House of Commons photoWon her last election, in 2000, with 51% of the vote.
Gun Control April 6th, 1995
Mr. Speaker, MPs must be allowed to represent their constituents without threats from the party whip. MPs should be praised for that, not punished.
Could the justice minister or the government House leader explain to the House why some Liberal members have been immediately turfed from their committee duties?
Gun Control April 6th, 1995
Could the government House leader explain to the House and to the Canadian public what has happened to the red book promise of allowing more free votes in the House of Commons?
Gun Control April 6th, 1995
Mr. Speaker, this morning the justice minister said Liberal MPs who express their opinion and opposition to gun control legislation would not be punished. That was cool comfort. Already these MPs have been turfed from their committees.
Petitions April 6th, 1995
Mr. Speaker, I also have a petition on CBC programming. The petitioners are concerned about Canadian broadcasting, that the CBC is playing programs like "Kids in the Hall". They do not fulfil CBC's mandate. These people are concerned about this particular program, as well as others. They are saying that these kinds of incidents in programs are becoming more and more frequent.
They are asking Parliament to enact legislation that would provide very specific standards of acceptable conduct and content for CBC television programs.
Petitions April 6th, 1995
Mr. Speaker, I did not want to take too much time. We do have 15 minutes. I have a couple of other petitions. One is on the Young Offenders Act, signed by a number of people from St. Paul, Saddle Lake, St. Vincent, and a number of other places across Beaver River. They want an act that is serious enough to deter young people from committing crimes and tough enough to provide real justice.
The Young Offenders Act in its current form is not meeting the objectives. These people are calling upon Parliament to make sure we have a really forceful Young Offenders Act, in addition to the Criminal Code.
Petitions April 6th, 1995
Mr. Speaker, pursuant to Standing Order 36, I too would like to present petitions. One is from the constituents of Beaver River, Redwater, Thorhild, Radway, and the Waskatenau area, who are calling upon Parliament to be very careful about the Canadian Human Rights Act, to make sure there is not the inclusion of sexual orientation.
They are saying that because the inclusion of sexual orientation in the Canadian Human Rights Act would provide certain groups with special status, rights and privileges and that they would be granted solely on the basis of sexual behaviour, that inclusion would infringe on the historic rights of Canadians, such as the freedom of religion, conscience, expression and association.
These people are humbly calling upon Parliament to oppose any amendments to the Canadian Human Rights Act or the Charter of Rights and Freedoms that provide for the inclusion of the phrase "sexual orientation".
I present those with pride as the member for Beaver River.
Points Of Order April 6th, 1995
Mr. Speaker, I want to draw to the attention of the House a remark I made in Hansard yesterday. I had a wrong number and I want to correct the mistake on page 11553.
I said that we are going to be spending $9 billion on interest payments for every dollar that is cut. What I meant to say was, for the $9 billion in cuts that were made, we will be spending about $9 billion in interest as well. For every dollar cut, there will be an extra dollar in interest payments on the deficit.
Firearms Act April 5th, 1995
Absolutely.
Firearms Act April 5th, 1995
Make a motion.
Firearms Act April 5th, 1995
The police are going to seize the guns. This thing is going full circle because the Canadian Police Association just said in its most recent document: "Who is going to do the seizing? Who is going to do the policing?" How much time are the police going to have for that? How much time does any policeman in any constituency have for more bookwork and paperwork? They should be out in their cruisers stopping crime.
A universal registration system will be a very large undertaking with huge costs. People joked earlier when my leader was speaking about us not having any idea of what the costs are. We would like to know,or at least have an idea of what the costs are. The Minister of Justice may talk about costs but we have absolutely no proof of that.
The finance minister in his budget, somewhat recently, gave us an idea of what to expect for deficits. We are going to be spending $9 billion on interest payments for every dollar that is cut. It goes on and on. One hundred billion dollars will be added to the deficit. Give us an idea of the costs, it is a lot of money.
Canadian taxpayers are going to be paying for this. We hear the government saying that it will be user pay, not just taxpayers' money. What is user pay? It is nothing more than me taking $10 out of my pocket to pay for registering my .22. It is nothing more than giving my money to the government or to someone to register my gun. It is user pay. Is it still costing me money? Yes, of course it is. I would sooner pay that $10 to a health care system that is going to be more efficient than knowing that someone is just paying to have his gun registered.
The recreational firearms communities of two provincial governments have huge doubts about the legislation and the minister knows it. I participated in the rally in September and I was proud of all the responsible firearms owners. Nobody acted crazy or irresponsible that day.
I must say I admire the minister for going out and facing them. The people in my constituency said they thought that was pretty brave. There was no one to be ashamed of there. It is not the responsible firearms owners who we should be attacking in this legislation. It is the criminal misuse of firearms and a registration system will do nothing to eliminate or even alleviate crime.
This new scheme will represent a massive attack by the state and its police on property rights and the privacy of millions of law-abiding citizens. I frankly do not think I need to say anything more about this. I never did support universal gun registration regardless of what my friend from Burnaby says. I do not agree with the police association's estimate. I agree with the fact that they say those are their numbers, but I do not agree with them. There would not be people in my constituency, and many policemen as well, who could support that.
Crime is what we should be attacking here, not registration. Registration is not the answer. Therefore, let us split this bill in two and make sure that we deal with crime. As the bill is now responsible firearms owners are going to be labelled and become criminals.