House of Commons photoWon her last election, in 2000, with 51% of the vote.
The Late Claude Ellis October 8th, 1997
It was amazing that my great-grandfather and Claude Ellis were colleagues. I am sure they had some friendly discussions. They may have disagreed politically, but that does not matter. They served in the House. They were parliamentarians during that parliament.
On behalf of my family and the official opposition I wish his family well and thank them for the public service they and their family shared through Claude Ellis.
The Late Claude Ellis October 8th, 1997
Mr. Speaker, on behalf of the official opposition I would like to pay tribute to Claude Ellis and the work he did in the Canadian parliament.
The minister mentioned that he was involved at a very young age. He was involved at 16 years old. How many of us were thinking and breathing politics at that age? He had a pretty remarkable career. Think of the thrill he must have felt as a young man when he appeared on the same stage as J. S. Woodsworth, one of the founders of the CCF, and Mr. J. Coldwell, the national leader at that time. What a thrill it must have been for that young man.
He was elected in 1953 and again in 1957. On a personal note, my great-grandfather, Ted Applewhait, was in the 1953 to 1957 parliament. He was the Liberal member for Skeena.
Rcmp Investigations October 8th, 1997
Mr. Speaker, it would be funny if it were not so sad that the Liberal Party initiated the investigation a long time before the campaign started in late April. This was only made public five days after the election campaign was over.
We have a real problem with that, even if the minister and prime minister do not happen to have a problem with that.
Who was it over on that side? I want them to stand and say “We told the RCMP to hold off until after the election” because it would be an embarrassment.
Rcmp Investigations October 8th, 1997
Mr. Speaker, a senior Liberal Party official, Luc Desbiens, said that there is absolutely nothing unusual about the RCMP raiding Liberal Party offices.
I want to tell the prime minister that I will not put up or shut up until the prime minister coughs up whose offices—cabinet ministers, MPs, the prime minister or any departmental official—have been raided by the RCMP in this ongoing Shawinigan shemozzle.
Frank McKenna October 7th, 1997
Mr. Speaker, on behalf of the official opposition I would like to pay tribute to Frank McKenna. The fact that he was premier of New Brunswick for 10 years certainly withstands the test of time for any leader.
Frank McKenna was one of the first premiers who acknowledged the need to balance the books in his province. This is being celebrated right across the country now and we certainly appreciate it.
He served his province and his region, especially as an advocate of free trade and private enterprise. This also has spread right across the country and we celebrate that because that is the only way we will be able to work our way out of the terrible debt situations we have all found ourselves in.
He also was a signatory and an important player just last month in the Calgary declaration. He endorsed the national unity process, the process the premiers were talking about in Calgary. He found it important to note that consultation is important, but also to recognize the equality of all provinces. We appreciate the fact that he thinks this is important and we want to move ahead in that area.
We want to wish him well. Again I wish to say on behalf of the official opposition that we probably have not seen the end of Frank McKenna in this country.
Political Contributions October 7th, 1997
Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister talks about a little respect for the truth. We have to watch him from this side every single day, so we certainly understand what he talks about.
Videon is a parent company of Auberge des Gouverneurs which is building the hotel. We know that. The transitional jobs fund lets people in the riding know what is happening. This means that the prime minister would have been informed. This means that the prime minister as the local MP for that area would be allowed to lobby the minister for that $600,000 grant.
The prime minister is digging himself deeper and deeper. Let me ask him how in the world he is able to plead ignorance on more of these shenanigans in Shawinigan.
Political Contributions October 7th, 1997
Mr. Speaker, last night we learned that there is a special government list of companies seeking government funds and that this information gets sent out to the government's regional ministers and the local MPs whose ridings are affected. That means the prime minister must have known about the $600,000 grant proposal by Videon. Then of course Videon made this $5,000 donation to the Liberal Party when it never had done so before.
Let me ask the prime minister this. When he went to cash that $5,000 cheque, did he not smell a conflict of interest?
Justice October 7th, 1997
Mr. Speaker, one of my constituents, Brenda MacDonald, points out the absurd application of section 232 of the Criminal Code, the defence of provocation.
Brenda's sister, Susan Klassen of Whitehorse, was strangled to death by her estranged husband Ralph Klassen. In January 1997 he was given a five year reduced manslaughter sentence by successfully arguing the defence of provocation, that Susan had provoked him such that he could not contemplate the consequences of his own violent actions.
This defence of provocation blames Susan for her own death. It legitimizes violent spouses' attempts to control and dominate. Manslaughter is death resulting from accident. Susan's death was no accident.
Experts say this defence should be abolished.
Susan Klassen may be just a name to us, but she was Brenda's sister, a friend, an aunt. How many more spouses need to die before action is finally taken by this government? Abolish the defence of provocation.
Canada Pension Plan Investment Board Act October 6th, 1997
Mr. Speaker, point of order.
Canada Pension Plan Investment Board Act October 6th, 1997
Mr. Speaker, again I would like to raise the same issue we have been talking about, the seriousness of the passport problem we have had.
It amazes me that the parliamentary secretary, although I appreciate the effort he is making, has written answers already to questions which he did not really know were coming. I am rather amazed by that. He was not sure what the questions were that were coming but he has full blown written prepared answers for them.
I have a question for him with which I want to preface some of my remarks. I trust he will throw away the prepared text and give me a real answer for a very real question. This is the whole idea of a question period which is a little fuller and called the late show. The comedy of errors that we have seen over the last few days here in this Chamber leads me to believe that David Letterman is really the guy who is in charge of foreign affairs over there because of the absurdity of some of things we have seen come forward.
The official opposition does understand the importance of supporting our allies in the fight against terrorism. We understand that, we know it and we support it. But as Canadian members of Parliament our first duty is to make sure of the safety of our citizens, which means protecting the good reputation of our passport everywhere in the world, every day of the week, every month of the year.
When we first raised this issue in the House just several days ago, the prime minister assured us that no Canadian agents were involved in this anti-terrorist mission or the illegal use of Canadian passports. That is an important thing for us to find out but of course there have been questions arising from that. After all if Canada does have a secret agreement with other countries to help fight terrorism that changes things.
Also, if Canadian agents were involved in this mission somehow then that puts this Jordan operation in a different light as well. We need to find those answers.
The very first time we put the question to the prime minister he said that Canadians had nothing to do with this mission. When the Leader of the Opposition asked whether or not Canada had been asked for permission by a foreign country to use our passports he said: “I have never been informed of any such request by any government”.
Today we find out that CSIS agents did indeed meet with the Mossad agents on the very eve of the mission. Surely in a meeting between Israeli and Canadian spy agencies on the eve of such a mission this issue might have come up in the conversation. Yet the prime minister told us in this House that it never came up.
My question for the parliamentary secretary is very simple. I trust that he is going to give us a straight answer here, not off prepared notes because he did not know what the question was. The question is simple and straightforward. There has been a flip-flop on the government side. First the prime minister said he had never been informed of any such request by any government and then we find out that the CSIS and the Israeli agents are talking to each other on the very eve of this mission.
Let me ask the parliamentary secretary how in the world can they expect us to believe that the subject of this major raid against Hamas did not even come up in their meeting?