Marlene Jennings

[Points Of Order, May 25th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, today I heard a member use what I believe to be unparliamentary language.

I heard the member for Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot call the Minister of Human Resources Development a liar not once but twice. I ask that he withdraw his insulting and unparliamentary comments.

[Missing Children Day, May 25th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, today is Missing Children Day.

This special day is an opportunity to educate Canadians about what they can do to protect their children from becoming the victims of crime.

It is also an opportunity for all Canadians to recognize the outstanding work of law enforcement agencies and other partners in finding missing children.

Under our missing children's program, the RCMP's missing children's registry in partnership with Revenue Canada's international project return, the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade and the Department of Citizenship and Immigration has helped to search for, locate and return missing children.

In 1997 alone customs and immigration assisted in the safe recovery of 111 children at the border, a 28% increase from 1996. A key element of this government's public safety mandate—

[Quebec City Conferences Of 1942 And 1943, May 12th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, according to reports in this morning's newspapers, President Roosevelt was in favour of assimilating French Canadians. We are already familiar with the separatist habit of denouncing everything that is federalist or comes from English Canada.

Out of ignorance, or deliberate omission, they refused to give a statue of a Canadian Prime Minister the place it deserved on the occasion of the celebrations marking the Quebec City meetings of 1942 and 1943.

I trust that the leader of the Bloc Quebecois will acknowledge his former leader has made a mistake and that justice will be done to Prime Minister Mackenzie King.

[Quebec City, May 7th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, an important event is taking place today in Quebec City: the commemoration of the 1943 and 1944 Quebec conferences. Quebec City was the host of these conferences where the leaders of the countries involved in a conflict of the magnitude of the second world war made decisions that would mark important turning points in history.

By unveiling two commemorative monuments of the Quebec conferences, that is, busts of President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill, we are marking an important event in world history. The leading role of Canadian Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King must also be acknowledged, as well as the effort of all Canadian soldiers in support of allied forces in the second world war.

When we commemorate such important events in the history of Canada, I believe we should do so with unquestionable intellectual honesty and not indulge in petty—

[Collège Sainte-Anne In Lachine, April 29th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, I rise in this House today with great pleasure to draw attention to the presence in the gallery of students from Collège Sainte-Anne in Lachine.

On September 2, 1861, this institution, which was known at the time as Villa Anna, opened its doors to 66 students aged between 6 and 18, 51 of whom were residents of Lachine.

It is also important to note that, from the very beginning, Villa Anna provided bilingual instruction and encouraged students to grow in truth, freedom and life skills.

The list of students who have gone through Collège Sainte-Anne is too long for me to read, but let me mention one of the most famous ones: the Hon. Senator Thérèse Lavoie-Roux.

Congratulations to Collège Sainte-Anne of Lachine, which—

[Hepatitis C, April 28th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, I have personally been affected by hepatitis C. A childhood friend of mine died, about two months ago, of hepatitis C.

Like many Canadians who have been closely following this debate, I am deeply worried about the expectations our blood supply system has raised and the impact these great expectations can have on our overall health care system.

Medicine is not infallible. Science is not infallible. Some types of treatment, medication and material are more risky than others. Blood is the gift of life, but blood is also a high-risk natural biological product.

The health care system, including the blood supply system, is doing its best to reduce the risks for those who use it.

Governments and other stakeholders have the responsibility to react when harm can—

[Canadian Space Agency, April 21st, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, as you know the Canadian Space Agency is participating in medical research being conducted onboard the space shuttle Columbia . I would like to hear what the Minister of Industry has to say about the practical benefit to Canadians of this medical research.

[Société Saint-Jean Baptiste, April 2nd, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, Mr. Guy Bouthillier of the Société Saint-Jean Baptiste has taken ethnocentrism to new and dangerous heights by declaring that only Quebeckers who have a mastery of the French language should be allowed to vote in Quebec.

