Sarkis Assadourian

[Foreign Affairs, October 3rd, 1996]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Foreign Affairs.

The final post-election statement on the recent Armenian presidential elections concluded that very serious breaches in the election laws took place affecting the outcome. Over 250 opposition members, including eight members of Parliament, have been arrested.

Can the minister assure the House that the government will review its policy toward Armenia to guarantee the protection of the democratic process and the physical safety and human rights of Armenian citizens?

[Armenia, September 23rd, 1996]

Mr. Speaker, September 21, 1996 marked the fifth anniversary of political independence and the end to communist rule in Armenia.

Following the 1915 genocide, the Armenian nation first gained independence from the Ottoman Empire on May 28, 1918. Unfortunately, this independence was to last only a few short years until

the communist takeover on December 2, 1920. After 70 years of communist tyranny, the Armenian nation once again gained its independence with the disintegration of the U.S.S.R.

Canadians of Armenian origin have made a significant contribution to the Canadian cultural mosiac. They continue to grow and prosper in Canada by embracing the democratic principles of freedom, justice and equality that exemplifies the Canadian way. We wish for the continued and speedy growth of freedom and democracy in Armenia.

Happy birthday, Armenia.

[Armenian Genocide Of 1915, June 19th, 1996]

Mr. Speaker, as reported by the Armenian newspaper Abaka in Montreal, on April 24, 1996 Yvan Bordeleau, Liberal MNA for l'Acadie, was refused the consent of the Pequiste government to introduce a motion to commemorate the 81st anniversary of the Armenian genocide of 1915.

This unfortunate decision ends a 16-year old tradition in the National Assembly of Quebec. Ironically on the 81st anniversary of the Armenian genocide, the Parliament of Canada unanimously passed a historic resolution that will see the week of April 20 to 27 each year set aside to remember the victims of atrocities, inhumanities and genocide.

I am appalled at the actions of the Pequiste government in failing to continue the tradition of recognizing the first genocide of the 20th century.

I call on the Bloc Quebecois members to encourage their colleagues in Quebec to once more recognize in an official way the anniversary of the Armenian genocide. It is time to put an end to this hypocrisy.

[Canada Elections Act, June 18th, 1996]

That's not true.

[Canada Elections Act, June 18th, 1996]

Madam Speaker, what has happened to the Reform Party? It has come here. It has complained about our policies. It has destroyed whatever we have tried to build here. It says that it has to listen to the people, and what has happened? Let us listen to the people.

There was a byelection in Hamilton. Reform got 10.1 per cent of the votes. After three years of knocking down our policies day in and day out, of ganging up with the Bloc Quebecois against us, if this is the best Reformers can do with 10.1 per cent, then the best thing that can happen to us is to keep the Reform Party and the Bloc the way they are so we can be the government into the next century.

Let us put partisan issues aside. Let us help Canada to build a stronger democracy. Let us allow people a chance to participate, including the Reform Party and even the Bloc. The numbers may be too many as far as I am concerned. Maybe five, six or ten will do the job so there will be a presence here. Basically that is what we should do.

Those who wish to take advantage of the system have to participate. Every time they spend a penny in an election taxpayers of this land finance their campaign on the first $100 or $75 of each dollar. If that is the case then we should allow each and every Canadian to participate no matter where they come from, which party they belong to and whatever their origin. We should not send them to the back of the bus when they want to participate in this system.

I would like to share my time with my hon. colleague from Hamilton-Wentworth.

[Canada Elections Act, June 18th, 1996]

They elected me to be on the government side and they elected the hon. member to be in the opposition the rest of his life. That is the problem. We will go into the year 2,000 and again he will be in opposition. He is going to be less than what he is today.

The hon. member reminds me-

[Canada Elections Act, June 18th, 1996]

I just read the sign I had in my riding which said: "We are going to run the country the way we run the campaign" and the way they ran the campaign was without Quebec.

In my riding of Don Valley North people had no chance to say who is to be the official opposition. If the system is to work, Canadians from coast to coast must be given a chance to decide who is going to come here and in what capacity.

They voted massively for the Liberal Party. We formed the government and everybody is happy. The fact is 66 per cent of the population are voting yes after three years of our government policy.

Nobody in my riding, in my province and in the nine other provinces ever had a chance to vote and say who is going to be the official opposition. This has to be changed. All Canadians from sea to sea have the same rights, the same obligations toward the country and toward each other.

My motion addresses that issue. I know the Bloc Quebecois and the Reform Party ganged up in the committee. They would not allow this motion to be votable.

