With regard to advertising by the government during the broadcast of Super Bowl XLVII on February 3, 2013: (a) what was the total cost for advertising; and (b) what was the cost for each advertisement shown?
House of Commons photoLost his last election, in 2015, with 23% of the vote.
Questions on the Order Paper March 20th, 2013
With regard to advertising by the government during the broadcast of Super Bowl XLVII on February 3, 2013: (a) what was the total cost for advertising; and (b) what was the cost for each advertisement shown?
Business of Supply March 5th, 2013
Mr. Speaker, the reality is, which is the issue before us, that the Senate is a joke. It is an insult to Canadian democracy and a vestige of aristocracy that existed. It needs more than a dusting off. Dusting it off is not going to solve the issue. We spend $90 million a year on people who do not do their jobs. It is an affront to all things democratic. That is what I understood was the emphasis of my hon. colleague's speech, which was of great interest.
In the absence of a bicameral structure, I would like to hear my colleague's opinions with regard to how our democracy would be strengthened.
Business of Supply March 5th, 2013
Mr. Speaker, what our friends in the other parties do not realize is that this is a fundamental issue that has to do with the democracy and legitimacy of the parliamentary system. We are talking about $90 million in spending and a lack of accountability. Something simply must be done. I do not agree that Quebeckers do not see the lack of democracy in the parliamentary system as a problem. They are just as concerned as other Canadians.
I would like to hear what the hon. member for Hull—Aylmer has to say about democracy and renewal.
Criminal Code March 1st, 2013
Mr. Speaker, it is a privilege to rise in the House to speak to this bill.
As a parliamentarian and a human being, I find certain topics more difficult to talk about than others. The subject of this bill is one of those topics. The fact that human trafficking still exists goes against all that is good in the world. This is the 21st century, and I sometimes wonder if we are evolving in the right direction.
But we cannot give up. That is what Jack Layton told me. He told me to stay positive and he was right. Despair does no good. Like my colleagues, I believe that human trafficking is a heinous crime. The Criminal Code should be updated so that we can attack this crime head on.
The reality is shocking. According to 2009 figures from the UNODC, 79% of trafficking victims in the world are forced into prostitution. According to 2005 figures from the International Labour Organization, 80% of trafficking victims are women and children, particularly young girls, and between 40% and 50% of all victims are children. Women and girls represent 98% of sexual exploitation victims.
Moreover, at the national level, Criminal Intelligence Service Canada indicated in its 2001 report that, in Canada, the average age of entry into prostitution is 14. According to 2004 figures from the U.S. State Department, every year an estimated 1,500 to 2,000 persons are victims of trafficking from Canada to the United States. It is estimated that traffickers bring approximately 600 women and children into Canada to service the Canadian sex industry.
Canadian victims of trafficking in persons in their own country is a problem often overlooked in studies and statistics on this issue, particularly as regards the sex trade. Just like some people who enter Canada to flee abject poverty in their country can find themselves in a work environment where they are exploited, Canadians faced with poverty and a lack of education or employment opportunities in their home community are also pushed towards sectors where exploitation is common.
Women across the country, including a large number coming from poor communities, leave their homes to engage in the sex trade. They may have been lured by someone offering them employment, education or other opportunities, or they may have left of their own will and were spotted at a bus depot by individuals looking for this type of vulnerable newcomers. A young woman may also decide to go and live elsewhere with a boyfriend who convinces her to engage in prostitution to provide for the couples' needs.
As a father of two energetic and vibrant daughters, Sophia and Gabriella, I simply cannot accept this situation. It is totally unacceptable in a modern, democratic and prosper country like ours. These crimes, like all problems of that nature, affect the most marginalized elements in our society. In Canada, they particularly affect aboriginal women and girls, who leave to settle in urban areas and engage in the sex trade.
The RCMP finds that victims in the majority of recent convictions for trafficking in persons involving Canadian women and sexual exploitation were aboriginal women and girls. Therefore, any plan must absolutely include our aboriginal people and nations. We must listen to them and respect them. First Nations, Inuit and Metis people, and particularly aboriginal women's groups, must participate actively as full-time partners in the fight against trafficking in persons. That is what the Kitigan Zibi and Lac Barrière Algonquin First Nations in my riding want. They deserve no less.
It is unfortunate that the Conservatives cut funding for those groups that fight such crimes. Sometimes, I wonder what we are doing here and what parliamentarians of the past did. I admit that, since I was first elected, I have sometimes been disappointed in the work we do as parliamentarians. There is such a waste of time. If, since 1867, we have not been able to eliminate crime as serious as human trafficking, what are we doing here?
Are we useful? Did parliamentarians of the past spend way too much time eating and drinking at parties, because of their love of power?
My studies in political science may have left me quite cynical about politics, but we must do something. We must act.
However, we need more than this bill. We need a plan to mobilize the human, police, electronic and material resources that would enable us to go at the root of the problem, to help victims and to support the work of police services, in order to eliminate these horrible crimes in our society, regain our Canadian pride and have the right to consider ourselves civilized.
Not Criminally Responsible Reform Act March 1st, 2013
Mr. Speaker, I have been wondering about something ever since we started debating this bill.
Where are the victims’ voices in this bill? Is the government really listening? As I see it, we are not really addressing this basic question.
The Economy March 1st, 2013
Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives like to boast that getting Canada’s economy back on track is their priority.
