Maria Mourani

[Petitions, May 2nd, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, I am very proud to present a petition that was given to me by the Ahuntsic-Cartierville Association québécoise de défense des droits des personnes retraitées et préretraitées.

Essentially, this petition calls for improvements to the guaranteed income supplement and the survivor's allowance. The petition urges the government to: introduce automatic registration for the guaranteed income supplement, the spouse's allowance and the survivor's allowance; increase the guaranteed income supplement by $110 per month for people living alone and increase the survivor's allowance by $199 per month; provide full retroactivity with no strings attached; and extend the guaranteed income supplement by six months.

[Extraterritorial Activities of Canadian Businesses and Entities Act, April 25th, 2012]

moved for leave to introduce Bill C-418, An Act respecting the extraterritorial activities of Canadian businesses and entities, establishing the Canadian Extraterritorial Activities Review Commission and making consequential amendments to other Acts.

Mr. Speaker, yesterday, the government allowed Barrick Gold, a mining company with a global reputation for its poor environmental and humanitarian practices, to put its name on a room at the Canadian Museum of Nature. It is just a lucky coincidence that I am introducing my bill today, since the basic aim of the bill is to put some controls on this industry abroad.

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry said, “We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children.”

Our moral responsibility to future generations is not to help ourselves and leave our children to deal with the fallout. We must protect our children's heritage first and take only what we need. Our development should not only be sustainable and viable over time, but it must also take place with a vision of sharing, respect and solidarity.

Thus, in keeping with this vision of the world, today I am introducing a bill to establish a commission to review the extraterritorial activities of Canadian businesses and entities, and to monitor the behaviour of these businesses and ensure that they act responsibly with regard to the environment and human rights.

People across Quebec, throughout Canada and around the globe have said that these mining companies are taking advantage of the fact that they operate outside of Canada to act irresponsibly and sometimes even illegally. Some business leaders are exploiting the weaknesses of certain countries to do things that they would not dare do where their own families live.

Thus, it is imperative that this government assume its responsibilities and create tools to allow it to monitor all this. Furthermore, this bill ensures that Canadian companies operating abroad espouse our values and become our ambassadors, instead of tarnishing our reputation.

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

[Points of Order, April 25th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, with the unanimous consent of the House, I would like to table this document that we helped pay for to the tune of $191,000. I would like to table it to ensure that all members of the House, including my female colleagues, are aware of it and of the fact that the Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages, who claims to have had nothing to do with it and who does not seem to want to change the regulation—even though he could—has decided to indirectly support something so unacceptable.

It is fine for a document like this to exist, but I do not think that we should have paid for it. I would like to table this document with the unanimous consent of the House.

[Government Subsidies, April 25th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, “With curves like that, Alizée doesn't need a set to get a man's attention, she just has to show up. She's a real little devil.” That is the kind of commentary found in a magazine funded by the government, with our taxes, at the same time as the government is eliminating subsidies to the NFB and the Women's Health Contribution Program.

Will the Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages change the criteria so that subsidies are no longer handed out to dubious magazines?

[National Victims of Crime Awareness Week, April 24th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, on the occasion of National Victims of Crime Awareness Week, we must remember that the priority must be the victims and, as Ms. O'Sullivan, the Federal Ombudsman for Victims of Crime, said so well, the time has come to shift the conversation so that the focus is no longer on the management of offenders, but rather on the direct problems faced by victims today.

Yet, after years of waiting, the Conservative government is making do with half measures to assist but a fraction of the families of victims of crime, and only as of January 2013. However, victim assistance groups want access to employment insurance benefits of up to $485 per week for one year for the families of both victims of crime and children who have committed suicide.

To the families of victims, I say: remain hopeful and know that the government's current proposal is but a start. One day, in Quebec, Quebeckers will be able to make all their own laws—the Criminal Code and employment insurance–to at last combat crime and help victims as we should.

[Petitions, April 4th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, today, I would like to present a petition, signed by about a hundred people, concerning the Aéroports de Montréal or ADM. In my riding, there is a major problem with aircraft noise, and people are also very concerned about their health and the environment.

This is what the petition says:

WHEREAS:

1. In recent years, the number of aircraft headed toward runway 24D at the Montreal-Trudeau Airport has increased;

2. Aircraft are flying over the area at low altitudes at all hours of the day;

3. There is noise pollution due to repeated exposure to aircraft noise;

We, the undersigned, who live and work in the Saint-Sulpice sector of the Ahuntsic-Cartierville borough of Montreal,

are asking the Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities

for a return to the situation that existed prior to the renovation of the Montreal-Trudeau Airport in 2007, when aircraft flew at an acceptable altitude and rate and produced a normal level of noise.

That is what people want. I am very pleased to table this petition today.

[Firearms Registry, April 3rd, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, despite the fact that Quebeckers spent $250 million to implement the firearms registry, and even though this registry was implemented in collaboration with Quebec and the provinces, this government wants to destroy the data.

The Quebec government has even filed an injunction to recover its data. Moreover, according to Quebec's Minister of Justice, the federal government has exceeded its jurisdiction.

Will the Minister of Public Safety listen to reason and transfer the data to the government of Quebec, which has already paid its fair share?

[Air Transportation, April 2nd, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, in Neuville, unscrupulous private developers are using the fact that airport construction falls under federal jurisdiction to avoid complying with the environmental protection, public health and safety, and land use laws of Neuville, the Portneuf RCM and Quebec.

Will the Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities ensure that all planned airfields and airports are subject to provincial and municipal environmental, safety and land use regulations so that this type of situation does not happen again in Neuville—

[Air Canada, March 28th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, when Air Canada workers wanted to exercise their constitutional right to strike, the Conservatives did not hesitate to intervene and pass an unfair law. But when Air Canada disregards its legal obligations to keep the maintenance centre for its aircraft in Montreal and this results in the loss of over 2,000 jobs at Aveos, the Minister of Transport hides behind the pretext that this is a private company and washes his hands of the situation.

Rather than playing the role of a Conservative Pontius Pilate, will the minister enforce the law? If not, then he should resign immediately, for heaven's sake.

[Governor General, March 27th, 2012]

Through colonization.