Mr. Jacques Parizeau also blamed the ethnic minorities for the Parti Quebecois' defeat at the second referendum.

When I think about it, after hearing the then deputy prime minister, Bernard Landry, also blame the ethnic vote and verbally abuse Anita Martinez by saying “Why do we welcome you in our country? So that you can vote no?”, I am not surprised to hear Mr. Bouthillier state that only those who have a mastery of the French Language should be allowed to vote.

Ethnocentrism and exclusion are values shared by Messrs. Parizeau, Landry and Bouthillier, but not by all Quebeckers.

[Criminal Code, April 1st, 1998]

Madam Speaker, let me begin by saying that I do not support the bill, in case you did not know.

This private member's bill amends the Criminal Code to prohibit the manipulation of a human ovum, zygote or embryo at various stages of the development of a fertilized ovum for the purpose of producing a cloned zygote or embryo. It will also prohibit altering the genetic structure of an ovum, sperm, zygote or embryo if the altered structure is likely to be transmitted to subsequent generations, which is commonly known as germ-line genetic alteration.

These prohibitions come straight out of a Health Canada bill on the new reproductive and genetic technologies, which contained other prohibitions and which died on the Order Paper during the last Parliament.

There has been evidence that cloning of human embryos is technically possible. However, there is no evidence that germ-line genetic alteration is being carried out.

The Royal Commission on New Reproductive Technologies recommended that cloning of human embryos be illegal. The royal commission did not support the practice of germ-line genetic alteration since it was at odds with the commission's guiding ethical principles.

Before the Health Canada bill was introduced in the last House, a member asked that prohibitions dealing with new reproductive and genetic technologies take the form of amendments to the Criminal Code. She considered that a separate federal statute on new reproductive and genetic technologies would be invasion of the provincial jurisdiction over health.

An official of the health legal services met with this member and explained that the relevant prohibitions were properly the subject of separate federal legislation and that there was no intention to amend the Criminal Code for this purpose. This is still justice's position and that of the government.

In introducing the bill on the new reproductive and genetic technologies, the then Minister of Health indicated it was the government's intention to bring in a second bill setting out a regulatory framework, which would affect the first one, dealing with prohibitions. The purpose was to establish a comprehensive management regime for new reproductive and genetic technologies. However, the second bill was never introduced.

I will not discuss the merits of the proposed prohibitions. I understand that there were similar prohibitions in a separate bill introduced in this House in 1996. The document entitled New Reproductive Technologies: Setting Boundaries, Enhancing Health , published under the authority of the Minister of Health, outlines the government's intentions at the time.

The Criminal Code contains provisions of general application, that is they apply to everyone and are aimed at keeping the peace and ensuring that individual conduct is not a threat to the maintenance of a civilized society. From this perspective the code is not an appropriate vehicle for the prohibition component of a comprehensive management regime in a complex area of scientific and medical procedures and research. The proper place for such prohibitions is in the principal legislation.

When separate legislation containing prohibitions against certain practices related to new reproductive and genetic technologies was introduced in the House, the intention was expressly to introduce further legislation to add the regulatory controls that would provide a comprehensive management regime for new reproductive and genetic technology. That made clear that this was not an appropriate subject for a Criminal Code amendment.

Licensing should be a major part of the management regime for new reproductive technologies—

[Quebec Finance Minister's Budget, April 1st, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, in delivering his budget yesterday evening, the Quebec finance minister chose to play petty politics. As a matter of fact, it was like attending a meeting of sovereignist supporters.

The minister talked about everything but the kitchen sink: millennium scholarships, the health system, transfer payments and what not. He poured his heart out, as in a therapy session, to justify a dull budget, lacking in aggressive measures that would reassure economic stakeholders. Quebeckers need more than the Quebec finance minister's political therapy sessions.

They need lower taxes. They need economic conditions that are not tied to the political will of a government whose sole objective is to create insecurity. They need a government that will guide them in making their collective decisions by providing the optimum economic and political conditions to—