However, the people of the riding of Pontiac are wondering what concrete steps the Conservatives intend to take to make that happen. The Conservatives are choosing to ignore the many requests for assistance from the SOS Vallée-de-la-Gatineau committee. For two months now, it has been asking the government for help to recover from the devastating snowstorm that struck the area last December 21. None of the ministers contacted has bothered to respond, even though the local economy is suffering. It is ridiculous.
And what is the Conservative government doing to help the workers who toiled their whole life at the White Birch pulp and paper mill in Masson-Angers and who have seen their pensions slashed by more than 50% because their employer is going bankrupt? Again the government is conspicuous by its absence.
Instead of passing legislation to protect Canadian workers and those in my riding, the Conservatives would rather see foreign investors steal our workers’ pensions. Something needs to be done. The government needs to take action.
Clarity Act February 28th, 2013
Mr. Speaker, I am deeply disappointed that my colleagues in the Bloc Québécois have recently not exhibited the same fundamental respect for basic democratic principles and the democratic choice of the voters in a riding located in the heart of Quebec.
Nor do the Liberals have any lessons to teach us, having led Canada to the brink of separation in 1995. The Liberals will not learn from their mistakes. Their response to the unity crisis was the sponsorship scandal. The Liberals gave up on the political battle for Canada. As a last resort, they introduced an obscure act that is far from clear.
Instead of attacking the NDP for the progress it has made in Quebec, the Liberals should be applauding it. Thanks to the NDP, a majority of the members elected by Quebeckers are federalist, for the first time since 1988, and at the same time Quebeckers defeated the Bloc Québécois, which wants to revive old quarrels.
As a Quebecker, I believe with all my heart that it is important to restore the hope of the people of Quebec in their country and to see that Ottawa respects the people of Quebec, while working with them to build a better future for everyone.
Quebeckers do not want to move backwards. They have had enough of the old quarrels. We have to put an end to these pointless squabbles. That is what the NDP is committed to doing.
Our team succeeded in restoring hope among Quebeckers: the hope of being heard, understood and respected in their country and the hope that their values are shared by other Canadians and will soon be able to guide a government in action.
Unfortunately, some people are prepared to stifle that hope, simply to score cheap political points, because that is precisely what the Liberal Party and the Bloc Québécois are trying to do by resuscitating their old debates with this motion and the Clarity Act.
That is why I will be voting against this bill. Quebeckers deserve better than the Bloc's desperate efforts, and certainly better than to pay the price for the irresponsible political games of the Liberal Party, which wants to create a national unity crisis where none exists. That is political opportunism.
Clarity Act February 28th, 2013
Mr. Speaker, I rise in the House today to speak to Bill C-457, An Act to repeal the Clarity Act. First of all, I must say that the NDP team is working very hard to restore Quebeckers' faith in politics.
In introducing this bill, the Bloc Québécois is trying to resuscitate old debates and is proposing nothing new. In view of the fact that Quebeckers have overwhelmingly rejected parties that have disappointed them in the past and those that took them for granted election after election, my colleagues in the Bloc Québécois should be ashamed.
The NDP's approach is different. We believe the federal government should be an ally to Quebeckers, as a nation, as acknowledged in the House, and that it should co-operate with the provinces in a way that respects them. This shows once again that the Bloc does not really want to help people build bridges or bring them together from sea to sea. We know that people are prepared to move on to something else in good faith and to set aside the old debates. That, moreover, is the message they sent in the last election.
The NDP has even tabled its own bill, which follows from the Sherbrooke declaration and its positive vision of federalism, which turns the page on the old debates. We believe that the leader of the official opposition is the person who can best bring together the people of Quebec and the rest of Canada to work together to build a more just, greener and more prosperous Canada. The NDP's team and leader are the only ones who really want to establish winning conditions for Canada in Quebec in a manner respectful of democracy.
Speaking of democracy, allow me to point out that, in an election, members solicit votes under a political banner with ideas and promises from the party they wish to represent. Once elected, members have a duty to respect the people's choice and be accountable to their constituents throughout their term.
I introduced a bill to that effect last year. Its purpose was to make the people's representatives more accountable and to enhance the image of the country's political institutions. That bill provided that a member's seat would be vacated and a byelection called for that seat if the member, having been elected as a member of a political party or as an independent, changed parties or became a member of another party. However, the seat would not be considered vacant if the member, having been elected as a member of a political party, chose to sit as an independent.
In other words, my bill proposed that byelections would be called when a member elected as a member of a political party chose to change political parties during his term. It proposed that byelections would also be called. That is respect for democracy.
Technical Tax Amendments Act, 2012 February 27th, 2013
Mr. Speaker, the fact that the Liberal and Conservative governments took so long to rework the tax laws has cost our small and medium-sized businesses.
The complex nature of these laws is a constant source of frustration, at least for the small and medium-sized businesses in my riding.
There is one element that cannot be overlooked. Who benefits from not paying taxes? What allows companies to not pay taxes? That question needs to be asked.
When companies or individuals are honest, they pay their taxes. I believe that the responsibility should be shared by all businesses. They should pay their taxes because it helps improve society.
I would like to know if my colleague could tell us who benefits from tax havens, for example.
Technical Tax Amendments Act, 2012 February 27th, 2013
Mr. Speaker, I thank my dear colleague for her very interesting speech.
I was shocked to see that there were about 200 measures that have not yet been considered. Businesses and Canadians who try to do their homework and pay their taxes are the ones who suffer. The legislation is incredibly complicated. There are contradictions, duplications and errors. I think the delay in getting this done has taken a toll on the economy.
Has my colleague heard her constituents complain about how complicated the legislation is or offer any solutions?