Blake Richards

[Petitions, June 16th, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure today to present several more petitions on a topic that is very important to me and to this government and that is the issue of pardons.

The petition was signed by well over 1,000 constituents and people from all across the country who are calling upon the government to make some changes with regard to pardons.

The petitioners were very happy when the government announced that it would be making those changes but they are also concerned that the opposition parties will not see those go forward.

The petitioners are calling upon the House of Commons and Parliament to change the Criminal Records Act to prohibit the granting of pardons to convicted sexual offenders.

[Veterans, June 8th, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, our military veterans are the pride of Canada for their selfless service in our defence and they have much to teach us. However, time is marching and the lessons to be learned from the experiences of our World War II veterans risk being lost with their passing. That is why I have invited the Historica-Dominion Institute's memory project to my riding of Wild Rose this summer.

Later this month, the memory project will interview veterans in Wild Rose to record their first-hand stories as well as their wartime artifacts and memorabilia for a digitized archive. These veterans' stories will afterwards be available on line at thememory project.com for teachers, students and the general public to learn from and enjoy.

Canadians deserve a permanent record of their country's participation in the second world war as seen through the eyes of our veterans.

I am pleased that our veterans in Wild Rose will have the opportunity to contribute to this memory project.

[Petitions, May 27th, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, it gives me pleasure to rise once again to table a petition in regard to the ongoing requests that I am receiving from all across Canada from petitioners calling on changes to the pardons act. They are calling upon Parliament to prohibit the granting of pardons to convicted sexual offenders.

The government has already announced its intention to proceed with such changes, but petitions are continuing to pour in from all across the country because petitioners are concerned that the opposition will not choose to pass this. It will delay and stall the legislation, and they are very concerned about that.

I hope the opposition is listening. Thousands and thousands of Canadians from all across this country are calling upon just that.

[Petitions, May 12th, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, the second petition is from an organization called Canadians Addressing Sexual Exploitation.

The petitioners call upon Parliament to protect children by taking all necessary steps to stop those who would use the Internet as a medium for the distribution of child pornography.

It gives me great pleasure to table both of these petitions today.

[Petitions, May 12th, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, it gives me pleasure to rise today and present two separate petitions. The first petition is signed by a number of my constituents from Olds, Alberta.

The petitioners call upon the government to enact legislation that would recognize unborn children as separate victims when they are injured or killed during the commission of an offence against their mothers, allowing two charges to be laid against the offender instead of just one.

[Petitions, May 10th, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, when Canadians learned that Graham James had been pardoned for his crimes, thousands and thousands of Canadians were outraged, including one of my constituents from Wild Rose by the name of Amy Stewart. She started a Facebook campaign and later a petition campaign, which has now spread all across my riding and the country. I have the first stack of responses, the overwhelming response to that petition call by Amy Stewart.

The petition partially states that children are Canada's most vulnerable citizens and deserve full protection from sexual offences, that sex offences are despicable crimes that must be condemned and punished, that pardons granted to convicted sex offenders serve to limit public awareness of their movements and whereabouts in Canadian communities and that concern for the safety of children and Canadian communities should be placed ahead of the interests of convicted sex offenders, therefore.

The petitioners call upon the House of Commons and Parliament assembled to change the Criminal Records Act to prohibit the granting of pardons to convicted sex offenders.

It gives me pleasure to table this petition today.

[Firearms Registry, May 10th, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, in a shocking display of ignorance of the Ontario Police Services Act, the Liberal leader and his team broke the law.

They used a photograph of an American police officer and falsely inserted the insignia of the Ottawa police force onto the shoulder to make it look like Ottawa police officers are behind his attempt to force Liberal MPs to support the wasteful and ineffective long gun registry.

Will the parliamentary secretary tell the House how Bill C-391 would stop hunters, farmers and ranchers from being criminalized by the wasteful and ineffective long gun registry?

[Firearms Registry, April 22nd, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, this week the Liberal leader turned his back on rural Canada.

Many Canadians will be hurt by the Liberal leader's decision to whip his members on Bill C-391, but it will not just be farmers and duck hunters who will be hurt. His eight MPs who voted to scrap the long gun registry before must tell their constituents what they are going to do now.

Those eight Liberal MPs, who have previously supported scrapping the ineffective long gun registry, must explain why their leader wants to make them keep it.

However, what they should do is tell their constituents that they will ignore the Liberal leader's direction and vote with their constituents. They should keep the promises they have made and vote to scrap the ineffective Liberal long gun registry.

Canadians know, when it comes to the ineffective Liberal long gun registry, there are only two ways to vote. They either vote to scrap it or they vote to keep it.

[Petitions, April 21st, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, the other petition calls on Parliament to adopt a universal declaration on animal welfare.

[Petitions, April 21st, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to present three petitions today.

The first two petitions are comprised of several hundred signatures. The petitioners are calling upon Parliament to retain section 241 of the Criminal Code without changes in order that Parliament not sanction or allow the counselling, aiding or abetting of suicide.