Gary Lunn

[Fisheries, October 1st, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, we know this government fires people who are about to expose the truth as it has fired the CPP watchdog.

We know this government's failed fish policies, more specifically foreign overfishing and the mismanagement within the department have been an unmitigated disaster. We know the fisheries committee chairman has been removed not only as chairman but from the entire committee.

Is it the policy of this government to fire every single person who gets in its way?

[Whaling, October 1st, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, today Makah Indians are preparing to slaughter grey whales just off our west coast.

They claim the hunt is an expression of cultural self-determination. It is reported that this in fact is a commercial operation with the Japanese fronting more than $20,000 to promote the hunt and agreeing to purchase the whales at $1 million a piece.

The minister of fisheries has flip-flopped on this hunt four times in the last two days as he scrambles to appease foreign governments. RCMP and DFO officials have expressed serious safety concerns regarding the slaughter of whales in our waters. Greys are notoriously aggressive when wounded.

We need leadership in DFO. What will it take for the PM to realize that everything the minister touches turns into an unmitigated disaster? It is time for change. It is time for leadership. The PM should have fired the minister, not the committee chair.

[Points Of Order, September 30th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, I would agree that he only referred to it; he did not read from it.

[Points Of Order, September 30th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. The Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, in response to my great question, made reference to a document that he sent an hour ago to the fisheries committee chairman. I would ask the Speaker to rule that the document be tabled.

[Standing Committee On Fisheries And Oceans, September 30th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, we know and have been told by numerous sources that the minister was undertaking to have the chair fired. What we want to know now—

[Standing Committee On Fisheries And Oceans, September 30th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, we know the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans has demanded to have the member for Gander—Grand Falls, Newfoundland, fired as the chair of the fisheries and oceans committee. The minister will do in one of his own to save his own hide.

Why is the minister covering up his own failures by having his fisheries chair fired?

[Fisheries, September 29th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, last week the minister of fisheries claimed success in negotiating with foreign nations to have observers on foreign fishing vessels while fishing off Canada's east coast. What he did not tell us was that once again he gave our stocks away, lucrative shrimp, to foreign nations by moving a boundary which is under moratorium.

What does the minister have to say to Canadian shrimp fishermen after giving their shrimp away to foreign nations while their boats are left at home tied up at the docks?

[Judges Act, June 11th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, I wish to be recorded as voting in favour of this motion.

[Dna Identification Act, June 4th, 1998]

Madam Speaker, I know you have ruled on this. If you do not wish to indulge in it, I would like to call quorum.

[Dna Identification Act, June 4th, 1998]

Beauchesne's citation 806 states:

The general rule establishing a quorum for committees is contained in Standing Order 118(1). A majority of members of a special, legislative, or standing committee constitutes a quorum. In the case of joint committees the quorum is established by the House in consultation with the Senate for each joint committee.

I understand the Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans now has only six members in the committee. They were down to between eight and six, and a quorum is nine. The committee's own motion that was passed on a special motion is three members with one opposition member and there are no opposition members present.

Standing Orders 118(1) states—