Erin O'Toole

[International Trade, October 18th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, I would remind the hon. member that the provinces have been a part of this process, including the province of Quebec. Earlier this week, the Leader of the Opposition opposed an agreement without even seeing it. It seems like only the NDP and the Québec solidaire are against this deal that will be great for Canada.

[International Trade, October 18th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, we have been dealing with this in the most open and comprehensive way, without partisanship. All of the provinces have been consulted. All stakeholders have been consulted—

[International Trade, October 18th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, this is an exciting opportunity for Canada, with 500 million new consumers and a 20% increase in trade with the European Union, yet earlier this week the NDP, before even seeing a potential agreement, opposed it.

Today the Prime Minister signed the agreement in Brussels. A sector-by-sector overview is being released, and Canadian stakeholders from coast to coast are excited. This is a win for Canada.

[Not Criminally Responsible Reform Act, June 17th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member ended by talking about this issue being clouded in fog. I am trying to pierce through that fog to really see the position of the NDP on this issue. He talked a lot about victims and why some of the measures in this legislation were important.

I attended the justice committee and I attended Dr. Isabelle Gaston's session. I found her to be one of the most compelling witnesses I have heard in my time in Parliament. She was not just speaking as a victim, but also as a physician and somebody who was advocating on this issue. She asked critics to stop saying that she lacked empathy because she supported the legislation.

We have heard a lot about stigma tonight. Certainly that horrendous case in Quebec caused stigma.

Would it not reduce that stigma if victims and victims' families were to feel that the law addressed their concerns for public safety going forward?

[Not Criminally Responsible Reform Act, June 17th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the member particularly in the way she was able to tie her passion tonight with her first speech in the House for a while.

As a lawyer, I am disappointed by her remarks and by the Canadian Bar Association's position on this because there really are a number of people clouding the issue here. This is not about moral blameworthiness. These people are not criminally responsible for a reason.

The bill would specifically address the re-release or the review of these people who were deemed to be in this high risk class and would really rebalance the equilibrium. Our justice system is built on pillars, whether it is sentencing or throughout rehabilitation and deterrents, punishment in some cases, but in rehabilitation and public safety. The very courts that will accept an offender as not criminally responsible are certainly equipped to then reassess, and that is what this bill would do.

Why does the member not trust the same courts that will allow somebody to avoid some of the criminal sanctions due to mental illness and, at the same time, not recognize those same courts in the process for parole?

[Canadian Museum of History Act, June 17th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, it is an honour for me to stand in this House today to not only pledge my support for Bill C-49 but also to tell my personal story in relation to my passion for history and why I totally agree with the vision and applaud our minister and his able parliamentary secretary for bringing the bill before this House for debate tonight.

The bill is known best as the bill that would establish the Canadian museum of history. Really, this would not re-create or re-establish an important national museum. In many ways, it would actually reassert its important mandate as a national institution in Canada. It would also extend that national mandate to all the small towns, villages, and cities across this great nation. History does not just belong in the nation's capital. Indeed, it belongs across the country.

In many ways, the bill is about one of the last crown jewels in the collection of important national museums our government has supported across Canada, going back to our support in 2008 for the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, being established in Winnipeg, and, in 2010, to our government's reassertion of the importance of Pier 21 as Canada's national Museum of Immigration, in Halifax.

I had the good fortune to visit Pier 21 in its early years, thanks to the vision of the Goldblooms in Halifax, who brought that important institution to our country.

The day after my wedding, in Halifax, my wife and I, dreary-eyed as we might have been, with my parents, took my grandmother, Madge Hall, to Pier 21, where she first stepped into Canada with her husband and infant daughter, Molly, my mother, after World War II. Not only did we experience that museum but we looked up the manifest of the Lusitania, which they boarded to come to Canada and a tremendous new life. I only wish one of those three people was still here to see their grandson sitting in Canada's Parliament.

In many ways, the bill would refocus our national history museum. I will speak to why I think the national network this museum would create is even more important than the rebranding and refocusing of the institution in Ottawa.

It is indeed a travesty that 90% of our historic artifacts and treasures are in storage. It is time to free these important artifacts from the shackles of indifference and dust and to share them with the small towns across Canada, or indeed, the large museums, such as the ROM or the Royal British Columbia Museum, so that they too can feel an attachment to these important artifacts.

However, the converse is perhaps even more important than getting this national artifact network established. It is also important for museums such as Scugog Shores in Port Perry or the Clarington Archives or the Clarke Museum in Clarington or the Lucy Maud Montgomery museum in Uxbridge to share some of their local artifacts with our national institution in Ottawa.

