Darrel Stinson

[Supply, April 3rd, 2003]

You tell lies. You're the liar.

[Supply, April 3rd, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, I listened to the member's comments and I cannot agree more strongly with what he said. One thing the government has overlooked is the relationship we have had with the United States of America and its people.

I will use an example. People tend to forget in times of need the Americans have come to our aid and we have come to theirs. During forest fire seasons, I know for a fact that we send firefighters across the border to help put out fires. I know for a fact that they send them up here. With regard to the floods, it was the same. With regard to the ice storm, it was the same thing.

In northern Ontario we had the great fire of Vermillion Bay. We were in danger of losing a number of camps there. The camps were owned by people in Ontario, and we could not get enough firefighters. The Americans who were there fishing at that time volunteered and we fought side by side to help stem that fire.

When our friends were in times of need, where was this government? Why was the government not there to respond even on the moral side of it. That is embarrassing. Does the hon. member have any ideas of how we can offset this? How can we send our apologies or make amends on behalf of the Canadian people?

[Supply, April 3rd, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, I listened to the hon. member's speech with great interest. I understand that the member lives along the border of the United States and Canada.

I have had the privilege to travel back and forth across the border many times, both before and after I got into politics. I have many friends down in the United States. I have had the opportunity to work down there. I have family down there too.

I have had phone calls from people in the United States, from friends of mine, saying that some of the comments that were made by the government, the government backbenchers and the minister have been played over and over on TV down there. I want the hon. member to know that it is not just us who are taking it seriously; the American people are taking what was said very seriously.

As the hon. member was saying, it impacts on his constituency, in the Langley area. I am from the interior where we rely very heavily upon the tourist industry. My big fear is that this will also have a financial impact on the Canada's tourism industry, particularly in our area. Does the hon. member share those same concerns?

[Petitions, April 3rd, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, on behalf of the people of Okanagan—Shuswap, who live in Vernon and Lumby, I am pleased to present a petition requesting that Parliament protect the rights of Canadians to be free to share their religious beliefs without fear of prosecution. The petitioners feel that the current provisions of the Criminal Code of Canada can be effective in preventing true threats against individuals or groups without changes to sections 318 and 319 of the Criminal Code.

[Firearms Registry, March 26th, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, the Liberal government has yet to provide Canadian taxpayers with a cost benefit analysis for the firearms registry program, or at least release the one that it has already done.

The new CEO of the Canadian Firearms Centre admitted last week that cabinet had refused to release the gun registry cost benefit analysis.

The Canadian public deserves to know why the government refuses to release this study. Could it be that the costs to go back and fix the gun registry are far too high?

Our frontline police officers and our hospitals are understaffed and poorly equipped. There are 1.5 million children in Canada living in poverty, yet the government continues to throw money at a gun registry that is totally out of control. Shame on it.

[Supply, March 24th, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, I have to agree in many ways with what the member had to say in his speech.

One of the big concerns I have had and the member touched on it briefly is with regard to the Sea King helicopters. I do not know if it is true but perhaps the hon. member could shed some light on this. I have read that it takes between 20 and 30 hours of maintenance just for one hour of flying time with the Sea King. I would appreciate it if the hon. member would enlighten me on whether that is the case.

On the same topic of the Sea King, not that long ago there was an article in the paper about one of them crashing onto one of our destroyers and pretty well embarrassing our armed forces by having to send the destroyer home. Perhaps he could confirm that too.

[Criminal Code, March 21st, 2003]

They use and they use, Madam Speaker.

I cannot believe that we have allowed this to go on for so long. I remember standing up in 1994 in the House arguing about the same thing, the exploitation of our children in this country. I am not speaking as a father because I do not have children. I have not had the good fortune to have grandchildren. I am speaking as someone who has gone with members from this side, the member for Wild Rose and the member from Bulkley Valley, to see the devastation this has created in our cities across Canada.

There is nothing worse than talking to a girl who is 12, 13 or 14 years old and whose life has been totally ruined through this. They are taken in by gangs and forced into these types of acts. They are forced and we sit here and we do nothing about it. Then I am supposed to go home, along with the other members of the House, and say that I am proud to represent Canada.

Let me say that many times I am not proud to represent Canada because of what we allow to take place in Canada. It is time the government decided to give back to parents the right to start raising their children. The government has to get out of the family business and start protecting those who need protection. It is time, long past time, and sooner or later we are going to reap what we sow.

Why do we have an overabundance of child drug addicts and sexual diseases among children in the country? This is why: The government decided it would be a parent. The trouble is that the government does not understand or realize what being a parent is about. It could care less. This is what is going on in our country. It is going on in our schools and our streets and still the government will turn a blind eye and say it is justified under artistic merit.

That is the guts this government has. It will hide behind judges and it will hide behind interpretations such as artistic merit and say when this happens that it had no idea that this could take place and that the law will be made this way and will be interpreted this way by a judge.

Yet time after time on this side of the House members have stood up and told the government exactly what is going to happen. It has still turned a deaf ear to it and decided it will pass it on by. That is a disgrace. Not only is it a disgrace for the House, it is a disgrace for the country.

[Criminal Code, March 21st, 2003]

Yes, many times before they ever get to prison.

Then they are pushed out the door to again go after the children, to be part of our so-called neighbourhood that the government is so worried about.

There are things going on in this country. If the government really wants to know what is going on in the country, it should get its head out of where it has it stuck.

[Criminal Code, March 21st, 2003]

Let the judges take the heat and let the lawyers be called the dogs of the day for arguing the cases. The fact of the matter is that when we hire lawyers we want our lawyers to represent us to the best of their ability, and then the judge makes the decision.

However, when the decision goes against the good of children, of all people, certainly the government should have the intestinal fortitude or the guts to make the change to protect our children, but it does not. It goes along and tries to pass another bill, which I am sure it will get through, Bill C-20.

Bill C-20 fails to set a clear standard on the issue of the age of consent for adult-child sexual relationships. In other words, we allow our 14 year old children to be bought and paid for by some 60 year old, and we do nothing about it. We have become known in the world as protectors of the child sex trade.

I have had the unfortunate opportunity of seeing some of these programs that the police are so concerned about. Fourteen is at the high end of the age spectrum. These videos show three year olds and four year olds. They are sick and they are sickening. Yet time after time when we find these people and law enforcement collects enough evidence and is finally allowed to bring these people to court, they are let off with a slap on the wrist and we say that we can change these people or the way they do business in regard to child pornography.

I have heard the excuse of artistic merit. Nobody with any reasoning is going to argue about a drawing in a doctor's office, for God's sake, yet I have heard members, and I even have heard the minister, stand up and say that is reason the government wants to have this in the bill. What a load of garbage. It is a doctor's office. We know that doctors have drawings and pictures of body parts, so that does not wash with the public out there.

What does get the public angry is that when these people are sentenced they can go right through the whole system without treatment and be allowed to go back onto the street. They are allowed back onto the street to ply their trade, and that is all it is. These people are in it for the money and are using our children to make the money. They go through the prison system without even having to sit one day to understand what is wrong with their trade.

[Criminal Code, March 21st, 2003]

Yes, cowardice is a very good word for what the government has allowed to happen.

The function of government is to create the laws. If a judge interprets a law in a way that the government did not mean for it to be interpreted, it takes only a matter of a day or so in this supposed Chamber to change the law so it can no longer be interpreted in that way. However, the government, in its cowardly acts, decided it would not do that because it might be controversial and it did not want to take any type of heat in case it impacted upon it in a coming election.