Aileen Carroll

[Foreign Affairs, September 25th, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, as the hon. member has said, the position of the government is that Mr. Taylor should stand trial before the special court for Sierra Leone for the war crimes and the crimes against humanity with which he has been charged.

With regard to funding, the foreign minister of Canada has personally engaged his counterparts in other countries to honour their pledges or to make new commitments to ensure that the court is able to continue its very important legal processes. In that regard we are considering the request as well.

[Foreign Affairs, September 24th, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, as I have already told the member, this matter is being discussed at the highest levels. We have been in contact with the top American authorities.

We continue to pursue the matter, both with American and Syrian authorities. Mr. Arar is no longer in Jordan; he is in Syria. We think that is the situation we should be dealing with.

[Foreign Affairs, September 24th, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Canada has raised this at the very highest level of the United States, including Secretary of State Colin Powell.

In addition, we have made it very clear to Syrian authorities that Mr. Arar be brought back to Canada. In the event that they do not do that, then we want him brought forward for trial. We understand that he will be brought forward for trial in the near future. We have met with his lawyer and Canadian officials there. We are making it very clear that we want access to that trial and the ability to monitor it all the way through.

[Foreign Affairs, September 23rd, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, we are demanding an open trial where those responsible will be brought forward and punished. We are demanding that the remains of Madam Kazemi be returned to Canada.

While we welcome the news of some progress, we remain very concerned that there be action following the announcement. We are monitoring it very closely indeed and members can also be assured that the Minister of Foreign Affairs is meeting with his Iranian counterpart in New York to push all of those objectives.

[Foreign Affairs, September 23rd, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister, as we know, is at the United Nations. His speech while he is there, and in all he has said before, reinforces this country's very strong belief in the processes at the United Nations.

We continue to support a multilateral approach in the reconstruction of Iraq and we have contributed $300 million to do that.

[Anna Lindh, September 19th, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay my respects to the family of Anna Lindh, the late Swedish Foreign Affairs Minister who died last week in Stockholm.

I had the great pleasure of meeting Ms. Lindh when I attended a European Union Conflict Prevention Conference in Helsinborg, Sweden, in my capacity as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs.

I was very impressed with Anna Lindh, the woman and the politician. There was every chance she may have become the future prime minister of Sweden. Her death has left a void which will take a long time to fill.

I held her in high regard and I am grateful to have had the opportunity to meet and work with her on that one occasion. She was a prominent campaigner for human rights and European integration, and was a politician with enormous conviction.

My condolences go out to her husband, her two children and her fellow countrymen. As Swedish Prime Minister Goran Persson said: “Sweden has lost its face to the world”.

[User Fees Act, September 18th, 2003]

Madam Speaker, I wish to recognize our colleague, the member for Etobicoke North, and his many achievements but particularly his achievement in raising the profile of the subject of external charging.

The government also shares his desire to improve the fee setting process. It is in that spirit that in August the President of the Treasury Board announced the revised external charging policy and this policy is now in effect. We believe that it addresses many of the concerns that have been raised by hon. colleague from Etobicoke North. The confidence seems to be there that a policy based approach is more effective.

With stakeholder consultation as its backbone, the policy strikes a balance between two sound management practices. While it strives for government-wide consistency, it still provides the flexibility for individual programs to meet the needs of the varied and diverse interests of the stakeholders.

The government consulted with stakeholders in industry associations and firms, which pay federal user charges, during its policy review and it heard from members of Parliament and in particular, members of the Standing Committee on Finance. These consultations were central to the development of the revised policy.

The review heard that there is broad support for the principles of equity and fairness that underpin the policy.

However the review also revealed that stakeholders shared a number of substantive concerns that needed to be addressed and, through policy, it is believed that they have been.

The result is a revised policy which focuses on accountability and transparency, as called for by the stakeholders and parliamentarians. The revised policy builds on this solid foundation to meet the concerns raised during the review as well as by my colleague's bill.

The revised policy strongly reinforces the link between fees and service performance. Now departments, through stakeholder consultations, must establish service standards and the action to be taken if these standards are not met. However the policy does make clear that service commitments must take account of the program's priorities, as set through legislation or regulation. Service delivery is in the broad public interest and the policy recognizes that standards must reflect the needs of all Canadians in a balanced fashion.

[City of Barrie, September 16th, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, in 1853 about 800 people living in small wooden buildings along a short stretch of Kempenfelt Bay on Lake Simcoe became the first official residents of the Town of Barrie.

This year our city is celebrating its 150th birthday. The City of Barrie is one of the fastest growing municipalities in Canada, with a population that has more than doubled in 20 years. The volunteer sesquicentennial committee has worked very hard to organize a number of events to commemorate this special year. The next event, Heritage Day, will be held on September 20. Heritage Day celebrations will include a re-enactment of the Nine Mile Portage historic trade route.

I would like to offer my appreciation and congratulations to the large number of volunteers and local sponsors who have worked tirelessly to make this year a year for the residents of Barrie to remember. I would also like to express special thanks to Alderman Patricia Copeland and John Bearcroft, sesquicentennial committee co-chairs.

[Foreign Affairs, June 13th, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, in no way was this a matter of discrimination, nor are there any matters that relate to the issue that has been brought forward that stem from discrimination. It is a longstanding policy on the part of the department that when a person has a passport picture taken nothing must be worn to obscure the accuracy of that photo. In the event where headgear or something is integral to religious belief, it is asked that proof of that person's religious affiliation be brought to the department. In this case it was not, and therefore that exception was not applied.

[Foreign Affairs, June 13th, 2003]

As I have said, Mr. Speaker, we have been supporting and are very actively supporting multilateral action to respond to the human rights crisis that has been described.

However, we cannot think of bringing Robert Mugabe before the ICC, as the hon. member knows, because it has no jurisdiction. Mr. Mugabe cannot be indicted by the court in the absence of a UN Security Council resolution calling for the ICC action. This is known to the hon. member, and again we are hearing rhetoric at a time when the information required is well known.