Maria Mourani

[Arts and Culture, March 4th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, once again, the Minister of Canadian Heritage, Status of Women and Official Languages, who is powerless, is not answering questions. The solution is for the government to introduce an amendment to Bill C-10 as soon as possible to remove the reference to “public policy”, which opens the door to censorship.

Will the government promise to do so immediately?

[Arts and Culture, March 4th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, to justify its desire for censorship, the Conservative government is trotting out its old line that people who disagree with the government are promoting child pornography, defamatory libel and hate propaganda. These are already prohibited by the Criminal Code. The Minister of Canadian Heritage, Status of Women and Official Languages is even accusing the industry of creating a tempest in a teapot.

Will the Minister of Finance agree to amend Bill C-10 to ensure that these new provisions do not lead to any censorship?

[Arts and Culture, March 4th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, to justify its desire for censorship, the government—

[Bill C-10, March 3rd, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, we are the ones who ask the questions and they are supposed to answer the questions.

The risk here is the undue use of a very broad provision that could be used as a censorship mechanism because it is confusing. Does the minister agree to respond favourably to the artistic community that is very worried and will she ask her finance colleague to propose an amendment to the bill to correct the situation?

[Bill C-10, March 3rd, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, Quebec's cultural community is worried. Bill C-10 on tax measures contains a clause that redefines the conditions for obtaining a film production credit. This highly vague provision is a mistake and must be corrected.

Can the Minister of Canadian Heritage assure us that she will intervene to correct this mistake immediately, a mistake that does not reflect the intention of the legislators?

[Cultural Policies, February 28th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Finance has managed to eliminate culture from his budget—not only the word, but also the financial resources, by not including any provisions for museum policy, film or television, and this has been denounced by the Union des écrivains and the Association des producteurs de films et de télévision du Québec

Why is it that with a budget of $240 billion, the minister was unable to find $398 million to re-establish the museum assistance program or the public diplomacy program or the feature film or television funds?

[The Budget, February 26th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, I could examine several points, but since my time is limited, I will focus on just two.

For over two years, the government has been saying that it would hire 2,500 police officers and so far it has done nothing. Now it has announced $400 million to hire these police officers. I hope this will not take 10 years, because people need action now.

Also, it could be said that this government has abandoned the cultural community. There is nothing for the feature film fund or the television fund. But the Conservatives are making announcements all over Quebec. Unfortunately, there is absolutely nothing for culture and even less for Quebec.

[TV5, February 26th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, Quebec has come out in favour of the survival and autonomy of TV5, as have Switzerland and Belgium. What we need now is for Canada to take the same firm stand.

Has France been informed that Canada wants to maintain the multilateral nature of this important tool for la Francophonie?

[TV5, February 26th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, yesterday, in response to a question I asked him about TV5, the Parliamentary Secretary for Canadian Heritage said that a meeting had been held between representatives of the partnering governments and that TV5 was an important tool in promoting the culture and values of international francophonie. We know that.

What we want to know is the Government of Canada's position on the situation. Will it let France alone determine the future of TV5?

[Petitions, February 25th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, the other petition has also been signed by citizens in my riding in an effort to ensure the secularism of institutions. Essentially, they are asking that the Charter of Rights and Freedoms be amended to include secularism as one of the primary principles.