Yvon Charbonneau

[Criminal Code, November 18th, 1999]

Madam Speaker, the Minister of Health has taken the question raised by the member for Winnipeg North Centre very seriously. He also took very seriously the petition signed by over 200 employees of the food directorate, and told them that food safety is vital for the minister and the department.

The employees of the food directorate recently met with senior management, and the minister totally supports the dialogue that followed.

We feel as well that the recent appointments of Dr. Le Maguer, an internationally renowned scientist, to head the food directorate and of Dr. Mohamed Karmali, a former member of the science advisory board of Health Canada, as head of the Guelph laboratory and specialist in diseases of the digestive tract, signal clearly Health Canada's commitment to scientific excellence and to the renewal of the food surveillance program.

Allow me to reiterate the commitments made in the October 12 throne speech on strategic investments in health research and technology, and in the improvement of Health Canada's Canadian food safety program and the investments that will modernize our health protection activities to better mirror our changing world. These ongoing commitments to food safety justify the $65 million announced in the last federal budget.

When parliament established the Canadian Food Inspection Agency in 1997, it set up a review system under which the Minister of Health is responsible for developing policies and standards relating to food safety and nutrition, and for evaluating the effectiveness of the agency's activities in the area of food safety. Health Canada is very diligently fulfilling these commitments.

[Criminal Code, November 18th, 1999]

Madam Speaker, Bill C-207, introduced by the member for Wanuskewin, says much about health and some of the realities facing health care practitioners.

At first blush, one might think that this is a matter for the Minister of Health, but there is much more to the bill than that.

The bill also refers to the justice field and must also take into consideration the context of federal-provincial relations. In the many debates on this topic, it is often forgotten that the federal government, the provinces and the territories have a long tradition of working very closing together when it comes to the health care sector.

For example, there is the social union agreement signed at least one year ago by the federal government, nine provinces and three territories. This agreement is one of the very important results of this co-operation. And, as it says in the preamble to the framework agreement:

The following agreement is based upon a mutual respect between orders of government and a willingness to work more closely together to meet the needs of Canadians.

It is critical for the federal government to acknowledge that the regulation of health care professions and the development of employment standards for health care professions are areas of provincial and territorial jurisdiction. Why is this important as far as Bill C-207 is concerned? This bill deals with education and employment standards in health care. By law and according to the federal-provincial-territorial framework, these are areas of provincial and territorial responsibility. It therefore follows that to attempt to trump provincial and territorial jurisdiction through the creative use of the criminal code runs against all legal and policy protocols in health.

The purpose of Bill C-207 is to amend the criminal code in order to provide better protection to health care practitioners against any reprisals resulting from their decision not to perform certain medical procedures for religious or ethical reasons.

The bill proposes that the following three situations be considered offences: an employer who refuses to employ a health care practitioner and dismisses him for religious or ethical reasons; a health care educator who refuses to admit such a person to courses in a field of health care; and an officer of a professional association who takes similar action.

I would like to point out that Health Canada does not have a mandate to intervene in any case that is exclusively provincial or territorial. Health professionals are subject to private provincial or territorial legislation which has been passed to enable them to self-regulate the delivery of their professional services.

Moreover, the majority of these professionals are required to adhere to a code of ethics adapted to their profession. Such matters do not fall under Health Canada's jurisdiction, or that of the federal government.

The objective of the Canada Health Act is not to direct or control professionals, their employers or those training them, but to ensure that the Canadian public has reasonable access to insured and medically required services.

In addition to the provincial laws, each administration is protected by provincial and territorial human rights legislation, which not only constitutes a dissuasive element with respect to discrimination or reprisals, but also represents a suitable way of handling the type of violation we are talking about.

A further consideration that is important when reviewing Bill C-207 is the appropriate application of the criminal code. The criminal code is the ultimate statement of our fundamental values expressed as prohibitions.

In general, therefore, it ought to be used as a last resort, not the first one, when legal sanctions affecting the health field are involved. There are other legislative vehicles at both levels of jurisdiction that are appropriate for lesser offences.

