House of Commons photoWon his last election, in 2011, with 69% of the vote.
Firearms Registry December 4th, 2002
Mr. Speaker, let me tell the minister about his policy.
The Auditor General reported that the gun registry has cost 500 times more than what Parliament and the public was originally promised. The RCMP has been registering handguns since 1934, but firearms homicides with handguns have doubled over the past 30 years.
Clearly, registration does not lower homicide rates. Obviously this is bad policy. Given all of this, why not just scrap the program?
Firearms Registry December 4th, 2002
Mr. Speaker, due to the government's cost laundering, the Auditor General found it so difficult to obtain reliable information from the justice department that she called off her audit of the gun registry before it was completed. The true cost may be even worse, more than $1 billion.
The justice minister and his predecessors used to say that they were completely responsible and accountable for the firearms program. Obviously accountability means nothing to the government because all three are still sitting on the front bench.
Given the scope of this financial disaster, why has the Prime Minister not fired the minister responsible?
Firearms Registry December 3rd, 2002
Mr. Speaker, he has not been accountable to Parliament yet. Why should we believe him now? The Auditor General said the issue is not gun control and not even the astronomical cost overruns. What is really inexcusable is that Parliament was kept in the dark.
Can the justice minister give Parliament one reason why we should believe a single word that comes out of his mouth now when we know that he has been spouting complete and utter nonsense? That includes the industry minister, the health minister, the former finance minister, the Deputy Prime Minister and the Prime Minister himself. They have all misled Parliament.
Why the cover-up?
Firearms Registry December 3rd, 2002
Mr. Speaker, the Auditor General reported today that the justice department knew more than two years ago that it would spend more than $1 billion on the gun registry. It failed to report the true costs to Parliament as required by its own regulations.
How much is the government willing to pour down the drain before it admits this is a failure, $1 billion more, $2 billion more, or $3 billion more? What will it be?
Firearms Registry December 2nd, 2002
Mr. Speaker, I have just received information from the justice department showing that it has a backlog of more than 134,000 gun registrations. A quarter of them have been backlogged for more than a year.
Considering that Statistics Canada reported that there were 11 million guns in Canada back in 1974 and less than half of this number are now registered, why is the minister misleading Canadians into thinking the government will register all firearms when clearly it cannot, even with the six month amnesty it has just declared?
Kyoto Protocol December 2nd, 2002
Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. In light of the predicament that we find ourselves, where we have serious time constraints, one of the obvious solutions would be to extend the time for questions and comments. Because there are many people who would still like to ask questions, and hon. member are only allowed five minutes, I would like to ask for the unanimous consent of the House for an extension of time for questions and comments.
Petitions November 29th, 2002
Mr. Speaker, the second petition has quite a large number of signatures as well, mainly from the northern part of my riding. The petitioners call attention to the fact that the use of child pornography is condemned by the clear majority of Canadians. The courts have not applied the current child pornography law in such a way that it is clear that such exploitation of children will always be met with swift punishment.
The petitioners are asking Parliament to protect our children by taking all necessary steps to ensure that all materials which promote or glorify pedophilia or sado-masochistic activities involving children are outlawed.
Petitions November 29th, 2002
Mr. Speaker, I have a couple of petitions. The first one comes from people throughout the provinces of Saskatchewan, Alberta and B.C. The petitioners draw attention to the fact that Canadians are suffering from debilitating illnesses and diseases, such as Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, diabetes, cancer, muscular dystrophy and spinal cord injury, and that Canadians support ethical stem cell research, which has shown encouraging potential to provide cures for these diseases.
Non-embryonic stem cells, which are also known as adult stem cells, have shown significant research progress without immune rejection and the ethical problems associated with embryonic stem cells. The petitioners ask Parliament to focus its legislative support on adult stem cell research to find the cures and therapies necessary to treat the illnesses and diseases of suffering Canadians
Firearms Registry November 29th, 2002
Mr. Speaker, yesterday the justice minister bragged that the gun registry was worth $1 billion but his actions contradict his words.
The minister refuses to permit aboriginal hunters to buy ammunition without a firearms licence. Can the minister explain why his government delivers thousands of rounds of ammunition to reserves and hands the ammunition out to aboriginal hunters who are not in possession of a firearms licence?
Justice November 28th, 2002
Mr. Speaker, Ontario's public safety minister, Bob Runciman, has blamed Ottawa for diverting money to a useless gun registry instead of using that money to address the real problem of the recent outbreak of handgun crime in Toronto. Last week the justice minister claimed that the revocation rate was higher compared to the previous system. The justice minister's own statistics revealed the opposite. Revocation under this new scheme is half of the old FAC program.
Does the minister have new statistics to justify the wasting of $1 billion of taxpayers' money?