Herb Gray

[Time Allocation, June 22nd, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, the people across the country and in the Yukon who are watching will want to know that these bills did not suddenly come up yesterday. They were available publicly days, if not weeks, before yesterday. The Yukon bills were studied for over 20 hours in committee.

Instead of bringing up these specious questions, the Reform Party House leader should apologize to the people in the House, across Canada, and in the Yukon for abusing the opportunities that they have to debate in the House.

[Time Allocation, June 22nd, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, how does the Reform House leader explain his party's attempt to filibuster an agreement worked out over a period of 21 years in a democratic fashion by the people of Yukon? He cannot explain that because they were wrong in their filibuster.

[Time Allocation, June 22nd, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, the comments quoted are quite relevant when there is excessive use of closure.

Unfortunately for the hon. member's question what happened yesterday was not closure. We used the time allocation rules of the House and they were not used to force a decision on the House. Instead they were voted by a majority of the parties in this House, plus the NDP. That is democracy.

[Justice, June 21st, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, the proposals that I tabled today are designed to deal with people before the end of their sentence primarily and the situation which he has raised has already been recognized by the Minister of Justice and me.

We intend to have measures to deal with that in light of federal-provincial task force reports because we believe to deal with the situation effectively we need to have the involvement and co-operation of the provinces.

I look forward to the hon. member's support for our further proposals, just as he is supporting the proposals we tabled today.

[Justice, June 21st, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate my hon. friend's support for these proposals which I understood he expressed outside the House. I hope he will continue that support.

With respect to Larry Fisher, this individual completed the sentence imposed by the court and therefore we would need a different kind of legislation to deal with that kind of situation. It is something that is being looked into by a federal-provincial task force.

Once the task force reports in a few months the Minister of Justice and I will develop proposals to deal with this kind of situation. It is troubling and we do not intend to ignore the need to take action about it.

[Corrections And Conditional Release Act, June 21st, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, on a point of order, I would like to inform the House that the bill just introduced shall be subject to the provisions of Standing Order 73(1).

[Corrections And Conditional Release Act, June 21st, 1994]

moved for leave to introduce Bill C-45, an act to amend the Corrections and Conditional Release Act, the Criminal Code, the Criminal Records Act, the Prisons and Reformatories Act and the Transfer of Offenders Act.

(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed.)

[Miscellaneous Statute Law Amendment Act, 1994, June 20th, 1994]

moved that the bill be read the third time and passed.

(Motion agreed to, bill read the third time and passed.)

[Miscellaneous Statute Law Amendment Act, 1994, June 20th, 1994]

moved that the bill be concurred in.

[Government Programs, June 17th, 1994]

Mr. Speaker, will the hon. member give a cast iron undertaking that he will definitely be here?