Lost his last election, in 2019, with 32% of the vote.
Foreign Affairs January 29th, 2002
Mr. Speaker, my supplementary question is for the Prime Minister. The government's position on prisoners in Afghanistan is not only legally indefensible but it is morally bankrupt.
If Canada is not prepared to allow prisoners that are captured to be executed, why is it that we are prepared to turn over those same prisoners to the United States to be tried before a military tribunal and by a majority vote to be sentenced to death? Is that not the ultimate in outsourcing of our moral obligations?
International Trade December 14th, 2001
Mr. Speaker, I have a supplementary question for the Minister for International Trade.
Ethyl Corporation, UPS and now Crompton Corporation, how many more times must Canada be sued by American companies for defending our sovereignty, for defending the health and the environment of Canadians before the government will finally stand up and either get rid of chapter 11 of NAFTA or abrogate the deal?
Will the minister assure the House that his government will not sign any new trade deal, such as the FTAA, that would include the investor state provision that puts corporate power ahead of the environment and the health of Canadians?
Nuclear Disarmament December 13th, 2001
Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Foreign Affairs.
Today's decision by George Bush to scrap the 1972 ABM treaty is a body blow to nuclear disarmament which will lead to a new star wars missile defence program and to the militarization of space. The Canadian government has refused up to now to take a stand on NMD saying it is hypothetical.
Will the government now finally get off the fence and tell George Bush that Canadians oppose this dangerous reopening of the nuclear arms race? Will Canada condemn this decision to scrap the ABM treaty?
Middle East December 13th, 2001
Mr. Speaker, Canadians are appalled at the escalating violence in Israel and the occupied territories. As the Minister of National Defence recently noted, we mourn the deaths of both Israelis and Palestinians.
We welcomed the Prime Minister's statement today urging Israel to resume its dealings with Yasser Arafat and the Palestinian authority as the only credible partners for peace.
My question for the Minister of Foreign Affairs is this: Will the government support Jordan's request for an emergency meeting of the security council to implement international protection for the Palestinians?
Committees of the House December 13th, 2001
Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask a brief question of the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Finance concerning the provision in the budget for a $12 fee for each leg of a round trip flight. As the parliamentary secretary would know, this will impose a very serious hardship on many Canadian travellers and have a very adverse impact on the travel industry, in particular on smaller airlines.
I want to point out that on flights which may be very short flights, Vancouver to Victoria, for example, flights of a very limited duration that have very low fares and may cost under $100, this would result in something like a 25% increase overall in the cost of that fare.
I want to ask the parliamentary secretary a very serious question in terms of the possibility that the government might be willing to re-examine this issue or, at the very least, if it is not prepared to eliminate or significantly reduce this $24 additional burden on travellers, would it be prepared to look at the possibility of some sort of exemption below which that fee would not be charged? For example, on a round trip fare of less than $500 or less than $300, something of that nature, travellers would not have to pay a very substantial percentage in a new fee for a round trip fare. Would the parliamentary secretary be prepared to consider that option to assist travellers?
Committees of the House December 13th, 2001
Madam Speaker, in the very brief time that is left I want to ask the member who has just spoken two questions.
My first question is with respect to the issue of the theft of workers' funds and the massive accumulation of a surplus in the EI fund, without which clearly there would not be a surplus. Will the member indicate when the government will finally fund employment insurance properly in this country?
The Budget December 11th, 2001
Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the parliamentary secretary both for his undertaking and his commitment that the legislation will be brought forward and also for his personal commitment to equality in this issue with which I am very familiar and which I very much respect.
The obvious question I have for the member is when. How much longer will we have to wait? I remind my hon. friend that in fact the same commitment was made in the House in December 1999. The minister herself said then that we would be moving ahead within months.
I have tabled a private member's bill that would explicitly amend the code to include sexual orientation. Is the parliamentary secretary prepared to consult with the minister as to the possibility that we may be able to move ahead with my bill, assuming that it meets the objectives that we agreed to in the House at the earliest possible occasion in the new year?
The Budget December 11th, 2001
Mr. Speaker, early one morning in November 1999 a 24 year old law student, Robbie Peterson, was brutally kicked and punched in the head and face. It happened at the corner of Regent and Brunswick streets in Fredericton, New Brunswick. He was attacked because he was gay. He was attacked from behind, thrown to the ground and kicked repeatedly. His attacker hurled anti-gay insults as he fled into the night.
Shortly after that attack I questioned the Minister of Justice in the House, asking her when she would be introducing legislation to include sexual orientation in the hate propaganda provisions of the criminal code. She replied at that time, which was December 1999, two years ago, that we would be making the necessary changes to the criminal code in the coming months.
That was two years ago. In fact it was a year and a couple of months before that in October 1998 that the provincial attorneys general, together with the federal attorney general, agreed at their annual meeting in Regina, Saskatchewan, that they would move ahead and deal with hate motivated activities in a manner consistent with the charter; in other words, to make those amendments. That was over three years ago.
Last month, almost two years to the day after Robbie Peterson was brutally attacked in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Aaron Webster was murdered in Stanley Park. Aaron Webster was a gay man. He was bludgeoned to death and he was attacked because he was gay.
Today, over three years after the Minister of Justice promised to amend the criminal code, I am appealing once again to the minister through the parliamentary secretary to do the right thing and asking why it has taken so long since the promise was made, first in October 1998 and then in December 1999.
That was the question I asked the minister just a couple of weeks ago after Aaron Webster's death. She responded that she would consult with the provincial and territorial attorneys general.
Consult she did once again and they unanimously agreed again that there must be action. I spoke personally with the attorney general of Saskatchewan, Chris Axworthy, who agreed to this. The attorney general and justice minister of Manitoba, Gord Macintosh, said:
It is pathetic that this issue got lost somewhere in Ottawa.
We do not want to see another three years go by and another killing to move this issue along.
This affects both the violence and hatred directed at gay and lesbian people and those perceived to be gay and lesbian, but it also affects the ability of the police to stop hatemongers at the border, people like Fred Phelps.
The Ottawa police said recently that if this were done against a catholic, a jew or a black person charges could be laid. If we had that legislation in place we would not have to put up with the nonsense of Fred Phelps on Monday. We could have told him that if he shows up and starts spreading this hate we will arrest him.
I want to call on the government to act and to act now to finally include sexual orientation in the hate propaganda sections of the criminal code. This is long overdue. No one else should be bashed or murdered simply because of the fact they are gay or lesbian in a land in which our criminal code does not prohibit the spewing of that hatred and violence.
The Budget December 11th, 2001
Speak from the heart.
Petitions December 10th, 2001
Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present a petition which is signed by hundreds of residents, Canadians across the country, that notes that Canadians do not wish to be a party to a policy that kills over 5,000 Iraqi children every month. They note that the foreign affairs committee unanimously in the last parliament urgently recommended that the government pursue the de-linking of economic from military sanctions with a view to rapidly lifting economic sanctions in order to significantly improve the humanitarian situation of the Iraqi people. Therefore, the petitioners call upon parliament and the Prime Minister to act on the recommendations of the standing committee and to urgently pursue the rapid lifting of the economic sanctions in Iraq.
I would note that this was co-ordinated by Irene MacInnes of the campaign to end the sanctions against the people of Iraq, CANESI, and they have done outstanding work in this regard.