Thanks to the vision behind Bill C-49, and our Minister of Canadian Heritage , we would have visitors to Canada exploring the Canadian museum of history and seeing the artifacts and the history of the small towns and villages in Durham at our national institution in Ottawa. That would be truly remarkable and important. There would be a dedicated permanent space for exhibits from over 2500 museums across this country.

It is also an honour for me to tell a bit of my personal story tonight, and in my first year, to utter only my second Winston Churchill quote. Churchill said, “Study history, study history. In history lie all the secrets of statecraft”.

My friends on this side of the House should really read more history to learn those secrets to try to take our side of the House. The very fact that they have not leaves me resting assured that we are going to maintain this side of the House, because we have followed the edict of one of the world's greatest parliamentarians.

My love of history started when I was an 18-year-old officer cadet crossing the parade square at Royal Military College in Kingston, Ontario. We had a mandate, as young gentlemen and lady cadets of the college, to learn the history of that historic site.

We gazed at the RMC flag, which was designed by the dean of arts, George Stanley, who shared his vision for the nation's flag in 1964 with John Matheson, a distinguished gunner from the Royal Canadian Horse Artillery and later the MP for Leeds. John Matheson is still alive and, at 95, is really one of our living veterans who truly tells the history of this great country.

George Stanley at RMC taught generations of historians who are with us today as leading voices. At RMC he taught Desmond Morton and Jack Granatstein.

In many ways, this debate on why Canada needs a national museum of history was started by one of George Stanley's students, Dr. Jack Granatstein, who, in 1998, wrote Who Killed Canadian History? In many ways, in the years since then, Canadian history has been given a new life. In many ways, this bill would give our national history museum a network of history and a life across the country.

It is my pleasure to rise today in full support of Bill C-49. Indeed, it is our government's answer to the question, "Who killed Canadian history?" We may not be able to answer that, but we certainly know who is breathing new life into the subject.

[Bowmanville Historic Site, June 17th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, Canadians are fortunate to have a network of national parks and historic sites to allow our citizens to explore this magnificent country and learn about the people and places that made it great.

I am happy to inform the House that very soon the Municipality of Clarington and the town of Bowmanville may be the home to the latest national historic site. For almost a century, the place known as the boys' training school or, during World War II, Camp 30, has been a part of Bowmanville. During the war, Camp 30 was perhaps best known for the concept of Ehrenwort, where local prison guards would allow German prisoners to leave the camp unescorted, provided they gave their word of honour that they would return.

No major project like this happens without the tireless energy of many. I would like to thank Martha Rutherford Conrad, Faye Langmaid, Kelvin Whalen and the Kaitlin Group, as well as Mayor Adrian Foster and Clarington council for their vision and energy on this project.

In the coming years, I would like to invite Canadians to explore the Clarington area and our national history.

[Combating Counterfeit Products Act, June 13th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the member for Tobique—Mactaquac for particularly focusing on a large employer in his riding, McCain Foods. I can assure him that I regularly support the economic development of that important employer, probably a tad too much.

It is key to recognize that these intellectual property rights are held by employers and that loss and erosion of these rights erodes economic development and jobs in our communities, whether it is in New Brunswick, Ontario, Quebec, or elsewhere.

I would like the member to address what employers, like McCain Foods in his riding, feel about our new measures that would allow them to exert their intellectual property rights, protect these, particularly for a large and important Canadian exporter like McCain Foods.

[Combating Counterfeit Products Act, June 12th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the NDP House leader for his remarks as we approach midnight tonight. I am glad he mentioned hubris, because that concept was coming to mind during his remarks.

Specifically, he addressed the need for training and CBSA needs in relation to some of these changes. He may not be aware that such training is already taking place between intellectual property rights holders, border officials and law enforcement officials. I was personally involved in some of those efforts. However, those are impossible to later act upon without a registry of intellectual property rights or a request procedure, given the volume.

Therefore, I would ask him to comment on whether his party agrees with those provisions of the bill and whether that agreement would change if there were several more weeks of debate on this.

[Combating Counterfeit Products Act, June 12th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague for Kitchener—Waterloo for his thoughtful speech tonight, particularly his remarks on the impact on businesses and the brands associated with those businesses.

I would like to inform my colleagues here in the House that some of the most iconic Canadian products and brands have been targeted by counterfeit goods. My friends from Quebec would know that Canadian maple syrup has been counterfeited and sold in Asia. My friends from the Okanagan and Niagara would know that counterfeit icewine has been sold in Asia. The iconic BlackBerry from the member's riding of Kitchener—Waterloo has been counterfeited in parts of the world.

Does the member think that an employer like BlackBerry in his riding would appreciate a registry where rights holders can exercise some control in relation to their intellectual property at international borders?