James Moore

[Supply, November 23rd, 2004]

Mr. Chair, the minister perhaps has selective amnesia about the past. I would invite him to check the Hansard for what he said in the B.C. legislature when he was premier and when he was attorney general.

If the Liberal Party is so committed to public health care, I am curious about a document, “A Platform for British Columbia” which the minister ran on when he was a candidate in the past campaign.

Also, there is a member of the Privy Council of the government sitting in cabinet and his constituency is Esquimalt—Juan de Fuca. As a Liberal member of Parliament and as a Liberal member of the cabinet he has written that all five pillars of the Canada Health Act are a joke, that the government should walk away from it, that there should be a private parallel public system. He is in the Liberal government.

I think people on this side, physicians and all Canadians across this country are getting sick and tired of the sanctimonious hypocrisy that comes from the Liberal Party that campaigns with people like Keith Martin who believes in destroying our public health insurance system and this--

[Supply, November 23rd, 2004]

Mr. Chair, I will not be using up all of my time. Whatever remaining time I have I would like to split with my colleague from Central Nova.

This is one of these interesting cases. It is very interesting seeing the member sitting in the Liberal cabinet. As a British Columbian I remember the many years when he was the premier of British Columbia and a cabinet minister in British Columbia and the scathing criticisms that he had for the Prime Minister and his actions as the finance minister. In fact, I remember him using some words about how he helped destroy British Columbia's health care system, how he left us in the dust and all these sorts of things.

Perhaps we could have an opportunity here for some revisionism. Would the health minister actually give his assessment of the health care system over the last 10 years? Virtually every indicator in terms of public health is it is getting worse. Private delivery has gone up. People are paying more with credit cards. Health care waiting lists are longer. The time for diagnosis is taking longer and longer. It is getting worse and worse.

When the minister was the premier of British Columbia he had scathing criticisms for the Prime Minister about health care. Now he is singing a different tune. As a British Columbian I want to know what happened and why he changed his mind.

[Rail Transportation, November 23rd, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, VIA Rail passengers are fed up with riding in lemons. Like the submarines, these were one of Jean Pelletier's bargains that has gone seriously wrong. Yet the adventure started off well, with visits to chateaux among pleasant company, side trips to Switzerland and Italy to check if the trains were running on time.

When will the Minister of Transport stop his speculation on CP property and concentrate on VIA Rail trains?

[Criminal Code, November 17th, 2004]

moved for leave to introduce Bill C-292, an act to amend the Criminal Code (child pornography).

Mr. Speaker, this bill enforces a minimum sentence of two years in prison for persons convicted of transmitting, making available, distributing, selling, importing, exporting, or possessing child pornography for the purposes of transmission, making available, distribution, sale or exportation of any sort of child pornography.

The Liberals have talked for a long time about getting tough on child pornographers. This bill would put real teeth into our laws so that children would be safe from the people who would abuse them for the sake of child pornography.

(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)

[Criminal Code, November 17th, 2004]

moved for leave to introduce Bill C-291, an act to amend the Criminal Code (weapons trafficking).

Mr. Speaker, unlike the firearms registry which the Liberals tout as real firearms control, what this bill does is it makes it a separate criminal offence and facilitates the distinction between possessing firearms and trafficking in firearms.It puts in place tougher penalties for people who illegally bring into the country firearms and ammunition that have been prohibited by the government.

(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)

[Criminal Code, November 17th, 2004]

moved for leave to introduce Bill C-290, an act to amend the Criminal Code (consecutive sentences).

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to stand in the House to introduce this bill. This is part of the Conservative Party of Canada's platform and is something which the vast majority of Canadians support, which is to hold violent criminals accountable for their actions.

The bill would mandate in law that violent criminals have consecutive, and not concurrent, sentencing for their crimes. It would hold people accountable. There would be no discount, where the more crimes are committed, the less time is served. Every crime deserves its punishment. The bill provides for consecutive sentencing, not concurrent sentencing, for violent criminals, and it is about time.

(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)

[Firearms Act, November 17th, 2004]

moved for leave to introduce Bill C-289, an act to amend the Firearms Act (criteria for firearms licence).

Mr. Speaker, this bill brings into consideration whether or not anybody has been convicted of an offence under part III, section 264 of the Criminal Code, or has been discharged under section 730 of the Criminal Code. In essence this private member's bill would create a lifetime ban for firearms licence ownership for anybody convicted of a violent crime.

(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)

[Economic Development, November 16th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, in the Parti Québécois fiasco surrounding Gaspésia, our Liberal hon. minister has admitted that his department already knew about the almost insurmountable risks involved in this project back in 2001. When things got really bad, he decided not to inform the unsecured suppliers, to remain at risk and to protect the dubious interests of the PQ government.

Did the government ignore the information it had available and did it give in to pressure from its sovereignist partners?

[Petitions, November 5th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to present a petition signed by constituents of my riding Port Moody—Westwood—Port Coquitlam and neighbouring communities. The petition addresses the growing humanitarian crisis in the Sudan. The petitioners are thankful and proud of the $25 million contribution that Canada has made to help the Sudanese peace efforts in recognition of the over 50,000 reported deaths and millions more having been forced from their homes through widespread violence.

This petition calls on Canada to send peacekeeping troops to Sudan so that Canada may work to ensure the protection of peaceful civilians until peace is realized in the region.

[Justice, November 5th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, according to new research more than one in four hospitals reported that sexual assaults are drug induced. The use of date rape drugs to sexually assault and rape women is dramatically increasing across Canada. Cowards are drugging women, raping and sexually assaulting them and leaving them in gutters for dead. For over two years I and the Conservative Party have been asking the government to table legislation to crack down on the use of date rape drugs, but the government has done nothing to address this problem.

I want to know from the government, is it preparing legislation to protect women from the cowards who sexually assault and abuse women with date rape drugs, yes or no?