House of Commons photoWon his last election, in 2021, with 35% of the vote.
Petitions October 7th, 2010
Mr. Speaker, I am very proud to present this petition from seniors in Quebec. The petition calls on the government to protect seniors, specifically by improving the federal guaranteed income program, the spouse's allowance and the survivor's allowance.
International Trade October 6th, 2010
Mr. Speaker, it has been 10 years since the people of Ontario said good riddance to the notorious Adams Mine garbage dump, but now we learn that an American, Vito Gallo, is trying to hit up the Canadian taxpayer for $355 million through a NAFTA challenge.
The funny thing is that nobody has ever heard of this guy before. He invested zero dollars in the site and he has never bid on any garbage contract, but his partners have given generously to the Conservative Party, and he quotes two cabinet ministers in his statement of claim against the Canadian people.
The question is, is the fix in? Will the government stand up for Canada or roll over for Vito Gallo and his buddies?
Serious Time for the Most Serious Crime Act October 5th, 2010
Mr. Speaker, I listened with great interest to my hon. colleague, who has extensive experience in the issues of criminal justice and rehabilitation. Those are two key elements in developing safe societies. They are two elements that the Conservative government has tried to wedge apart with its devices of dumbed down policies on crime.
I had the great honour to live with a number of people who came out of prison and to work with them on rehabilitation. One of them lived with my family for 17 years and he became like a grandfather to my children. He had been in every prison in Canada. He taught me a great deal about prison and the need to have policies that actually, as he said, were rehabilitation, not re-humiliation.
I have watched the crime agenda for the last five years. I have seen a government that is not interested in facts or in a forward-looking vision of how to deal with the problems. The Conservatives are only interested in frightening people and then going back to those people asking them to give the government money to help continue whatever crazy cause they are running at any given moment.
From his extensive experience in the criminal justice system, what does the member think about the danger of poisoning discourse around criminal justice and basing policy not on fact but on the ideology and on the attack machine of the Conservative Party? What does that do to the legitimacy of the criminal justice system and the ability of a society to develop legislation that protects citizens, that incarcerates criminals and that finds a path for the rehabilitation of those who have been caught up in the prison system?
Serious Time for the Most Serious Crime Act October 5th, 2010
Mr. Speaker, as the nuns used to teach us back in grade school, there are the sins of commission and the sins of omission. It is the same with the sense of what is criminal or what should be criminal. For example, I would suggest that it is criminal that we have thousands of aboriginal children being educated in substandard, basically shanty shack buildings and we have a government that says these children are not a priority. The government will not spend any money on those children who are in mould-infested classrooms and yet it would spend $9 billion to build prisons for non-existent prisoners. I would think, in terms of crimes of omission, that would certainly be one of the major glaring examples.
I would suggest that in terms of output for any legislative government in the history of Canada, we are looking across the bench at the ultimate underachievers. They have done zero, nada in terms of moving forward an agenda on dealing with any number of issues and yet they bring in one crime bill after another that all follow the same template because none of them are grounded in the reality of the communities and none of them are grounded in basic public safety and justice.
Given the vicious attack we saw this summer on the long form census and the attack on anyone with credibility who ever challenges the myths that the current government perpetrates, why does the member think we are once again having to deal with a government bill that is based on fear-mongering, wedge issues and division?
Serious Time for the Most Serious Crime Act October 5th, 2010
Mr. Speaker, our justice critic certainly laid out very coherently the major flaws with this bill and the underlying approach that the government is taking. Yet it appears to be pretty much a template of almost every piece of legislation we have seen the government bring in.
In fact, if we look back on the last five years, we have never seen such a meagre result from any government in the history of Canada that has put forward such hot-button, wasteful legislation. It is so disconnected from its own legislation that it prorogued the House a number of times and sunk its own legislation, but it keeps people on the hamster wheel of fear.
Meanwhile, on the issue of pension reform, which is a major crisis facing our country, it has done zilch, nothing, nada. On the need to deal with climate change and the pollutions coming out of the tar sands, it has done nothing.
I would like to ask my hon. colleague this question. In light of crime bill after crime bill that the Conservatives bring forward, in this case trying to strike fear over multiple murderers and the fact that prisons are being built for phantom guests that have not yet been identified, why does he think they are continuing trying to use these wedge, divisive issues when the real serious issues affecting safety in our communities and security for senior citizens and others in our country have been completely neglected by that lot over there?
