Don Boudria

[Party Fundraising, March 18th, 1994]

I was quoting the original remarks of the member from the Reform Party who just spoke-the larger the gift, the larger the price tag-referring to Canadians who gave their hard earned money to make sure that they have quality Canadians running for public office. No Canadians need to be insulted that way.

[Party Fundraising, March 18th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, I am having a hard time believing what I just heard from the hon. member from the Reform Party.

The hon. member tells us that political party candidates should be restricted in the amounts they receive. However only days ago his leader advocated that non-political parties should have the right to campaign, to contest and to challenge MPs and others with no restrictions at all.

There is something wrong when that kind of mindset sets in. There are rules for MPs and there is no rule for the National Citizens Coalition to campaign against him and yet he has to be subject to rules far more strict than the ones we have already.

I have another difficulty with the propositions advanced by the member. He said in his opening remarks the larger the gift, the larger the price tag. That is an insult to every Canadian who contributes to the electoral process. No one is going to tell me that my constituents who are making $20,000 or $25,000 a year, who come to my annual fund raiser and give me $100 are doing it to get something in return. I do not think my constituents deserve to be insulted by the likes of that. Neither do the member's.

[Health, March 18th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, in 1985 my constituent, Johanne Decarie, became infected with the HIV virus as a result of a blood transfusion which she received while giving birth to her twin daughters. Mrs. Decarie later infected her husband and a subsequent daughter born to her now has full blown AIDS. My constituent qualified for the federal assistance package and the provincial one as well but her husband and child do not qualify because they are indirect victims.

I call upon our Minister of Health to amend the federal compensation package in order to permit these two victims of the blood scandal to be compensated. At the very least the child born with this disease should qualify and should receive these benefits.

[Privilege, March 17th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, the point is quite valid and interesting, but I do not believe the member in question who tabled the report did anything improper; in fact our Standing Orders are presently worded in that way.

I refer the House to page 2 of the index to our Standing Orders wherein it describes a number of positions, for instance "Order and decorum, Chairman to maintain; See also Chairman of Committees" and so on.

Our Standing Orders are written in that way at the present time. If the House feels that the Standing Orders should be revisited in that regard, I am sure the standing committee on procedure would gladly examine those terms, if such a request were made of the committee, recognizing that the House has already referred a whole group of other matters to the committee. As one member of the committee I would certainly not object to revisiting that particular rule.

Just to conclude, I do not believe the member who made the comment did anything to affect the privilege of others. It is rather the Standing Orders themselves that are written that way, and perhaps it is grounds to revisit the Standing Orders at the appropriate time.

[Committees Of The House, March 16th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, I move that the 11th report of the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs presented to the House earlier this day be concurred in.

(Motion agreed to.)

[Business Of The House, March 16th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, while I am on my feet, I would like to move:

That the deferred division on the motion on the budget scheduled for Tuesday, March 22, 1994, be further deferred untill Wednesday, March 23, 1994, at the end of the time provided for the consideration of Government Orders.

Mr. Speaker, this motion had been moved by an hon. member earlier today.

[Committees Of The House, March 16th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present the 11th report of the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs regarding the membership of the Standing Committee on Transport.

If the House gives its consent, I intend to move concurrence in the 11th report later this day.

[Criminal Code, March 15th, 1994]

moved that Bill C-214, an act to amend the Criminal Code (hate propaganda-age group), be read the second time and referred to a committee.

Madam Speaker, I am honoured and privileged to have the opportunity today to present to my colleagues in Parliament and to commend Bill C-214, the purpose of which is to amend the Criminal Code of Canada to render it impossible to import a product known as the serial killer board game.

I would like to start by describing the serial killer board game for all hon. members. This is a Monopoly-type game that comes in a child-size body bag. It contains 25 baby figures and four killer figures. The purpose of the game is, of course, to commit as many murders as possible to tally up the largest number of baby corpses and win the game. The winner is the best killer.

The game also includes a map of the United States where the states without capital punishment are in a different colour. For a big murder, the killer gets three baby corpses and, for a smaller murder, only one corpse.

Here are some of the cards a player can get in this game.

"Hitch-hiking is dangerous. Someone should have told this girl". Here is another quote from one of these little Monopoly-style cards: "The quiet dorm could turn into a house of horrors when you visit. This campus is crawling with cops though. Beware".

This game is based on the actions of John Wayne Gacey, who was found guilty of 35 murders in the United States.

