Svend Robinson

[Health, February 10th, 2003]

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

People from across Canada gathered this weekend in Ottawa for the people's summit on health care and they strongly supported a public, non-profit health care system.

Why is the Prime Minister, in his accord, turning over billions of dollars to the privatizing premiers like Klein, Campbell, Eves and Lord with no strings attached so they can spend it on corporate, for profit delivery of health care services? Why on earth did the Prime Minister push Don Mazankowski, king of the privatizers, to chair his new Canada health council?

[Solicitation Laws, February 7th, 2003]

Madam Speaker, I will be brief because I hope there is a disposition in the House this afternoon to agree that this very important subject should in fact be studied at the earliest possible time by the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights. I commend my colleague from Winnipeg Centre for his motion to that effect.

I also want to pay tribute to my colleague, the member for Vancouver East, for the leadership and the courage that she has shown in speaking out on this issue so tirelessly and so effectively on behalf not just of her constituents in the downtown east side, but on behalf of all those who are affected by this motion. I know that the hon. member has been working on this issue from the days that she was a member of Vancouver city council many years ago and has continued tirelessly to advocate changes in this area of the law.

I too agree that the law must be changed. In fact I think the current law is steeped in hypocrisy.

As John Lowman, a respected criminologist at Simon Fraser University in my constituency has noted in a major paper that he published in 1998 on prostitution and law reform in Canada, the Criminal Code is currently very hypocritical. It tolerates off-street prostitution--and all we have to do is go to the phone book to see that with pages and pages of ads for escort agencies--but when it comes to street prostitution, there is still a glaring double standard.

Too many women are in unsafe conditions and are not treated with dignity and respect. The criminalization in this area has caused all sorts of tragedies, not the least of which was the disappearance of over 50 women from the downtown east side of Vancouver.

I am probably the only member in the House this afternoon who was in the House in the mid-1980s when the law was toughened. It was called Bill C-49. I fought against those changes at that time and said then that I believed that they would lead to a terrible injustice and I believe that again today.

Therefore I am pleased to support the hon. member's motion. In the couple of minutes that remain, I want also to ask the committee to consider, if it is possible to do so, another element of the law in this area. That is Canada's bawdy house laws in the same area of the Criminal Code.

These are laws which are archaic, which are outdated and are too often open to serious abuse. We have seen that recently in the case of the Goliath's raid by the Calgary police. I would hope that it would be recognized that these bawdy house laws too have no place on the law books of Canada. I urge the committee to study this area as well.

I call on all members of the committee to join with the member for Vancouver East in sending this very important subject to the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights for the serious study that it deserves and hopefully to recommend that these laws be fundamentally changed, be decriminalized once and for all.

[Petitions, February 7th, 2003]

Madam Speaker, the second petition that I have the honour of presenting is signed by more than 500 residents of British Columbia, mainly from the Sunshine Coast, in particular endorsed by the Sunshine Coast peace group and Roger and Denise Lagassé-Birklein from Half Moon Bay. They point out that the terrible events of September 11, 2001, have shown how desperately urgent it is to address the underlying causes of violence and terrorism.

They speak in the petition about those underlying causes and they call for the establishment of a ministry of peace to signal to the world that, in this the third millennium, our commitment to global peace is a major priority deserving of serious attention and be an ongoing priority among our government objectives.

[Petitions, February 7th, 2003]

Shut out again, Madam Speaker. I have the honour of presenting two petitions today. The first is a petition which is signed by some 52 residents of my constituency of Burnaby--Douglas. They are petitioning on the subject of child pornography. They draw to the attention of the House their concern that the creation and use of child pornography is condemned by a clear majority of Canadians, that the courts have not applied the current child pornography law in a way which makes it clear that such exploitation of children will always be met with swift punishment.

They call upon Parliament to protect our children by taking all necessary steps to ensure that all materials which promote or glorify pedophilia or sado-masochistic activities involving children are outlawed. This is signed by petitioners including Jenivere Peters, Helen Dirksen, Alex Robertson, Nola Robinson, Ying Wang and many others from Burnaby.

[Health, February 7th, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, if that is the same council that the Prime Minister tried to have Don Mazankowski chair that is really reassuring.

Roy Romanow pointed out in his report that diagnostic services such as MRIs and CAT scans are an essential part of medicare and should not be used to queue jump in the public system.

When will the government move to include diagnostic services under the Canada Health Act as insured health services? Who is calling the shots for the government? Is it Don Mazankowski and Senator Kirby or is it Roy Romanow who speaks out against privatizing in health care?

[Health, February 7th, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, we witnessed the unholy spectacle of Liberal and Alliance MPs rising together in the House to applaud the rejection of Roy Romanow's key recommendation that medicare be kept out of the hands of private for profit businesses.

If the government will not stand up to privatizers like Klein, Campbell, Eves and Lord, if it will not keep the promise it made to Canadians in the 2000 election, will it at least guarantee that any public money that goes to private for profit health care will be fully reported to the public in a timely way?

[Health, February 6th, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister made the same promise in 2000, and northern and aboriginal Canadians are still waiting for that promise to be kept.

One of the greatest threats to medicare in Canada is the growth of private for profit health care delivery combined with the impact of corporate trade deals.

I want to ask the Prime Minister, why is it that his health accord is totally silent on the new public health dollars going into private for profit health care and why did the Prime Minister try to appoint Don Mazankowski, the king of the privatizers, as the new chair of the Canada health council?

[Health, February 6th, 2003]

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

This morning the three northern territorial premiers condemned the new health accord, pointing out that the Prime Minister ignored the appalling third world health conditions among aboriginal peoples and the failure of per capita funding to provide the desperately needed resources in the north.

Why did the Prime Minister ignore Romanow? Why did he ignore all of the premiers in this shameful betrayal of northern and aboriginal Canadians? Specifically, why will the Prime Minister not establish a separate northern health fund of at least $60 million for the three northern territories?

[Health, February 5th, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Deputy Prime Minister about a grave threat to Canada's public health care system.

Today we learned that Don Mazankowski, who was the privatization minister under Brian Mulroney and the director of several private insurance companies, may chair the proposed Canada health care council. Does the government not understand that the appointment of Don Mazankowski, who is king of the privatizers, would be another step on the road to the dismantling of Canada's public medicare system?

Why will the government not stand up to the privatizing provinces and join with Lorne Calvert and Gary Doer in saying no to this outrageous appointment?

[Health, February 4th, 2003]

Obviously they are not important enough to the government, Mr. Speaker.

I have a supplementary question for the Minister of Health.

The Prime Minister managed to get all of the provinces and territories, led by five different political parties, on board to support the recommendation that the federal government provide 25% of health care funding.

After the massive cuts by the former Minister of Finance and member for LaSalle—Émard, will the government accept this key recommendation by the Romanow commission? Yes or no?