Andrew Telegdi

[Petitions, June 12th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, I have a petition signed by 52 petitioners in support of Bill C-225, an act to amend the Marriage Act and Immigration Act, so as to define in statute that a marriage can only be entered into between a single male and a single female.

[Research And Development, June 12th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, the University of Waterloo and the consortium Watpark recently announced progress in the development of a 200 acre world-class research and technology park on campus.

Companies such as IBM Canada Ltd. and the Evergreen Foundation are participating in this consortium. This high tech park will encourage the creation or relocation of research-based companies, provide attractive employment opportunities in the high tech sector for co-op students and graduates and produce long term financial benefits that will help the university to enhance the quality and relevance of its programs.

I applaud this private and academic sector partnership for its initiatives that will be of great benefit to the Waterloo region, Ontario and Canada.

I also congratulate this Liberal government, the Ministers of Finance and Industry and the Secretary of State for Science, Research and Development for their support of the R and D sector.

[Petitions, June 11th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, the next petition relates to the age of consent for sexual activity. The petitioners ask parliament that the age be raised to 18, with the exception of husband and wife relationships.

[Petitions, June 11th, 1998]

Basically it calls for the abolition of nuclear weapons by the year 2000 and to set forth a binding timetable. In particular seeing what happened in Pakistan and India, this is something that we would all applaud.

[Petitions, June 11th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased that you are able to see all the way back here.

I am presenting two petitions. One petition is regarding the abolition of nuclear weapons. It reads “Your petitioners pray and request that parliament support immediate initiation and —”

[Petitions, June 10th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, the final petition is signed by 200 people from my riding. It urges parliament to remove the GST from books, magazines and newspapers.

[Petitions, June 10th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, the next petition I have is from 113 people in my riding who call upon parliament to affirm the duty of parents to responsibly raise their children according to their own conscience and beliefs, and to retain section 43 of the Criminal Code as it is currently worded.

[Petitions, June 10th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, I have a number of petitions to present. One petition is from constituents in my riding of Serbian descent.

They call upon the government to take all necessary action to stop all forms of armament into Kosovo and Metohija.

[Supply, June 9th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend for his question. I note that he is a former crown attorney. He certainly has some knowledge of the criminal justice system. I very much enjoy working with him. Unfortunately he missed my opening comments where I actually talked about gun control, the position I took in the last election campaign and why I supported it. To recap, victims wanted us to pass it and they supported it. My community virtually demanded it.

There is the issue that law-abiding people will register guns and criminals will not. As a crown attorney, the member will know that at some point this week there will be a raid on a motorcycle club some place. Chances are there will be all sorts of guns around. When a police officer is able to say “This gun is not registered and you have committed an offence,” then we have done something good.

I also mentioned that it is too easy to obtain guns in this country. We do not want to repeat some of the mistakes made south of the border where children are killing children and their teachers. We must have control of firearms. During the election campaign I was very up front. At the conclusion of my remarks I said if you do not support Bill C-68, if you do not believe we should have gun control, do not vote for me, vote for the New Democrats, the Conservatives or the Reform Party. There was a lot of support for it in my community which was attested to by the results.

The member talked about the expensive cost of crime. He knows that the cost of crime in Canada is $46 billion. What we spend at the government level is $9.6 billion. What we are talking about in terms of crime prevention is really a small amount of money. We are talking $32 million.

The member will know that I have lobbied the justice minister that we should reallocate some of the money that we have now allocated under the federal government budget. Thirty-two million dollars represents 1% of the federal budget for justice and the solicitor general. Let us reallocate something like 5% over the coming years. Let us help communities to come up with the plans, the strategies and the projects to battle crime and to work on crime prevention.

[Supply, June 9th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his intervention. First, let me say that there is a need for prisons to house people who are a danger to the community. There is no question about that.

I agree with my colleague that a three year sentence was not adequate. That has been changed. Under the changes that will be tabled in the House that will be changed again.

But I point out to my colleague that attempted murder and homicide make up one-tenth of 1% of crime. So we are talking about a very small number.

Most of the offences occurring under the Young Offenders Act are property offences, law and order offences.

Let me tell my colleague that his point is very correct. We have to assure the public that for those offenders, and there are not as many as people would have us believe, lengthy jail terms are appropriate.