I hope soon after this House is dissolved with our second election these people will come in with a low number. We will have a decent opposition party which is a national opposition to our government, to our party. They will change their minds and support this bill. We have to have a democracy that works, a democracy that flourishes and allows people to participate.

The way it is, the people in Don Valley North are being denied the right to say who is to be the official opposition in this Parliament.

[Canada Elections Act, June 18th, 1996]

My colleague across the way says it is a new party. It has been around for nine years. How long is it going to be new? Its members sit in the House of Commons and claim they are the national opposition, and at the same time they claim they are a new party. There is no such thing as a new party.

I go back to the Hamilton East election. They forced the deputy prime minister to resign and the Prime Minister called a byelection. What happened? Five hundred thousand dollars of taxpayers' money was spent to conform to Reform Party policies. The Reform Party spent $45,000 to promote their candidate. What happened? Their candidate got 2,688 votes only. If we divide 2,688 into the $45,000 they spent, it means they spent over $15 per vote of taxpayers' money for no reason at all.

What happened to the Bloc Quebecois? It did not even bother putting up a candidate.

I hope the House passes my motion. The last time the Reform and Bloc Quebecois ganged up to defeat this bill. They did not allow it to be votable because the leader of the Reform Party and Lucien Bouchard are two sides of the same coin. They are both regional parties. They both sang the same tune every day of the week for the last almost three years. They have been dividing the country through their regional interests and Canada as a nation cannot benefit from in this process.

In the last election in 1993 there were 295 ridings. Thirteen political parties participated. All of them put candidates in each and every province, including Reform. It put candidates in all provinces except the province of Quebec. The Natural Law Party ran 451 candidates. Somehow Reform members do not accept the fact that they should become a national party and that is why they oppose my bill.

Marxist-Leninist Party put forward 51 candidates. The Bloc Quebecois put up 75 candidates in one province, the province of Quebec, which qualifies them to be a national party. It won 54 seats and became the official opposition. The Reform Party complained and asked why does the official opposition have to be separatists. It claims to be federalist and with only one seat less than the Bloc Quebecois so Reform members believe they should be the official opposition.

A party has to earn the title of being official opposition or national opposition. A party cannot be the official opposition or national opposition in this system if it is a separatist party or if it is a regional party.

When my bill was before the House previously I mentioned in my speech that when I was running for the Liberal Party in Don Valley North I saw signs in my riding which said: "We will run the country the way we run the campaign". Reformers ran in the campaign without Quebec. They ignored Quebec totally. If this is how they are going to run the country, God save us from the Reformers.

[Canada Elections Act, June 18th, 1996]

moved that Bill C-276, an act to amend the Canada Elections Act (registration of political parties), be read the second time and referred to a committee.

Madam Speaker, it is my pleasure to address this issue again. It was discussed on September 27, 1994 in a similar bill which called for changes to the Canada Elections Act.

The purpose of this bill is to amend the Canada Elections Act to allow registration of political parties by the chief electoral officer only when the party nominates a candidate in at least seven provinces that have in aggregate at least 50 per cent of the population of all the provinces and at least half of the electoral districts in each of those provinces.

For democracy to work people have to participate. We had seven byelections a few months ago, five in the province of Quebec, one in Etobicoke North in metro Toronto and the other in Newfoundland. At that time the Bloc Quebecois, who are supposed to be the official opposition in this Parliament, declined to run candidates in Etobicoke North and Newfoundland because its agenda is not of national concern.

Yesterday a byelection was held in Hamilton East. The Liberal candidate, Sheila Copps, won the riding. Again the official opposition did not put forward a candidate. By definition official opposition means a party waiting to form the next government if the government in power falls so it can start a new process, a new beginning, with its own party. But in this case the official opposition totally ignored the fact it represents constituents and those constituents have the right to be heard and to discuss the issues.

On the other hand, the third party is the Reform Party with headquarters in Calgary. Its members claim it is a national party. Two weeks ago the Reform Party held a convention in Vancouver. Only 15 delegates from the province of Quebec showed up. The province of Quebec is 25 per cent of the population of Canada. Approximately seven million Canadians live in Quebec. However, only 15 people from Quebec went to the Reform national convention which had about 1,500 delegates. Only 1 per cent of the delegates at that convention were from Quebec.

[Mexico, June 11th, 1996]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Canadians are very interested in the visit of the president of Mexico. Can the minister report to the House what initiatives have

been taken to strengthen our relationship with the people and the Government of Mexico?