Marlene Jennings

[Air Transportation, October 19th, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, when Onex made an offer to purchase the shares of Air Canada, the Minister of Transport set out five principles to guide the government in approving any potential merger. This very day, Air Canada has just made an offer.

If either of these offers goes through, would Canadians have any guarantee of access to bilingual air services from coast to coast in Canada?

[Petitions, October 19th, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, the second petition is calling upon parliament to pass legislation to make it compulsory for companies importing food products into Canada to ensure that these products are properly labelled as to the ingredients they contain.

They are asking that all companies importing food products into Canada ensure that those products are properly and thoroughly labelled as to the ingredients they contain and the ingredients they contain by virtue of the environment in which they have been prepared.

[Petitions, October 19th, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, the first petition that I am tabling in the House today is asking for the mandatory labeling and thorough checking of genetically modified food products.

This issue concerns many Canadians. The petitioners are calling upon parliament to adopt an act on the labeling of genetically modified food items.

[Liberal Government, October 14th, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, as we begin this new session, let us take a look at the parties in the House of Commons.

The Reformers are squabbling among themselves; the Conservatives are trying to find themselves; the New Democrats are slowly disintegrating. As for the Bloquistes, they have yet to find a reason to exist except, perhaps, their pensions, unlike the Liberal government, which knows exactly where it is headed.

The Liberals are governing according to the priorities of Canadians, so as to provide them with a better economic, social and political future.

Congratulations to the Liberal government.

[Owens Corning Plant, June 7th, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Human Resources Development.

Employees of Owens Corning in Candiac have been without work for close to 15 months, and this is a community with over 10% unemployment. Canadians expect their governments to work together to help them when they are in need.

I would like to know what the minister is planning to do to help these workers. The situation is urgent.

[Bloc Quebecois, June 4th, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, a few days ago we read that certain members of the Bloc Quebecois were sick of the concept of partnership. How terrible.

The truth is that separatists never wanted anything to do with this partnership. They simply do not believe in it.

What the Bloc Quebecois really wants is for Quebec to separate from the rest of Canada. We do not need referendums to understand this.

The exasperation of certain Bloc Quebecois members is therefore easily understood: a die-hard separatist wants nothing to do with any form of partnership or association between Quebec and the rest of Canada.

What separatists really want therefore is to leave Canada, period.

I firmly believe that Quebecers will remember this during the next referendum on the future of Quebec.

[Canada Elections Act, June 3rd, 1999]

Madam Speaker, I did not mean to cast any aspersions. The member for St. John's East, when he spoke about photos being placed on ballots, said that this could in fact put someone who is plain looking into difficulty. I want to assure him that he is a very good looking person. That is the first thing.

I want to assure the member from the NDP that he as well is a very good looking person. In fact, I think that everyone sitting in the House today, and not sitting in the House today, but who has the right to sit in the House, is very good looking. The member for Hochelaga—Maisonneuve is also good looking.

However, the point was raised by the NDP member that this could lead to discrimination on the basis of race, gender, or whether people like the way an individual looks. He is right. There may be some people who will decide on the basis of a photo not to vote for a candidate because the candidate is a woman, a senior, too young, black, a visible minority or an aboriginal.

Luckily, we have a system in which we have signage and billboards. I can assure the member that it would have been incredible if, of the 59% of the electorate which voted for me, one person in my riding voted not knowing that I was a black Canadian woman of African origin. It would have been very difficult. I had billboards all over my riding. The person would have had to have suffered from a visual disability and not have had any friends or family with whom they communicated over the length of the campaign not to know that I was, one, a woman, and two, a black woman, a visible minority.

I would also hope that in Canada we have advanced sufficiently, regardless of the level of our education, that the overwhelming majority of Canadians would vote for the best candidate, for the candidate that represents that party which embodies their values. I think that is in fact what we have. We have an increasing diversity within the House of Commons.

We have a higher number of women representatives in the 36th Parliament than we have had in the past 130-odd years of our confederation.

