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Citizenship and Immigration November 26th, 2004
Mr. Speaker, it is really unfortunate that we are spending so much of this important question period time not talking about the issues that are of concern to Canadians, but simply picking up whatever garbage is in the newspaper and throwing it around because we have immunity in this place.
Let us get on to talking about the issues that matter to Canadians. Let us talk about the health care issues and all the positive things we are doing in this country.
Citizenship and Immigration November 26th, 2004
Mr. Speaker, once again the members of the opposition are throwing unsubstantiated allegations. They simply read the morning newspaper and decide what allegations they will throw while they have the immunity of this House.
Let me repeat that there were no violations of the Privacy Act and the two young men who were reported on in that article are two of the finest young men I have ever met.
Citizenship and Immigration November 26th, 2004
Mr. Speaker, it amazes me that this sacred House is used to throw such allegations all over the place.
I want to read the following, which I will table in the House. It states:
Following questions raised with respect to the former Chief of Staff's trip...the Finance Branch realized that the destination and purpose regarding this trip had been incorrectly reported on the departmental web site. The trip was reported on the English language web-page as a trip to Toronto and on the French language web-page as a trip to Ottawa.
If they had clearly looked and used their bilingualism and their efforts to improve their French language they would have read that correctly.
Citizenship and Immigration November 26th, 2004
Mr. Speaker, someone referred to me yesterday as the minister of hopes and dreams, and that is exactly what I intend to be. We on this side of the House are working toward helping people to realize those dreams. We are looking at our immigration system and looking at bringing it into the 21st century. We are proud of the work we are doing on this side of the House.
I look forward to working with all parliamentarians as we move forward to an even more successful immigration plan in this country.
Citizenship and Immigration November 26th, 2004
Mr. Speaker, I was very clear. There was no queue jumping. There was an individual married to a Canadian citizen working in an industry that she no longer wanted to work in. I assisted her on the merits of that application under humanitarian and compassionate grounds, and in spite of all of those guys and their accusations for the past two weeks, I would do it again today.
Citizenship and Immigration November 26th, 2004
Mr. Speaker, I find it interesting that there is a woman standing and asking some of these questions.
Let me say that when it comes to standing up for women's rights, we on this side of the House are going to make sure that women's rights are front and centre. When we talk about issues of exploitation of women or anything to do with threats against women, we are going to be standing up for them. I will never stop doing that.
Citizenship and Immigration November 26th, 2004
Mr. Speaker, if the hon. member had taken the time to look at the French website, he would have seen very clearly that this issue was correct all along. It is the same old Reform-Alliance party continuing to make discriminatory remarks against people and allegations that are clearly unfounded.
In answer to his earlier question about my staff, let me say that I have two of the finest young men working for me and I deny any allegations. If we are guilty of anything, it is because we are trying to be too kind to all of those guys over there.
Citizenship and Immigration November 25th, 2004
Mr. Speaker, as I indicated earlier, everything gets posted, all of them that are expense are approved as well.
May I also remind the member that all of these issues have been referred to the Ethics Commissioner. Let us let the Ethics Commissioner do his job.
Citizenship and Immigration November 25th, 2004
Mr. Speaker, I can assure the member that we follow all the Treasury Board guidelines, all the guidelines that we are required to follow, and post the information as required. The information is accurate. It has gone through a very detailed comptroller before it is posted.
Citizenship and Immigration November 25th, 2004
Mr. Speaker--