Petitions October 1st, 2010
Madam Speaker, I have a petition signed by people from across Canada, from Montreal, Calgary, Ottawa and Waterloo, calling on parliamentarians to maintain the balance in the upcoming Copyright Act, the balance between the rights of creators and the general public, the people who are using the cultural products. Specifically, they are concerned about the use of technological protection measures, software that overrides the rights that Parliament will give to citizens to ensure there is a full balance in copyright and to ensure that when we have the Copyright Act come before us that it is done with full consultation and involvement of the general Canadian public.
Canada-Panama Free Trade Act September 30th, 2010
Mr. Speaker, the very first lesson we learn in economics is normative and positive and that the rule of economics is not to describe what should be, but only to describe what is. Yet whenever we stand in the House and describe what is, the Conservatives say that the New Democrats are spoilsports because we talk about the murders of union leaders, environmental devastation and the fact that Panama is one of the dodgiest drug havens on the planet. They tell us to believe in free trade and everything will be all right.
It is the Conservatives' blind faith, as G.K. Chesterton said, in the horrible mysticism of money. As long as money can travel around the planet, as long as capital gets what it wants, we are all supposed to believe that things will be better. However, we have said consistently, time and time again, that for a trade deal to work, we have to look at the effects of that trade deal and we have to look at whether it actually works on the ground. Economies should be about that. We should be looking at what really is, not what Conservatives think should be in their neo-con Milton Friedman flat earth society in which they live.
Having seen this group week after week, month after month, year after year with its failed ideology, how can it have the nerve to lecture anyone else about the economy? Could he comment on that?
Canada-Panama Free Trade Act September 30th, 2010
Mr. Speaker, I listened to the Conservative position. The government's position is that it will sign a trade agreement, that it will be able to extract resources from Panama, and that somehow, the world will be better, but it will not ask for any firm commitments.
I want to go back to the issue of the tax havens and Panama's very dodgy and secretive banking record, especially given how much narco-money is moving around and being laundered in that part of the world.
The Public Citizen, out of the United States, in its trade campaign said that it is critical that any free trade agreement with Panama “must be conditional on the country's government eliminating excessive banking secrecy, re-regulating its financial sector, forcing banks and multinational subsidiaries to pay taxes, and signing international tax transparency treaties,” such as exist in the United States, “which Panama has thus far refused to do”.
We hear the Conservatives talking out of both sides of their mouth.
The government was in the process of deregulating our banking sector and was caught by a massive recession. Fortunately, because of New Democrats' efforts through the years to stop them from deregulating the banking sector, we still actually have banking rules. Now we hear the laissez-faire minister of the economy go on and on about how we have a regulated banking sector.
Why does the member think the government is saying that it is perfectly okay to sign onto deals with a country that has absolutely dodgy banking practices?
Canada-Panama Free Trade Act September 30th, 2010
Mr. Speaker, I listened with great interest to my hon. colleague outline the problems with this existing trade deal.
The issue here is that Canada has such a role to play internationally and with trade in terms of setting benchmarks, that we can actually begin to see development happen in many countries with troubled pasts, such as Panama and Colombia. We can do that by entering into trade agreements where we actually set some basic principles that have to be met, because it would certainly be in a country like Panama's interest to get the legitimation of a trade deal with Canada.
I am very concerned about the attitude of the Conservative government, which is a complete laissez-faire, roll over for whatever capital wants. In previous trade agreements it has turned a blind eye to the environmental devastation and to the horrific murders, for example, in Colombia of trade activists. In Panama, we have the issues of tax havens and the very dodgy banking practices that the government claims Canada does not support but has made no effort under this trade agreement to push back.
What does my hon. colleague think the implications are of Canada legitimizing an agreement with a country with excessive banking secrecy and the known money laundering that goes on, and how that plays out in terms of actually being able to develop a progressive agenda for a country like Panama?
First Nations Schools September 23rd, 2010
Mr. Speaker, young Shannen Koostachin had a dream that all children should be able to go to what she called big comfy schools, schools that gave them hope and inspiration. Now, Shannen had never seen a real school, because the children of Attawapiskat First Nation were educated in portables in a toxic field.
Shannen knew that this was not right, so the children began to organize, and they reached out to youth across Canada to help them fight for a school. When she was age 13, she was nominated for the International Children's Peace Prize. However, Shannen never lived to see her dream come true, because she died last May in a horrific car accident.
However, today Shannen's dream lives on in Motion No. 571, which would end the systemic underfunding of first nation schools. We invite all politicians, first nation leaders, students, and educators across Canada to make Shannen's dream a reality, because no child should ever have to beg or fight for an education in this country.