Ted White

[Young Offenders Act, February 10th, 1995]

Mr. Speaker, we have heard a lot of rhetoric this morning from the opposite side. Lots and lots of rhetoric. The Liberals need to remember that when they attack the Reform Party they are attacking the people of Canada because poll after poll shows that people are upset with the Young Offenders Act. They want changes made to put some teeth in it.

Like my hon. colleagues I also visited a number of schools during the break. I got the same message from the students as my colleagues did. The students are fed up with the Young Offenders Act. They feel unsafe. They do not even feel safe going to the McDonald's in North Vancouver because of the gangs that cannot be arrested, that cannot be touched by the police.

When the police approach a gang outside McDonald's on Lynn Valley Road the gang swears at the police. "F-off" they say to the police. What sort of control is that? People feel unsafe in their communities. They feel as if the government is letting them down. It is time the Liberal government dropped its rhetoric. Of course we need to get to the source of crime and to help the people at the beginning to prevent crime, but we also have to address the problem of the criminals who are already there, the ones who are making society unsafe.

We have to put those people away so that we can protect society. We have to put the rights of victims ahead of the rights of criminals.

[Electronic Voting, February 9th, 1995]

Mr. Speaker, governments around the world are introducing new direct democracy initiatives while our Liberal government refuses to even consider modifying our outdated parliamentary system.

New Zealand, the first country to have universal suffrage, passed the Citizens' Initiative and Referendum Act in 1993. The state of Montana recently authorized the use of electronic voting in school board elections.

Elections Canada has been closely observing the use of touch tone telephone voting in our country and I am confident that it will use an electronic voting system in a byelection before the turn of the century.

Of course it is the Reform Party which is the leader in this field. We are involved in two more electronic town halls on February 12 and February 19 at 8 p.m. eastern time as part of our commitment to enhance and develop the use of this technology.

I urge all members to tune into their local cable television stations on Sunday to witness the making of the new democracy right before their eyes.

[Petitions, February 8th, 1995]

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to present a petition on behalf of Don Petersen and 27 others.

The petitioners draw the attention of the House to the following. Whereas the majority of Canadians are law-abiding citizens who respect the law; whereas the majority of Canadians respect the sanctity of human life; whereas the majority of Canadians believe that physicians in Canada should be working to save lives, not to end them, the petitioners pray that Parliament ensure that the present provisions of the Criminal Code of Canada prohibiting assisted suicide be enforced vigorously and that Parliament make no changes in the law which would sanction or allow the aiding or abetting of suicide or active or passive euthanasia.

[Health Care, December 9th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, I was recently visited in my constituency office by Barbara Mayer and Doreen Armitage, both of whom suffer from fibromyalgia, a chronic rheumatic disorder involving widespread pain and profound fatigue.

Headaches and irritable bowel are also among the approximately 35 other symptoms making diagnosis very difficult and complicating disability compensation claims for sufferers.

The degree of fibromyalgia can vary from very mild to extremely disabling. Doctors have no effective treatment and it is often difficult for patients to convince others of the true state of their health.

Two-thirds of the sufferers are women and up to 5 per cent of the population may be affected. Unfortunately it is only in recent years that the disease has started to receive attention so there is a serious lack of research funding.

For this reason I urge all members to do whatever they can, financially or otherwise, to support research initiatives connected with fibromyalgia.

[Petitions, December 8th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, pursuant to Standing Order 36, I would like to present a petition to the House on behalf of 199 signatories. It is sponsored by the Responsible Firearms Coalition of B.C. which prays and requests that Parliament refuse to accept the anti-firearms proposals of the Minister of Justice and insists that he bring forward legislation to convict and punish criminals rather than persecute the innocent.

[Questions On The Order Paper, November 25th, 1994]

How many federal inmates currently receive each of the following payments: ( a ) old age security, ( b ) Canada pension plan, ( c ) income supplement, ( d ) unemployment insurance and ( e ) GST rebates and what crimes were they incarcerated for?

[Electronic Democracy '94, November 24th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, next Monday and Tuesday a conference entitled Electronic Democracy '94 will be taking place in Toronto. You must have noticed that every time Reform Party members mention electronic democracy or initiative or referendum or recall, Liberal members enthusiastically demonstrate their opposition to such radical ideas.

It seems they have a redneck in their midst. The guest speaker with top billing at the conference next Monday and Tuesday is none other than the junior minister of science and technology. A sudden convert to real democracy, perhaps the member for

Portage-Interlake now realizes that the way the government ignores the will of the people is going to have to change to keep pace with the information age.

We clearly have a long way to go before all government members catch up with the times because so many of them are set in their ways. However, I am extremely pleased that the more forward thinking members among them have finally realized there is a need to reform our democracy.

[Petitions, November 3rd, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to present a petition on behalf of Jo Congdon and 50 others in which the petitioners pray and request that Parliament not amend the human rights code, the Canadian Human Rights Act or the Charter of Rights and Freedoms in any way which would tend to indicate societal approval of same sex relationships or of homosexuality, including amending the human rights code to include in the prohibited grounds of discrimination the undefined phrase of sexual orientation.

[Prime Minister Of Canada, October 27th, 1994]

Listen to that applause, Mr. Speaker. Government members had better make the best of it while they can. Even though the Prime Minister is presently at 61 per cent popularity, guess who holds the record? Brian Mulroney. He peaked at a 62 per cent popularity rating in 1983.

Well the honeymoon for this Liberal government is over. The scandals are starting to surface. Reform MPs are looking forward to helping the Prime Minister reach the present day popularity rating of Mr. Mulroney. I think that might just be right off the bottom of the scale.

[Prime Minister Of Canada, October 27th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, according to a recent Gallup poll the Prime Minister is more popular than former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau was at the time of the October crisis.