Bill Casey

[Aircraft Safety, October 20th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, I believe there is ample evidence now that there could be a hazard with kapton wiring. In fact the minister of defence has ordered that the kapton wiring be removed from some of his aircraft. In 1987 the American airforce removed it from some of its aircraft and since 1995 no manufacturers have used it.

I believe there is ample evidence to move ahead on the national transportation safety board inquiries and act now.

Will the minister appoint a task force to determine whether this aircraft wiring is unsafe or not?

[Aircraft Safety, October 20th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Transport.

Since the horrible crash of Swissair Flight 111 off Peggy's Cove in Nova Scotia there have been several cases of emergency landings in Canada due to smoke in the cockpit, including another one just last night in St. John's, Newfoundland.

Many aviation experts have identified kapton wiring as a possible cause for frequent wiring failure in aircraft. Considering that the minister often says that safety is the number one priority in his department, what is the minister doing, if anything, to assure that kapton wiring is not a hazard in these aircraft?

[The Late Donald Munro, October 6th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, in rising to mark the passing of Donald Munro I first want to express the sympathy of the members of the Progressive Conservative caucus to Mrs. Munro and her family on their loss.

Donald was elected to represent the Vancouver Island constituency of Esquimalt—Saanich as a Progressive Conservative MP in the general election of 1972 and was successfully re-elected until his retirement in 1984.

His service to the people of Canada in the House of Commons was but another chapter in the life of public service. During World War II he served as an officer in the Royal Canadian Air Force. Following the war he joined the Department of External Affairs and served Canada in a number of diplomatic posts, including Laos and a number of countries in Central America.

All that was but a prelude to his membership in the House of Commons where he applied his lifetime of professional experience and put forward his views with skill and candour.

In commemorating the passing of Donald Munro, we recognize not only one who shared with us the elections of the House but a man who gave his entire adult life to the service of his country and his fellow Canadians. He was an example to remember, and I thank the House for the opportunity to commend him.

[Justice, September 29th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, seven years ago James Mills was murdered while a prisoner of the federal prison in Renous, New Brunswick. Yes, he was convicted of a crime but he was not condemned to death.

For seven years the Mills family has waited for justice to be served. For seven years the file has been passed from corrections Canada to the RCMP to the New Brunswick crown prosecutor.

I understand that on two previous occasions the RCMP turned the file over to the crown prosecutor and recommended that charges be laid.

Recently the RCMP have reported they have turned over new evidence to the crown prosecutor. Hopefully with the new evidence the crown prosecutor can now take action that will finally give the Mills family some closure.

I sincerely commend the solicitor general for his personal attention to this file and for pressing for further investigation.

Now I ask the solicitor general to do all he can to ensure that the appropriate authorities follow through to once and for all resolve the murder of James Mills.

[Petitions, June 10th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, pursuant to Standing Order 36, it is my pleasure and honour to present a petition from the people in Stewiacke area of Nova Scotia.

They call for the repeal of Bill C-68. They say and rightly so that it is a waste of hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayers' money. The money could be redirected and used much more effectively in order to reduce crime by having more police on the streets, more crime prevention programs, et cetera.

This is most timely considering the fact that recent information has revealed that Bill C-68 was based on entirely wrong information.

[Supply, June 9th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, I would say the opposite is true. The hon. member asked whether I was aware there were other areas than Cumberland—Colchester like Windsor. I think the government is not aware that there are other areas such as Toronto, Mississauga, Windsor and maybe even Ottawa. There is also a vast part of Canada that is rural and we do not see the need for a gun registry.

The member also asked whether I believed in gun control. I certainly believe in gun control. My government, the government I was a part of between 1988 and 1993, brought in very good gun control that emphasized safe storage of weapons, training and elimination of dangerous weapons. We did not bring in a gun registry.

This is all about a gun registry, not gun control. Yes, I believe in gun control. We put it in and put it in well.

[Supply, June 9th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the question. Certainly our municipal police are hired but some of the things the government is doing, such as the gun registry, are going to take so much of their time. Instead of being on the street they are going to be registering firearms, implementing the Young Offenders Act and all the other aspects the government is downloading. The government is supposed to pay half of the costs of the implementation of the Young Offenders Act and it is only paying 30%. The municipalities and the local police forces are also supposed to implement the gun registry.

As an aside, not all police officers are hired by the municipalities. The RCMP certainly play a big role in my part of the country. It is a federal agency, federally funded and federally paid.

Some of the $133.9 million already spent on the gun registry could supply police officers with better tools to work with or to put more policemen on the street. That is where I think the money should be going instead of to these programs.

[Supply, June 9th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, I have been reminded during that little interruption that I am dividing my time with the hon. member for South Shore. I neglected to say that at the beginning.

In any case, we are back to the Mills family who have lost their son who was in the custody of Corrections Canada, the justice system in effect, investigated by the RCMP, the justice system in effect again, and the crown prosecutor of New Brunswick, again the justice system. It has now been seven years that they have been waiting for answers, explanations, anything at all, any scrap of information, but there has been nothing.

