Keith Martin

[Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, March 22nd, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, with regard to the individuals who volunteered to engage in chemical testing, we allocated and gave to each of those members a lump sum payment. Furthermore, each and every one of those members and their families have access to the same pension benefits that they would receive regardless. They received a payment, and have complete and full access to the pension benefits and health care.

With respect to JTF2 and indeed all members, the key point to emphasize is that any member of the Canadian Forces should contact the Centre for the Support of Injured and Retired Members and theirFamilies, an institute that the government set up to ensure that no CF member would fall through the cracks.

We are committed to ensuring that all members, be they members of JTF2 or the Canadian Forces in general, have access to the pension benefits and health care they deserve. We are committed to ensuring they have full access. They should contact us at any time if they feel they are not receiving the care that they ought to be receiving.

[Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, March 22nd, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, I hope that my comments today will clarify the concerns that the member has brought up. I know for a fact that the minister has bent over backwards to answer the member's questions. I had hoped that this had been cleared up before, but I will repeat the answers that have been given. This problem has been solved and solved for a long time.

We have the utmost respect for the work done by JTF2. It is an extremely well trained organization and one of the best in the world. It was created in 1993 to deal with counterterrorism operations and the threat of terrorism, which we know has become very elusive, sophisticated and determined.

In the 2001 federal budget $119 million was allocated to JTF2 to augment the capabilities of this elite anti-terrorism unit. The government announced that the unit would double its capacity in order to better represent and respond to Canada's needs in this very difficult challenge.

Budget 2005 continues in this trend. We have made a commitment to maintain the excellence of this counterterrorism capability by providing further investments to help our special forces to sustain, expand and acquire the capabilities they need.

The budget allocated $2.8 billion for new equipment for the forces and specialized facilities for JTF2. Indeed, all of us are very proud of what this unit does and indeed the work that the men and women of our Canadian Forces do day in and day out.

It has been suggested by members of this House that the secrecy of JTF2 operations prevents members who have been injured in the service of their country from providing the information necessary to be awarded disability payments by Veterans Affairs.

This is the key issue. It is simply not true. I want to make it very clear that JTF2 members are entitled to the same support and health care services as other members. The Department of National Defence and the Department of Veterans Affairs are committed to ensuring that all military and retired military personnel receive the benefits of which they are entitled and are treated fairly, with dignity and respect.

Officials with the Department of National Defence, including representatives of JTF2, have met with members of Veterans Affairs and they have confirmed that information required by Veterans Affairs does not compromise the security requirements by JTF2.

However, to ensure that no member is left out and falls through the cracks, the two ministers have agreed that should additional information be required, Veterans Affairs would accept the assurances of the Department of National Defence that the individual suffered a service related injury. No other requirements are required. This was dealt with and hammered out a long time ago.

I would like to encourage any member of the special operations forces or indeed any member of the Canadian Forces who has questions of a disability claim to come forward. He or she should contact the Centre for the Support of Injured and Retired Members and their Families which will provide confidential support to injured members, veterans and their families.

If any member of this House knows of any person in our Canadian Forces who requires care and is not receiving it, put politics aside, respond to us directly. We will ensure that they are taken care of. This is a commitment by the government. This is a promise that we have made. We wish to assure anyone out there who feels that they are not being taken care of to please contact us and we will work with them to resolve the issue.

We owe our men and women in uniform the very best care and support that they deserve. We are committed as a government to ensuring that takes place.

[Supply, March 10th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, I want to expand on the comments that were made earlier and also on the comments made by the hon. member for the Bloc Québécois who has done a lot of work on the issue of substance abuse. The Conservative member from Port Moody has also done a lot of work on this as well.

I want to expand this debate to two issues that are important to Canadians. They involve the drugs ecstasy and crystal meth. In my province of British Columbia and some other provinces as well, pot is tied intimately to the drug trade along with cocaine and heroin. There are two other substances that are being produced with quite dramatic effects and they are ecstasy, and the much more potent and dangerous substance crystal methamphetamine which is also extremely addictive. Young people are being drawn into the sex trade in part because they want to trade sex for crystal meth.

How do we deal with this? All of this is intimately entwined with organized crime, which as I mentioned before, acquires some 85% of its profits from drug trafficking and, in particular, pot. The groups mostly involved in this are organized crime gangs, particularly biker gangs, and in the province of British Columbia, Vietnamese crime gangs.

What does the hon. member suggest we could do to give our police the tools they need to deal with the crisis that is taking place right now with respect to crystal meth and MDMA, or ecstasy?

[Supply, March 10th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, one of the great challenges we face, as an extension of this argument, is what to do with the movement of moneys across borders. The movement of moneys that are garnered from illegal means through drugs and other illegal activities, especially by organized crime, is an incredible destabilizing element in our world and in our country. It goes to the heart of a number of problems, everything from terrorism to small time criminal activity.

It is one of the greatest challenges with which we have to grapple. I know the international community is working on this right now, but I would appreciate the hon. member's solutions as an extension of the supply day motion from the Bloc.

Where do we go? What solutions does he have to offer on how we can put more transparency into the movement of moneys across boundaries and borders? How do we manage to give the police the tools? What tools would he recommend, which would enable police and international law enforcement officers to track illegal moneys that move around the world, which are an incredible destabilizing factor in our world today?

[Supply, March 10th, 2005]

Madam Speaker, I want to thank the hon. parliamentary secretary for his fine discourse on the subject. I would like to broaden it a little on the relationship between organized crime and terrorism.

