Inky Mark

[Petitions, October 31st, 2003]

Madam Speaker, the last petition calls upon Parliament to protect our children by taking all necessary steps to ensure that all materials which promote or glorify pedophilia or sado-masochistic activity involving children are outlawed.

[Petitions, October 31st, 2003]

Madam Speaker, the second petition calls upon Parliament to protect the rights of Canadians to be free to share their religious beliefs without fear of persecution.

[Petitions, October 31st, 2003]

Madam Speaker, I have the honour today to present three petitions on behalf of the good people of Dauphin--Swan River.

The first petition calls upon Parliament to take immediate action to develop internationally recognized protocols designed to restore confidence in Canadian beef products and to open international beef markets to Canadian producers.

[Justice, October 31st, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, the RCMP and other federal agencies spend over a half a billion dollars every year trying to reduce the supply. Has Canada given up on drug control?

Just exactly what is the intent of Bill C-38? Is it to help criminal organizations increase their market share? We know that will happen. Is it to help the Prime Minister after he retires so that he can toke up a bit?

Exactly who are we helping, the criminals or the recreational users, or both?

[Justice, October 31st, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, Canadians and police agencies across the country are worried about the Liberal's marijuana legislation, Bill C-38.

The bill sends not only the wrong message but mixed messages to our youth about the use of drugs. Health Canada has already labelled marijuana as a dangerous substance. How can this help our youth?

My question is, how will decriminalization of marijuana prevent our youth from using pot?

[Fisheries, October 30th, 2003]

Madam Speaker, I too want to congratulate the commission chair, Shirley Heafey, for starting the application of complaint.

The Arar family and friends have been demanding a full public inquiry into this case. The RCMP complaints commission has no power to impose discipline or to order compensation payment to the victims.

I read from the same page that the parliamentary secretary received from the Internet. It states that the commission chair can initiate a complaint, and the complaint has been referred to the RCMP for investigation. In other words, members of the RCMP are investigating themselves. That is kind of ludicrous.

How do we get transparency out of this process? That is why there needs to be a full public inquiry into this matter.

[Fisheries, October 30th, 2003]

Madam Speaker, I have the pleasure to stand in the House and raise the Maher Arar file. If this file is not cleaned up, it will certainly be a bleak mark on Canadian civil rights.

Maher Arar is a Canadian citizen who was born in Syria in 1970. He came to Canada in 1987. After earning bachelor's and master's degrees in computer engineering, Arar worked in Ottawa as a telecommunications engineer. His wife, Monia Mazigh, has a Ph.D. in mathematics and they have two young children.

I wish to praise at this time the Minister of Foreign Affairs for his personal interest and involvement with the Arar family.

As Canadians, we know that civil rights are the pillar of this democracy that we live in and believe in. We all know there are many bleak moments in Canadian history.

Let me review a few of them: the internment of Japanese Canadians during the second world war and the internment of Ukrainian Canadians during the first world war. Between 1914 and 1920 over 5,000 Ukrainians were interned in 24 work camps across the country. There was also the Chinese Exclusion Act from 1923 to 1947. Hopefully, we can learn from history.

This week, I had the pleasure of meeting Jean-Louis Roy, the president of Rights and Democracy which is an arm's length organization created by Parliament in 1988. Rights and Democracy is an independent non-partisan organization that works with civil society organizations and governments in Canada and abroad for the benefit of developing nations. Its main focus is civil rights.

Here we are going around the world doing a great job, I must say, promoting civil rights and democracy, and at the same time we probably do not do all that we should do in this country.

That is why I believe this file is very important in the history of this country. There is no doubt that Mr. Arar was apprehended, not because he was a Canadian but because he was a Canadian of Arab descent. There is no doubt that racial profiling took place. The man was detained by U.S. immigration and naturalization officers at New York's Kennedy airport while returning alone to Montreal from a family vacation in Tunisia. He is a citizen of this country. If this can happen to Maher Arar, it can certainly happen to many other Canadians, whether they are Arab or of other ethnic descent.

I hope the government will pay attention and ensure that there is a transparent process to get to the bottom of this.

[Federal-Provincial Fiscal Arrangements Act, October 30th, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, that is a very interesting question and a valid one.

As I said earlier, it is possible that one of the motives for doing this is to allow the new Liberal Party leader off the hook. If we put this in place at this time for the period of the next year and the process is not open and the doors are closed, obviously nothing will change. In fact all the concerns will remain, even Premier Hamm's concerns about the offshore accord and the offshore protection clawback provisions.

The new government of Danny Williams in Newfoundland and Labrador has the same concern in that when the provinces are creating wealth they want to be self-sufficient. The province I come from, Manitoba, is a have not province. If the provincial governments are doing their jobs, creating wealth and getting people to come home to their provinces and increasing their populations, then certainly they should be the benefactors of those elements.

[Federal-Provincial Fiscal Arrangements Act, October 30th, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, I think one question needs to be raised. Why are we doing it now in relation to the change in the Liberal leadership? Does it mean that the new leader does not want to deal with this issue? That question needs to be asked.

In terms of the deals that come up on the equalization side, there is no doubt the reason it is in place since the Constitution Act, 1982 is to make sure that the money flows. If the money does not flow, then I believe the provinces have the constitutional right to complain.

There should be provisions in the agreement for provinces whose wealth creation initiatives are successful and they are creating more wealth. It is not good enough just to say that because a province is making more money the federal government wants it all back and the province cannot have any of the equalization.

There are a lot of things that need to be done. The first thing is that the federal government has to be at the table.

[Federal-Provincial Fiscal Arrangements Act, October 30th, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, that is an interesting point that my Bloc colleague has raised. That is a good question. Why is the government doing it now?

If it really wants to improve the equalization deal, then it needs to sit down with the provinces. What is actually missing in the whole equation is that the federal government needs to sit down with the provinces and look through the agreement instead of rushing ahead and extending the date just because the House is about to shut down. That is the wrong reason. It is the wrong reason for even tabling the bill in the House.

If the government really wants to do good work and wants to show it is willing to cooperate with the provinces, then what is the problem? Can it not sit down with the provinces and go through the agreement and rework it? Perhaps there could be a 10 year agreement with different slots to review the agreement.

I have a problem with the process, the procedure and the timing of the bill.