Carolyn Bennett

[Status of Women, December 7th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, yesterday on our National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women, I was appalled by the hypocrisy of the members opposite putting on rose buttons and white ribbons while their government has just brutally slashed the very programs that supported thousands of Canadian women who still are victims of violence every day.

First the minister claimed the $5 million which she was axing was just waste. Now she is claiming there were no cuts.

Will the minister tell the House, does she have $5 million to invest in women's programs and if so, perhaps she could name the programs, because the shifting ground program is waiting for the $60,000 that she just cut.

[Health, December 5th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, immunization is our safest, longest lasting and most effective means of preventing infectious diseases and subsequent complications.

Every year in Canada 5,000 Canadians can die of influenza and its complications.

The flu shot is only one of many important vaccinations. Through joint funding by all jurisdictions, children across Canada have access to universal programs for 14 vaccines. We need the health minister to reassure the provinces that existing funding for the immunization strategy will continue and additional funding will be available as new vaccines are recommended by the National Advisory Committee on Immunization.

The House of Commons is providing flu shots today until four o'clock in room 238-S. I encourage all members to go and roll up their sleeves, and remember to wash their hands. I just wish there were a shot against right-wing Republican ideology.

[Business of Supply, November 7th, 2006]

Mr. Chair, I would like to further the conversation that he and I had in committee on post-traumatic stress disorder. When I visited the Edmonton base a number of years ago, there were tremendous concerns that each soldier was not fully screened for post-traumatic stress on return from theatre.

I am heartened to hear from the minister that he is not wanting to redeploy soldiers who have been there. I would like to know whether he had that point of view when he or his government agreed to extend the mission to 2009.

Can he tell the House that every soldier is screened for post-traumatic stress, the finest kind of screening, upon return to Canada and that every soldier who is redeployed to Afghanistan is screened before leaving?

Can he tell me the divorce rate of soldiers compared to the national average, the suicide rate compared to the national average, the domestic violence rate compared to the national average? Then could he explain why it is that our military families are not treated as families in order to find the details of those troubles early? Why are military families waiting two years in town and not being treated on bases with their spouses?

[Business of Supply, November 7th, 2006]

Mr. Chair, I would suggest that maybe the minister should ask the other two ministers how much their budgets are for Afghanistan and then have a proper rebalancing of this mission instead of this militarized version.

We believe that if the people in Kandahar are hungry, they are tending to fight with the Taliban instead of helping us. I would suggest that at tomorrow's meeting, minister, you actually ask the other two ministers how much their budgets are for Afghanistan and report back.

In terms of supporting our troops, I would also like to further the conversation that you and I had during committee--

[Business of Supply, November 7th, 2006]

Mr. Chair, I will be splitting my time with the member for Egmont and the member for Oakville.

As our leader said earlier this evening in quoting General Richards around the issue of the locals in Kandahar and the importance of hunger and having support in determining which side of this fight these people will work on, I would like to know in terms of our government policy of three Ds if the minister would tell us in terms of estimates how much is spent in each of the three Ds, defence, diplomacy and development, in the Afghanistan mission.

When our leader was the minister of foreign affairs, he met weekly with the other three D ministers. I would like to know if the minister meets with these ministers and whether they are able to sort out the mission in Afghanistan in that way. If he does, how often?

[Northern Canada, November 2nd, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, last month my colleague, the member for Nunavut, invited me to join her in Iqaluit to hear first-hand the challenges of her region.

I was happy to learn from the Premier of Nunavut himself and the health minister, Leona Aglukkaq, about their views on the progress that this young territory has made as well as the challenges facing it insofar as housing, sovereignty, health and territorial funding are concerned. I was struck by the enormous potential of the Canadian north.

In a report released by the U.S. National Research Council, commissioned by the United States Congress, the sovereignty of this remarkable part of our nation is under attack. Tuesday this week, American Ambassador David Wilkins again asserted that the Canadian government is not sovereign over the waterway.

I am calling upon the government to tell us how it will respond and what it will do to protect the sovereignty of our north.

[Business of Supply, November 1st, 2006]

Will you do it?

[Food and Drugs Act, October 31st, 2006]

moved for leave to introduce Bill C-378, An Act to amend the Food and Drugs Act and the Food and Drug Regulations (drug export restrictions).

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased today to introduce the bill, an act to amend the Food and Drugs Act and the Food and Drug Regulations. In view of the recent law enacted by the U.S. Congress after October 4, President Bush has opened the border to prescription drugs which has caused the U.S. customs service to stop seizing these purchases entering America from Canada.

We believe this is a first step to the full legalization of prescription drug imports from Canada that could come by the end of this year. We need to protect ourselves from this dramatic expansion of importation. We need to ensure that we avoid becoming America's drug store and yet we believe that since coming to office the new Conservative government has taken no action and, in fact, the health minister has said that he is not worried and that he will only respond when drug shortages occur.

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

[Hungarian Revolution, October 23rd, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, today we mark the 50th anniversary of the Hungarian Revolution.

It was 50 years ago today that crowds of students and workers in Budapest challenged the authority of the Soviet dictatorship. Soviet tanks crushed the Hungarian Revolution and thousands were killed, hundreds later executed, and over 200,000 fled the country.

Canada opened its doors and provided a home for nearly 40,000 Hungarian refugees. Canada's acceptance of this large number of Hungarian refugees began our proud tradition of accepting displaced and persecuted persons.

Today we stand with over 250,000 Canadians of Hungarian descent to commemorate the sacrifice made by brave individuals in 1956 in the name of democracy and liberty.

In my own riding of St. Paul's, Attila Anselmo has painted a work of art entitled Canada, the Shining Beacon for Humanity in gratitude of all immigrants to Canada from 1956 to 2006 to be presented to the Parliament of Canada.

[Business of Supply, October 19th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, first I want to remind the member that the program the Conservatives have released has nothing to do with child care or choices in child care. If the spaces do not exist, the women of this country have no choices.

I would also like to ask the member if he is aware of the statistics. Fraser Mustard's presentation at the Brookings Institution this spring showed that almost 50% of Canadians are in literacy levels one and two of five, which level is totally dangerous in terms of the future economy of this country, and that 70% of young offenders actually have learning disabilities or some problems with literacy.

I ask the member, how on earth can the Conservative government defend the literacy cuts? Literacy programs are so crucial, not as social programs, but as economic solutions for this country.