Françoise Boivin

[Marketing Freedom for Grain Farmers Act, October 24th, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, I am listening carefully to this debate and to all the points made on both sides of the House. I listened to my colleague, and I would like him to explain why 62% of farmers voted to keep the single desk marketing for wheat and 51% voted to keep the single desk marketing for barley.

I am having difficulty reconciling this information with the fact that we often hear from the other side of the House, the government side, that farmers want markets that are fully open. They try to make us believe that western farmers are not worried about the big multinationals coming in to trample them. How can he explain the vote results?

[Justice, October 21st, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, it seems that the hon. member's math skills are just as good as the Minister of Finance's. I do not know what a clear mandate means, when 61% of the population voted against this government in the May 2 election.

The Minister of Public Safety suggested that Quebec cut its social and educational programs to pay for his crime bill. He refuses to listen to the Quebec National Assembly's unanimous request, which states that some of the bill's provisions go against Quebec's interests. That is serious.

When will this government stop doing whatever it wants and listen to the opinion of a province that knows what it is talking about?

[Justice, October 21st, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, Quebec's justice minister has clearly stated that the Conservatives' crime bill does not pass the test. The Quebec government recommends an approach based on the rehabilitation and reintegration of young offenders, rather than one based on repression. Quebec's approach has proven to be very successful for many years.

Will this government respond to Quebeckers' legitimate demands and amend this bill?

[Governor General's Award in Commemoration of the Persons Case, October 18th, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to congratulate the six recipients of the 2011 Governor General's Award in Commemoration of the Persons Case. The following women were honoured at Rideau Hall earlier today: Madeleine Boscoe, Nancy Hartling, Lucie Joyal, Sharon Donna McIvor, Kim Pate and Amber JoAnn Fletcher.

Every October since 1979, this award has highlighted the exceptional contribution of certain Canadian women to the advancement of women's equality in Canada. This year's recipients have long worked to eliminate violence against women, advance equality for their aboriginal sisters and improve the lives of the most marginalized among us.

But the fact that this award exists demonstrates that there is plenty of work to do before there is true gender equality in Canada. We cannot be content with equality on paper—we need to take action, as these six women have done.

I invite all members to salute these great women. They are true models of social justice in our country, and they deserve our sincere congratulations.

[Questions Passed as Orders for Returns, October 17th, 2011]

With regard to Status of Women Canada: (a) what have been the departmental budgets annually for the fiscal years 2004 to 2011, separated by program and full-time equivalents; (b) what is the planned spending for the current fiscal year through 2015-2016; (c) how many full-time and part-time employees were lost to attrition from 2004 to 2011; (d) how many full-time or part-time employees were laid-off from 2004 to 2011; (e) how many full-time or part-time employees have been transferred from the organisation from 2004 to 2011; (f) how many full-time and part-time employees were hired from 2004 to 2011; and (g) what is the department’s projected attrition rate over the next five years?

[Questions Passed as Orders for Returns, October 17th, 2011]

With regard to grants and contributions under $25,000 granted by Status of Women Canada since January 1, 2008, what are: (a) the names of the recipients; (b) the amounts of the grant or contribution; (c) the dates of the grant or contribution; (d) the dates of length of funding; and (e) the descriptions of the purpose?

[Women's History Month, October 5th, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, this year's Women's History Month recognizes the invaluable contributions made by women within our armed forces. Their sense of duty and tremendous courage are a true source of inspiration. Our country's social progress is linked to the battles and victories won by women over the past 144 years—women like Nancy Riche from Newfoundland and Labrador.

Even so, much remains to be done. Over the past two weeks, I have met with members of two aboriginal groups, Walk 4 Justice and Families of Sisters in Spirit, people who have been through the unthinkable. These people all have a daughter, mother, sister or cousin who was murdered. In their grief, they have joined forces in order to have their needs heard and to seek justice.

I encourage the government to meet with them, to listen to them and to support them, so that we can make history together by putting an end to violence against aboriginal women.

[Preventing Human Smugglers from Abusing Canada's Immigration System Act, October 3rd, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, it is so easy, but I will not make fun of the comment because Bill C-4 does not exist yet. So, in a sense it is going to be interesting to see how it unfolds after and what type of challenges it is going to bring on.

The point here is not the number of refugees. What saddens me is that there are such problems in some countries, where people fear for their lives and need to find a host country like Canada.

My concern about Bill C-4 does not have to do with the number of refugees. If someone is a legitimate refugee, I would hope that we would not prevent them from entering our country.

[Preventing Human Smugglers from Abusing Canada's Immigration System Act, October 3rd, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, I love my colleague's lawyers, but they will not love what I am going to say right now. I wish they would not have that much work, but my sneaking suspicion is that because of the government, they will have so much work, especially those constitutionalists and all those specialists on international conventions. Definitely, they cannot just lie there and do absolutely nothing when we see so many inequities that are created through this piece of legislation. I am sad.

When I was a labour lawyer, I often joked with the employers that I represented that, if I did my job well when establishing a collective agreement between the two parties, they would never need me again because the terms would be so clear and precise. I can say that the parties involved in all the collective agreements that I helped to draft rarely needed my help to interpret those agreements later because we found the words to say what the parties wanted to say at the negotiating table. However, when we draft bills such as this one, unfortunately, it leaves a lot of room for interpretation and inequality. We are going to find ourselves before the courts more often than not and it will cost the government a fortune.

[Preventing Human Smugglers from Abusing Canada's Immigration System Act, October 3rd, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member has asked an excellent question.

As I was saying, further to the legal analysis of this bill, my biggest concern is that there will be many court challenges related either to the charter or to the UN's Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees. Any challenges related to the UN's Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, which we have signed, would threaten Canada's image.

Our government speaks on our behalf. The government is not just the Conservatives. The government is all Canadians from coast to coast to coast, not just the small 39% of 61% of the vote in the last election represented by the Conservatives.

It is clear that the image of Canada will suffer.