We know that in our hemisphere Colombia is the major producer of cocaine. We know that organized crime gangs are working with guerilla groups such as FARC and ELN in Colombia. Through these groups working together, the proceeds from the trafficking of cocaine are actually being used to fuel terrorist activities.

West Africa is another example. The trade in blood diamonds is also used to fuel terrorist organizations.

Terrorist organizations are actually intimately involved in failed and failing states and they derive moneys from the trafficking of contraband. As this relates to marijuana, as an example, we have a situation in our country in which organized crime gangs derive an extraordinary amount of money from marijuana.

I would like the hon. parliamentary secretary to talk about the bill the government has put forth, which has engaged in a few amendments that I think are quite clever, and actually would decriminalize the simple possession of small amounts of marijuana. It would allow people to possess up to three marijuana plants. First, possession would still be illegal. Second, the bill would take this out of the courts. Third, a fine would be attached to it. Most important, for the casual user it would disconnect that individual from the large grow operations in the process from which the marijuana is ultimately purchased.

By doing this, the bill is very clever. It disarticulates the small time 18 year old or 19 year old users who might have a couple of joints on them from going to the structure that produces pot and derives the profits connected to organized crime.

Does the member think this is a very good step in the right direction to try to address organized crime and cut the financial underpinnings out from under these parasitic organizations in Canada?

[Supply, March 10th, 2005]

Madam Speaker, along the lines of this issue, we have a rather large problem in aboriginal communities in Ontario and in Quebec, in Kanesatake and Kahnawake, where trafficking of contraband exists between the United States and Canada within the boundaries of these aboriginal reserves.

Law-abiding aboriginal people who live on these reserves are subject to these criminal elements of organized crime gangs and basic thuggery. The RCMP is having a difficult time trying to deal with this issue within the context of those reserves.

Canada pays a price, but those who pay a much larger price are the law-abiding aboriginal people who live in fear of their lives and their families lives and of their livelihoods. Organized crime gangs often are attached to members outside of reserves, but sometimes with aboriginal crime gangs within reserves, and they exercise their activities with impunity.

Does the member have any suggestions on what the House could do to help the police address the massive problem of trafficking of contraband and the thuggery within aboriginal reserves, which circumscribe the boundaries between the United States and Canada? How can we help and protect the aboriginal people on those reserves who live in fear of their lives?

[Supply, March 10th, 2005]

Madam Speaker, I want to congratulate the member for this motion. It is an excellent one. It gets to the heart of an issue that affects every province from coast to coast. The issue is, how do we deal with organized crime in a rational fashion?

We know much of the organized crime is rooted in illegal activities and the best way to deal with organized crime and criminals is to cut the financial underpinnings. The motion would do that. I want to congratulate the member for the Bloc Québécois for bringing this forward. It will go a long way in helping RCMP officers deal with this cancer within our midst.

To put it in context, in my province of British Columbia grow ops have become a very big thing. We saw this with the profound tragedy which occurred a week ago involving the RCMP. In my province, 85% of grow ops are attached to organized crime, in particular motorcycle gangs and Vietnamese organized crime gangs.

The organized crime gangs trade high grade marijuana for cocaine. The profits from the marijuana are massive considering it is only a weed. The profits are so high because of the existing prohibition. Prohibition of the weed and massive profits are too seductive to organized crime. As a result, these moneys have destabilized vast swathes of our Canadian society because it is intimately involved in prostitution, embezzlement, extortion and in the trafficking of other elements of contraband.

I will cite a couple of examples that are very important to the security of Canadians, particularly the trafficking of weapons, illegal immigrants, alcohol, cigarettes and other drugs. My province of British Columbia alone tragically has become a major conduit of heroine, cocaine and pot, not only within Canada but also in and out of the United States of America.

I want to congratulate the member for the motion. It will help the RCMP and courts to do the most effective thing we have within our powers, which is to address the financial underpinnings of organized crime. The Americans did this with their RICO amendments or racketeering influence corruption organization amendments. Those amendments are along the lines of what the member is proposing and enable the courts to go after organized crime.

If the major purpose of the member's motion is to address the parasites that are attached to organize crime, particularly as they affect the province of Quebec where this is a massive problem, what other suggestions does he recommend to the House that could be used to assist police forces across the country to address this problem? It does not only affect the province of Quebec but it a affects my province of British of Columbia and the whole of Canada as well.

[Health, March 7th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, diabetes is a leading cause of death in Canada. Over two million Canadians are affected. The number of Canadians with type 2 diabetes is increasing dramatically due to a number of factors, including a sedentary lifestyle and rising obesity rates. It is even increasing in children.

In addition to the growing rates of type 2 diabetes in children, recent data suggest that a child born in 2000 stands a one in three chance of being diagnosed with this disease.

The financial and human burdens of these diseases are enormous. Direct costs for medication are between $1,000 and $15,000 a year. The cost to our health care system right now is a staggering $13.2 billion every year.

Way to prevent and even cure diabetes, including type 1 diabetes, are within our grasp. Therefore, we need to redouble our efforts to support the needed research in this area.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Canadian Diabetes Association for its continued work to promote the health of Canadians and one day find a cure and prevent these diseases from wreaking havoc--

[National Defence, February 25th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, I think the leader of the NDP must think of another adjective one day.

In any event, he should understand that this government drives its foreign and defence policies through Ottawa, not Washington. Let us make this clear. The decision not to enter into BMD was made yesterday in cabinet. Yesterday, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Prime Minister announced that decision in the House and to the public.

[National Defence, February 25th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, I want--