada's relationship with Mullah Naqib and why he saw fit to meet with him?

[Bank Act, December 7th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, I welcome the opportunity to ask a couple of questions of the member for Esquimalt—Juan de Fuca, who has spent 15 minutes outlining a multi-point plan on how Canada should change its focus in Afghanistan, away from what his party got us into in the first place in the aggressive search and kill counter-insurgency mission in Kandahar.

Next, unbelievably, his party gave the Conservative government enough votes to ram through an extension on a mission with nine months still to go, adding two more years to that mission. Those members did this without a proper evaluation of what was happening with the mission, without an opportunity for us to even begin to consult Canadians, let alone have a fully informed, thorough, responsible debate before being pushed into a vote on very short notice.

Mr. Speaker, I assume that you will be as liberal in the interpretation of the rules of relevancy as your predecessor in the chair this afternoon. We are here this afternoon to deal with Bill C-37, An Act to amend the law governing financial institutions and to provide for related and consequential matters, but since the member for Esquimalt—Juan de Fuca was given the opportunity to speak for 15 uninterrupted minutes about his views on Afghanistan, I assume it is in order for me to ask him a question on this extremely important topic.

It took me a minute to realize that we were debating Afghanistan, so I did not hear in full the first couple of points in his five point plan on how to get us out of the Kandahar quagmire and finally address the horror of what is happening to our troops in the current flawed mission.

I want to ask him about a subject that came up in the foreign affairs committee yesterday of which he will be aware, I am sure. The Deputy Commissioner of the RCMP confirmed and informed the committee that 34,700 Iraqi police had been trained by Canadian RCMP officers over the last couple of years. This raised in the minds of everyone at committee, I think, the question of how many Afghan police, particularly in Kandahar, had been trained over the same period, because of course we are not supposed to be in Iraq although it is a very important thing for there to be training for the Iraqi police.

Given the fact that our commitment is supposed to be dealing with the insecurity in Kandahar, and given that many people feel that problems with the under-policing, the under-qualified policing and the insufficient numbers of police are at least as much or perhaps more of a threat to the security of the citizens of Kandahar, the question of interest, of course, is how many have been trained by Canada in Kandahar? I have to say that I almost fell off my chair when the Deputy Commissioner of the RCMP confirmed there had been 150.

I want to invite the member to address this question. Where does the issue of training the Afghani police fit into the member's five point plan for getting out of the Kandahar quagmire?

[Bank Act, December 7th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, as I make a few very brief comments on Bill C-37, An Act to amend the law governing financial institutions and to provide for related and consequential matters, I want to congratulate my colleague, the member for Trinity—Spadina, who just pointed out some of the consequential matters that arise in relation to the proposed changes that the government has placed before the House of Commons.

I particularly want to commend her for drawing attention to the implications for affordable housing, which we desperately lack, in the bill that is before us, following on the appalling record of the previous Liberal government in having basically pulled the plug on any federal commitment to affordable housing.

I wonder if I might ask the member for Trinity—Spadina if she could explain, in perhaps a little bit more detail, what the implications are of the changes to the National Housing Act that will make the likelihood of affordable housing being made available to those fantastic numbers of people who are currently in crisis even less available to them than it is now.

[Petitions, December 7th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, I take pleasure in tabling a petition signed by literally thousands of Canadians recognizing the enormous contribution of young people who devote their energies and talents as volunteers to the cause of building a more equitable and peaceful world, both here at home and abroad.

The petitioners urge Parliament to adopt legislative and other measures to support this valuable work of the volunteers and of the NGOs, like Crossroads International, Katimavik Canada World Youth and countless other agencies that facilitate and coordinate this tremendous contribution to building a better world, both here at home and abroad.

[Volunteerism, November 29th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, December 5 marks International Volunteer Day. Hundreds of thousands of Canadians are engaged in the battle to create justice, equality and peace in our world. Volunteers working in developing countries return with a deeper understanding of our role in the world, a commitment to greater international cooperation and a deep devotion to real change. Here at home tens of thousands more are engaged in that battle.

On the eve of International AIDS Day, by way of example, let us celebrate the explosion of activity in the grandmothers supporting grandmothers movement, launched at the International AIDS Conference in Toronto this summer. In 127 communities already, such groups are energetically raising awareness and funds and mobilizing support for a generation of grandmothers in Africa who play a central role in raising 13 million HIV-AIDS orphans.

This army of volunteers and NGOs supporting such initiatives are doing more than their fair share. On International Volunteer Day, let the government match that volunteer commitment.

[Business of Supply, November 23rd, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise today to make a few brief comments on the motion put forward by the Bloc before asking a question.

For the vast majority of my life I have lived in Nova Scotia. I grew up with a great appreciation of the Acadian presence in Nova Scotia and in Atlantic Canada. I considered Quebec to be a very dynamic, creative and exciting province outside of Atlantic Canada about which I did not know a great deal.

I then had the privilege of being elected leader of the New Democratic Party and coming to Ottawa in 1995. Over the last 10 years, I have developed an enormous appreciation of how very special and, in some ways, unique, the province of Quebec is within the Canadian family.

In order to fully appreciate that I think one must live, however briefly, in the province of Quebec and not just in the wonderful cities of Quebec and Montreal, but in the northern part of the province. I had the opportunity to live in the Lac-Saint-Jean area and Jonquière over a period of years taking brief French immersion courses.

When the member speaks about his support for a strong Quebec within a united Canada, which his government has expressed in the motion introduced yesterday, I wonder if he would comment on whether he sees ways in which the Canadian government could enhance the relationship between Canada and the people of Quebec through changes--

[Afghanistan, November 23rd, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, on October 26 the defence minister told the House he would discuss Canada's role in Afghanistan any time any place. He then took his so-called cross-Canada tour to sell the Kandahar mission without setting foot in Atlantic Canada. Halifax is home to Canada's largest military community. Soldiers from Nova Scotia have suffered the most severe casualties in Kandahar.

I urge the minister to reconsider his refusal to come to Halifax on December 4 to participate in a public forum on Afghanistan, or does the minister's Canada end at the New Brunswick-Quebec border?