I would like to say a few words about public opinion on this game. I humbly submit to this House that Canadians do not want this product. Most Canadians are reasonable people and want to ban this game. I have presented over 105,000 petitions in this House in recent days. Several other members have also presented such petitions. In Quebec, in particular, many teachers and school boards are passing around the petition I drafted myself two years ago.

I have several more petitions in my office and I intend to table them as soon as the Clerk of Petitions has had a chance to review and approve them for presentation in this House.

At this time, there is nothing preventing the importation of this game into Canada. In 1992, after complaints in this House and demonstrations by many Canadians, Diamond Comic Distributors, the company that distributes the serial killer board game in Canada, decided to stop distributing this game or to give up its distribution rights. I think the reason for this is obvious. After all, it would be unwise for a distributor of comic strips to antagonize parents. So, in the face of controversy, the company decided to give up all rights to distribute this product. But you just wait and see. If there is a profit to be made, sooner or later another distributor will show up to ensure the large-scale distribution of this product here in Canada.

The former Minister of National Revenue, Otto Jelinek, even admitted in a letter-as I told the hon. member of the Official Opposition-that nothing in the Criminal Code now prevents the importation of this product into Canada.

Customs officials have no law that would allow them to stop the game from crossing the Canadian border. Therefore I humbly submit to this House that there is an urgent need for a law to stop imports of this game.

On February 11 I tabled in the House Bill C-214, an act to amend the Criminal Code of Canada. That is the bill we are debating this afternoon. It is through that bill I propose to ask my colleagues to take the necessary measures to prevent the importation of the serial killer board game.

The bill that I offer to the House is very simple. Basically it adds one word to the Criminal Code. I will explain that in greater detail. Bill C-214 proposes to amend the hate propaganda provisions of the Criminal Code. Presently-and this is no surprise to anyone-if the serial killer board game advocated to destroy, physically harm or murder people on the basis of race, colour of skin, religion and so on, obviously it would not be allowed to enter our borders.

However, because babies by definition come in all races, colours and everything else, that particular criterion does not work to stop the importation of the serial killer board game. By definition right now the hate propaganda provision says that hatred cannot be promoted against an identifiable group. Identifiable group is then further defined as a group that can be distinguished by sex, colour of skin, ethnic group, religion and so on. Obviously there appears to be no way at the present time to stop the importation of the serial killer board game.

My bill would add another category. It would add an age group as an identifiable group. The word age would be added. In other words babies by definition are relatively the same age. Otherwise they would not be babies. This age group would then become identifiable and jurisprudence would develop when a baby is a baby for the purpose of the bill. Nevertheless, jurisprudence would determine when this criterion could be used.

In any case advocating violence, promoting violence or glorifying violence against babies would be prohibited under the measure I am proposing to the House this afternoon.

Now, as I said, section 318 of the Criminal Code forbids anyone to promote genocide, and that is what we are talking about. If hon. members have a copy of the Criminal Code in front of them, they will see that subsection 318(2) reads:

• "genocide" means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy in whole or in part any identifiable group, namely, ( a )killing members of the group; or ( b )deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction.

"Identifiable group" means any section of the public distinguished by colour, race, religion or ethnic origin. Of course, as I just said, I propose adding another category to this section of the Criminal Code, namely age group.

In conclusion, because I would like to make my comments a little shorter than the 20 minutes allotted to me so that more members can speak, this is not a partisan issue today but an important social issue and I think that as many parliamentarians as possible should be able to speak on this subject.

Madam Speaker, I would like to say to you and to my colleagues that on many occasions I have told the House of Commons my opinion on importing the serial killer board game. I say and I repeat that I find the idea of this game, which is to collect the largest number of baby corpses, repugnant.

Not only I, but all parliamentarians and all Canadians are disgusted by this game.

Finally, I want to leave you something to think about. Madam Speaker, imagine that you are a parent of a newborn child and your next-door neighbours are having fun playing the serial killer board game and collecting baby corpses. Would you not want the government to ban this game!

[Petitions, March 11th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, pursuant to Standing Order 36, I am pleased to table a petition signed by a number of Canadians asking this House to preserve article 241 in the Criminal Code which forbids euthanasia and assisted suicide.

This petition was circulated by Mrs. Theresa Ducharme of Winnipeg and her organization called People in Equal Participation.

I want to outline for the House how difficult it was for Mrs. Ducharme to secure names for her petition. She is a victim of polio, she is on an artificial respirator, she is epileptic, diabetic and confined to a wheelchair. She knows how precious life is and told me that is why she wanted to circulate this petition.

[Petitions, February 25th, 1994]

No way. Without any conditions.