Jim Abbott

[Supply, November 3rd, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, may I straighten the member out as I usually have to do. At the time he was talking about with regard to the 1995 budget there was a $40 billion problem. The finance minister increased taxes and slashed the guts out of health care by slashing $7 billion. We do not have to take any lessons from him.

Everywhere I go I have people coming up to me and talking about the issue of taxation, taxation and taxation. When I was talking to farmers in the maritimes that was the number one issue. I do not understand why the member, in spite of the fact that he comes from an urban constituency, cannot understand that everyone including farmers needs a tax break.

[Apec Inquiry, November 3rd, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, my question is not about the RCMP commission. My question is not about the RCMP's actions or the students' actions. My question is about this Prime Minister's involvement in denying Canadians their rights of freedom of speech and expression.

This commission does not have the authority to get to that and is completely derailed. When are we going to get what Canadians need, an independent inquiry?

[Apec Inquiry, November 3rd, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister continues to hide behind this now totally dead and useless public complaints commission. He has a reason for that. The public complaints commission was never, ever designed to look into the affairs of the Prime Minister denying Canadians their rights of freedom of speech and expression.

This commission will be calling the commissioner of the RCMP who has acknowledged that because it will be reporting to him, it will have a bias. The RCMP lawyers say that it will have a bias. What are we going to do to get to the bottom of this affair as long as the Prime Minister—

[Petitions, November 3rd, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, the third petition is a gathering of four separate petitions, all on the same issue, containing a total of 1,060 signatures.

The petition pertains to the work of the Reform Party and others who are trying to bring in the philosophy of zero tolerance relative to drunk driving. The petitioners state that victims of the crime of impaired driving must be given the highest priority, as reflected by their impact statements, and that in cases of impaired driving causing death or injury sentencing must reflect the severity of the crime.

It is my pleasure to present this petition on behalf of 1,060 signatories in memory of Norm and Shawna.

[Petitions, November 3rd, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, the second set of petitions concerns marriage and contains 325 signatures. The petitioners stated that the majority of Canadians understand the concept of marriage as being only the voluntary union of a single, that is, unmarried male and a single, that is, unmarried female. The petitioners pray that parliament will enact Bill C-225, an act to amend the Marriage Act and the Interpretation Act.

[Petitions, November 3rd, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, I have three sets of petitions to present. The first petition is signed by 59 Canadians who are concerned about the Copyright Board and the recent decision of the Copyright Board concerning commercial television royalties which will retroactively reduce the royalties of Canadian music creators and adopt the American practice of enforcing individual music composers to negotiate directly with large broadcasting corporations.

The petitioners are requesting that parliament strongly affirm this commitment: That the Minister of Industry immediately appoint a judge to chair the Copyright Board in respect of parliament's intent that the board be competent and objective as a quasi-judicial tribunal.

[Royal Canadian Mounted Police, November 2nd, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, I stand on behalf of RCMP officers all over Canada and especially on behalf of those in the province of British Columbia. Why can the solicitor general not understand the chagrin, the anger and the frustration of RCMP officers when the commissioner flies out in the RCMP private jet for a retirement party while there is a cutback of $8.5 million, there is no overtime and there are no boats and no planes? Why can he not understand that?

[Apec Inquiry, October 29th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, the solicitor general's denial of any knowledge of the internal RCMP report on pending charges is unbelievable. The RCMP commissioner reports to the deputy solicitor general. Is he saying his deputy kept him in the dark?

He did say that he had not seen the report. Let me be very specific. Is he telling us that he had no knowledge of this report, yes or no?

[Foreign Publishers Advertising Services Act, October 29th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, I will state again, as I did in my speech, that the Reform Party is absolutely committed to the fundamental concept that Canadians as a nation and as individuals are the greatest nation and the greatest people in the world. Given a challenge, Canadians will always rise to the top. Canadians will always be superior. Canadians will always perform at a level far beyond what they even imagine.

All we need is for the Liberals to get out of smothering the initiative of Canadians with all sorts of unnecessary protection. We should be given freedom so that we can get on with the job of being the great people and the great nation we are.

[Foreign Publishers Advertising Services Act, October 29th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, the Reform Party was right on the split-run bill before it. We opposed the split-run bill and we were right, therefore we may be isolated but that does not stop us from speaking about what is the truth and what are the facts.

Second, with respect to the study, every study goes through a certain number of processes but a study arrives at a conclusion. It does not mean that a person cannot take a section of the study that is a valid exploration of certain detail and report on that exploration of detail and not arrive at the same conclusion as the authors of the study. The member's point is not well taken.

With respect to the issue of copyright and being isolated, I can report to this House very clearly that what occurred in that instance, because of the support of the Bloc Quebecois as the official opposition for the government of the day, it was in a position of having a hammer.

There was a collusion between the parliamentary secretary to the minister of the day and the lead hand for the Bloc Quebecois where there were meetings. This member will recall that there were informal meetings occurring in the hallway What are we going to do now? They came back to the table. They would then go through a little tap dance and then they would go back into the hall again.

I reached the point of absolute frustration because of the collusion between the Liberals and the Bloc Quebecois to see that bill go through. It was one of the low points of my time in parliamentary life.

They did not even have the decency to go around the corner. They just went out of earshot to concoct what was going on.

Fortunately for the House the constituents of both those former members saw fit not to return them to the Chamber. I do not know whether it had anything to do with the kind of activity that was going on in the hallway, but the point is that I was not going to be part of that process. It was slanted in favour of the minister jamming Bill C-32 through the House.

The bill before us is cut out of exactly the same piece of cloth. The minister will see her backbenchers acting like grazing animals to make sure she gets the bill through.