Even when there is clearly a serious offence involved, the federal government has tended to use the criminal law power expressed in health legislation in preference to the criminal code for health matters.

Even if the contents of Bill C-207 were to fall within federal jurisdiction, which they do not, the criminal code would not be a suitable legal vehicle for regulating the performance or not of work related tasks on a day to day basis.

To conclude, I would strongly encourage all those with an interest in the issues raised by Bill C-207 to make a serious study of these issues in relation to compliance with the established jurisdictions over these matters. It will then be seen that the criminal code is not suitable to the issues raised, in particular the ones raised by Bill C-207.

A debate is also required on the ethics of health care delivery, which might yield some pertinent legal elements. Such a debate, however, would also have to take into consideration and respect areas of provincial jurisdiction, provincial legislation, and federal-provincial agreements in this area.

In closing, while the hon. member's bill does indeed deal with an important and sensitive matter, it remains an issue that falls outside the jurisdiction of Health Canada and the federal government.

[Ontario's French Television, November 18th, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, after its attempt to deprive Quebecers of their right to celebrate the Year of the Canadian Francophonie, now the Bloc Quebecois and the PQ government are trying to build a cultural wall to keep Quebecers from watching TFO, Ontario's French television.

Despite numerous letters in support of TFO from Quebecers and despite numerous editorials, the separatists are doing everything possible to isolate the population of Quebec from other French Canadians.

Yet the Bloc and its parent company in Quebec are quick to praise foreign programming, such as RFO, and we have nothing against that.

Walling in communities is an outmoded practice used by regimes that will be judged by history. Quebecers are open-minded people.

The separatists ought to stop trying to obstruct their ability to make choices.

[Health, November 17th, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to take a moment to call to the attention of the House that November is more or less health month.

November is osteoporosis month, Crohn's and colitis awareness month, cardio-pulmonary resuscitation awareness month, and diabetes month.

What is more, November 15 to 21 is national addiction awareness week, and the week of the 22nd to the 29th is national AIDS awareness week.

I would like to propose to the members of this House that they join with me in paying tribute to the staff and volunteers involved in health-related endeavours during this month of November and throughout the year.

[Organ Donation Act, November 16th, 1999]

Madam Speaker, I am very pleased to have the floor for five minutes to speak on Bill C-227. I want to thank the hon. member for Port Moody—Coquitlam—Port Coquitlam for bringing the issue of organ and human tissue donations to the attention of the House.

The hon. member will remember that, last year, the health minister asked the Standing Committee on Health to consider this issue. The minister was right to rely on the committee, given that it heard hundreds of witnesses. We in the government do not consider that consulting witnesses and listening to the people is a waste of time, contrary to what some of the opposition members said earlier.

During these consultations two main points consistently surfaced: the need for a central co-ordinating and facilitating body to bring together elements across jurisdictions and the need for greater public education and awareness of the issue.

That is why the government endorses the principle of Bill C-227 and approves its global purpose to improve co-ordination and education in order to increase organ and tissue donation rates in Canada which are much too weak. We also agree that Canadians should have easier and better opportunities to indicate their wish to be potential organ donors and that medical professionals have access to this information.

Also, Bill C-227 urges the federal government to act by establishing first and foremost a national organ donor registry.

I want to remind the House that some witnesses told the committee that Canada needs this kind of database. Others argued however that this may not be the most efficient way to address the issue. They cited the example of Great Britain and Spain. Even without a national registry, Spain has a much higher rate of real organ donations than Canada does.

Great Britain set up such a registry that has not been very successful. The registration level has dropped over the last few years.

In Canada, provinces like BC and Nova Scotia already have registries while others, like Quebec and Ontario, are looking into it. The Standing Committee on Health took notice of the work done by provincial governments. In its report, it recognized that provincial and territorial governments have many good tools at their disposal to encourage larger numbers of people to become donors. Considering what the provinces are already doing, the committee did not believe that establishing a national registry along the lines of the bill was a priority.

