Pierre Brien

[Tobacco Act, February 21st, 1997]

Getting back to cultural events, a few years ago we had asked them-

[Tobacco Act, February 21st, 1997]

Mr. Speaker, I would ask you to call to order one of our colleagues who is getting overly excited.

[Tobacco Act, February 21st, 1997]

In Montreal, we have the jazz festival, the World Film Festival, in Quebec City, the summer festival; the operating budget of many cultural events-

[Tobacco Act, February 21st, 1997]

I would even say that tobacco is not the only thing some of them abuse.

Getting back to the areas affected, I will start with the cultural sector.

[Tobacco Act, February 21st, 1997]

Mr. Speaker, I hear a fly buzzing around my head.

My colleague might want to go for relaxation therapy, it would do him a world of good.

[Tobacco Act, February 21st, 1997]

However, the jury is still out on the best way to achieve this. It has been said that prevention among young people might be the most promising.

[Tobacco Act, February 21st, 1997]

-being discussed, in front of all these Liberal Party colleagues who are listening so attentively to us. There is a series of technical amendments, the main purpose of which is to translate terms that were poorly translated the first time around. This shows the half baked nature of this bill, which is being rushed through, at the last minute, a bill they want to see passed before the election.

A lot is at stake for the Liberal Party. This is a promise everyone saw their minister make on television. He said that, if the government did not pass the tobacco bill before the election, people could vote against the Liberals. They are trying to save face by having this bill passed. They are trying to play down the controversy. But some large, very contentious problems remain that have a lot of people upset right now, particularly in Quebec. More about this later, because this has a major effect on Quebec.

What sort of problems are we talking about? First, I would like to open a parenthesis. Nobody is going to argue with virtue. We would all like to see a drop in the number of people smoking, particularly young people.

[Tobacco Act, February 21st, 1997]

Mr. Speaker, I am glad you recognized me right away. I am pleased to take the floor, because we know that there was not very much debate at second reading. This bill has repercussions in many parts of Quebec, and also in my riding, more about which later.

I would like to speak briefly to the first group of amendments-

[Somalia Inquiry, February 17th, 1997]

Mr. Speaker, the minister himself has added somewhat to the confusion in this matter, and, clearly, the commissioners will not be able to shed light on all the events of March 4, because they do not have time to hear any more witnesses.

Since the minister himself has said and repeated in this House that this question still needs to be resolved, what guarantee can he give us today that everything will be examined and that we will find out whether murder was committed on March 4, as he himself claimed on Friday, since we are no longer assured of getting this guarantee from the Somalia inquiry?

[Somalia Inquiry, February 17th, 1997]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of National Defence.

Last Friday, the Minister of National Defence caused quite a stir by stating that the Somali killed in the events of March 4, 1993 was murdered. He thus contradicted the conclusions of the report of the military police and added to the complexity of the matter, because he spoke of several murders.

When he told the press that he considered the Somali killed on March 4, 1993 was murdered because he was shot in the back by Canadian soldiers, was the minister giving his personal opinion or was he revealing privileged information he had received from a high ranking army officer?