We asked for a final report from Corrections Canada. We were promised that we would get a final report on November 20 and we were to get a report of the investigation and all aspects surrounding the death.

On November 20 we were presented with a report that was mostly all blank pages, not an ounce of new information, nothing more for the Mills family, nothing to give them a little peace or contentment or any information that would allow them to let this go away. In fact three arms of the justice system have failed the Mills family: the RCMP, Corrections Canada and the crown attorney.

Meanwhile, it has not got enough money to provide the training at Corrections Canada or whatever the problem is, or it does not have enough officers to investigate the situation properly, the government is talking about spending anywhere from $85 million for this gun registry process and now it is talking about $133.9 million this year alone. In any case, it is going to be hundreds of millions of dollars and this money could be spent in adding training, equipment, facilities and officers to the police forces and Corrections Canada which could really serve a purpose and do some good.

The recently announced $32 million crime prevention initiative is the same thing. It is public relations and there is nothing in it for the police. I read in the Toronto Sun on June 7 “another $32 million down the drain”. The article went on to state “The minister's crime prevention initiative is more of the same molly-coddling that has made a joke of the Young Offenders Act and if Liberalism at its worst may be defined as public boondoggles premised on good intention, then this justice minister is a true Liberal having a bad day”.

The fact of the matter is that the latest report from the Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics states that 1994 had the largest decline in police strength since 1962, the year when statistics were first kept. It goes on to state that in 1962 there were 20 criminal infractions per police officer. But in 1994 there were 47, far more than double the number of infractions or criminal offences per police officer. That indicates where the money should be going. It should be going to these issues and not the issues where the government has focused the money.

We now have the fewest number of police officers since 1972. In addition to that, the police officers we do have are now preoccupied with the long gun registration, the Young Offenders Act and all the things the government has brought in.

We think a better plan would be to take the long gun registration money, put more officers on the street and give them more tools to work with.

No wonder people like the Mills family wonder how our justice dollars are being spent. The large amount of money in the justice department estimates should be redirected to be useful, functional and directed where it is most needed.

Mr. Speaker, I will now turn my time over to the hon. member for South Shore.

[Supply, June 9th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, I too would like to take a moment to point out that the question was very explicitly asked three times and no answer was forthcoming.

I want to take a different turn on the justice discussion. Quite often the justice system seems so gigantic, so distant and so impregnable that people feel there is nothing they can do or that it might not have an impact on them. Nothing could be further from the truth. There is nothing more personal than the justice system if you have been involved in it or have had to deal with it. The example I will use shows the lack of direction and the wrong focus we have in our proposed spending estimates that we are talking about today.

Justice is about people and how it affects them. I want to talk about how the justice system has failed a family in my riding, a family that has gone through a great deal of suffering from three arms of the justice system. They have all failed to some degree to recognize the situation and to take the appropriate steps to help this family.

I am talking about James Mills who was murdered on July 24, 1991 while in custody of Corrections Canada. He was murdered while under an arm of the justice system in Canada. At the time and since then, suggestions have been made that there were serious errors made at the time of the murder on behalf of Corrections Canada. I do not know if that is true, but the accusations have been made about the disruption of the crime scene. Perhaps it was a shortage of training. Perhaps it was a shortage of staff. In any case there was a deficiency that caused an awful problem.

Eventually the RCMP were called to the scene of the crime, another arm of the justice system. The RCMP have investigated this. It still tells us that there is an ongoing investigation but there are still no results. Again, the third arm of the justice system, the crown prosecutor, was involved. Even though charges were recommended on two previous occasions, they have never been laid.

The family of Mr. James Mills has waited seven years for an answer. There is no answer. There is no explanation of what happened at the crime scene. There is no explanation of how he was murdered. There is no explanation of how it could happen right under the nose of the justice system in Canada.

The family, especially the father Mr. Robert Mills, has been haunted for years and years. All he wants is an answer. He wants to have an explanation of what happened, why his son was murdered, how he was murdered and why nothing was ever done about it. The solicitor general still says and maintains to this time that the case is still under investigation.

Looking for answers, Mr. Mills and sometimes Mr. Mills and myself have met with top level senior RCMP officials. We are trying to get answers. The commissioner of corrections came to Amherst to meet with Mr. Mills. We were hopeful that he would bring information with him. That did not arrive. It did not happen. We did not get any new information, even though the commissioner came to Amherst and we appreciated that.

We have brought up questions in the House of Commons month after month. We have been in the media. We have even used the access to information office to try to get information on what happened. Where was the deficiency? Where did the system fail? How can the Mills family be let down so badly when their son was murdered right under the nose of the justice system? How did the other parts of the justice system fail? Was it lack of training? Was it—

[Supply, June 9th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. This is a justice discussion and we are not talking about elections and things like that. We are off track. We should bring the debate back to justice.