As early as mid-April, the Standing Committee on Health recommended greater co-operation between all partners: the federal government, the provinces, the territories, the care givers and the health care institutions. The government chose to rely on co-operation and has made headway.

We have been and will continue to work closely with the provinces and other stakeholders to develop a new approach to organ donation. This will include Canada-wide standards to ensure the safety of transplantation and a comprehensive and sustainable plan for all Canadians.

Our challenge will be to find an appropriate approach for Canada, which is a federation where responsibility over health is shared between the federal and the provincial and territorial governments.

Fundamental to this approach is a partnership with provinces that was agreed to by federal, provincial and territorial health ministers at their September 1999 annual meeting in Charlottetown before the government response had been made public within five months from the publishing of the committee's report.

Many ministers approved the establishment of a council on organ and tissue donation and transplantation in Canada and the guiding principles which will govern its operation once a business plan has been adopted. This plan is to implement a co-ordinated, comprehensive and integrated donation and transplantation strategy across Canada.

I know that we do not have much time. An eleven-point action plan was adopted by the federal and provincial health ministers in September and I think that we made important progress on that issue in the last while.

I ask our colleague and the members of the opposition to recognize that we are taking our responsibilities in this respect. I urge them all to support our approach and congratulate the hon. member for Port Moody—Coquitlam—Port Coquitlam on raising once again this issue in the House.

[Anti-Smoking Movement, November 15th, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, it is with great pleasure that I congratulate two distinguished Canadians and Quebecers who, on behalf of the Coalition québécoise pour le contrôle du tabac, have just received awards from the World Health Organization and the Canadian Society for International Health in recognition of their involvement in and efforts to further the anti-smoking movement. I am speaking of Heidi Rathjen and Louis Gauvin.

It is worth pointing out that the contribution of these individuals has been recognized both nationally and internationally.

In 1994, Canada concluded that national efforts to combat smoking should be strengthened through international initiatives that would address widespread transnational problems such as contraband and transborder advertising.

Congratulations to our distinguished award winners, Heidi Rathjen and Louis Gauvin.

[Millennium Scholarships, November 4th, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, Quebec students are hoping there will be a positive outcome to the millennium scholarship matter. They want to see the money available paid out to them, and they want the Quebec government to stop playing petty politics with something as vital to their futures.

The students of Quebec want to see a considerable reduction in their debt loads. The Government of Quebec must stop shilly-shallying about the actual amounts to be paid to students. It is clear that those receiving millennium scholarships must be the real winners in this. They must receive the amounts to which they are entitled.

The Quebec Minister of Education must be frank with the students, the real beneficiaries of the millennium scholarships, and must tell them the whole truth in this matter.

[Anti-Tobacco Advertisements, November 3rd, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his question.

In reality, when it is said that 45,000 Canadians die each year from tobacco-related diseases, this means one adult in four dies in this way. This is an extremely serious situation, and we have spent about $120 million in the past four or five years on anti-smoking campaigns.

The series of ads to which my colleague is referring was very effective, and we want to go even further in our anti-smoking campaign.

[Member For Longueuil, November 1st, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, some Bloc Quebecois members are finding out that Quebec's independence is not what young people want. It is about time Bloc members realize that Quebec's separation from the rest of Canada is not a very popular idea when you talk to people.

The following comment is from the Bloc Quebecois member for Longueuil, not some ardent Liberal supporter. She said “I no longer consider the support of my generation to the sovereignty project as a definitive and irrevocable given”. She adds, probably with some sadness, “I realize that resentment alone against the “bad federal government” no longer makes sense for the young people I met on my way”.

Welcome to the real world, Madam. Like their elders, young Quebecers want to make sure they have a future within Canada.

[Health, October 22nd, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, I have the great pleasure to confirm the announcement made this morning in Toronto by the Minister of Health.

A total of $65 million will be injected into health research through the creation of institutes. Their purpose will be to improve the co-ordination of health research throughout the country through involvement of both the private sector and other levels of the public sector.

This is a result of an announcement made in the 1999 budget. Also, a commitment was made in the Speech from the Throne to introduce appropriate legislation in the very near future.