We have a higher level of representation in terms of age groups representing the different ages. We have younger MPs, middle MPs and our more senior and more mature MPs. I consider myself to be in the middle in terms of maturity and age.

We have greater representation in terms of the members of parliament who are of varying and diverse ethnocultural origins. Only 20 years ago it would have been very difficult to find a member of parliament in this House whose name was not Tremblay or James or Brown. I perhaps should not have used the name “Brown”. Let me try McKinney or Smith.

This House is the actual proof of the openness of our Canadian society, of the ability of Canadian electors to look beyond a person's physical appearance to that person's experience, values and the policies of that person and the party which that person represents.

In my own riding, there is considerable socioeconomic diversity. The percentage of residents living on welfare is rather disturbing. A number of them are illiterate as well, and many of them voted for me, despite or perhaps because of the fact—I do not know which—that I am a woman, that I am middle aged and that I am a member of a visible minority. These people perhaps thought that because of my own diversity I would be able to understand what they are going through.

I think an important point is being raised here in the House, which is that the bill, as its stands, may cause some difficulty because it requires pictures on ballots only when the names of two or more candidates give rise to confusion. I believe that ballots should include the pictures of all candidates, as the member for Hochelaga—Maisonneuve mentioned.

I can assure all members here in the House at the moment that the member introducing this bill—which I support—intends, if he manages to get it through second reading stage and referred to committee, to make an amendment to ensure in fact that all candidates' photos appear on the ballot.

Many associations and non-profit organizations are working on the issue of literacy in Canada and, more specifically, in Quebec. We have excellent organizations, which conclude the Regroupement des associations de l'analphabétisme, Literacy Partners in Quebec and others. I hope they will not be upset if I do not name all of them.

I consulted a number of them on this point, and I can tell you that everyone I consulted, working Monday to Friday and often on weekends with people who are illiterate, support with one voice the idea of having each candidate's photo on the ballot.

I will come back to the point raised by the hon. NDP member. Should we fear having our picture on a ballot when we do not fear having our picture on billboards, which are sometimes 10 by 11 feet or 15 by 10 feet high?

If we had lived in feudal times, when most people did not have the right to vote, we might fear having our photo displayed. But at this point, it would be more likely through ignorance that we might fear our picture being printed could bring bad luck.

I think all the parties in this House should support this bill. If, as I hope, the bill is referred to committee, you may rest assured that there will be an amendment to make sure that the photos of all candidates appear on the ballot.

I thank all members of the House for their patience and their understanding and I congratulate the hon. member for Verdun—Saint-Henri.

[Canada Elections Act, June 3rd, 1999]

Madam Speaker, I am pleased to support the bill introduced by the hon. member for Verdun—Saint-Henri.

This bill addresses a real problem in Canadian society. It is known that our rate of illiteracy is extremely high and unacceptable for an industrialized country, a country that boasts of having one of the highest standards of living in the world. And yet, we have a real problem. There are people in Canada who do not know how to read or have difficulty doing so.

I want to assure the member for St. John's East, who is not in the House at this moment, but who spoke to this bill—

[Transportation, June 3rd, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Transport.

There are some European countries that are world leaders in the integration of different modes of transportation, like railways to air links. I would like to know what the Minister of Transport is doing to encourage Canada's integration of our different modes of transportation.

[Parti Quebecois, June 3rd, 1999]

Mr. Speaker, yesterday we learned that Bernard Landry's committee is trying to resurrect the same studies on Quebec sovereignty Lucien Bouchard rejected out of hand during the last referendum campaign.

Bernard Landry certainly learned nothing from the last Quebec referendum. More studies paid for out of the public purse.

More of the same adventure that is so harmful to Quebec, plunging it into a climate of political and economic insecurity, because of the mixed messages sent to the rest of Canada and to other countries.

More of the same waste of time and energy in an undertaking of which we already know the outcome.

Twice now Quebecers have expressed their desire to stay in Canada. How many studies does the Parti Quebecois need before it gets get the message?