Mike Sullivan

[Combating Terrorism Act, October 17th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, when we talk about personal security in the country, the other side seems to forget that there is far more danger to the residents in my riding from handguns than there is from terrorism. In fact, there were four funerals this summer of young men in their teens and early twenties as a result of handgun violence, all of them were from Somalia.

Our border is quite porous to the availability of handguns coming across the border. We are spending $92 billion to protect against imagined terrorism, but we are spending very little to beef up our security at the border and to keep these handguns out. Add to that the 22 people who were killed by listeriosis and a number of other people who were killed by tainted meat.

The government appears to have its priorities wrong. It is spending money tilting at imagined ghosts instead of getting at the real problems that make people feel insecure in country.

Could she comment on that?

[Combating Terrorism Act, October 17th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate my friend's comments about the bill. One of the things I note is that the added powers given to the police have never been used or have been used very rarely, but this does cost a lot of money.

I might be wrong, but I think that far more people have been harmed by tainted meat in this country than by threats of terrorism because this act was not in place from 2007 until today.

We are spending our money unwisely, I believe, by not spending it on protecting Canadians from tainted meat but on imagined terrorism instead, or on eliminating personal liberties in the guise of protection against terrorism.

Would the member like to comment?

[Questions on the Order Paper, October 5th, 2012]

With regard to the disposition of federal heritage properties: (a) since 2006, how many federal heritage properties lost their heritage designation, broken down by year and province, and for what reason; (b) of the properties in (a), how many were disposed of by the federal government, broken down by year and province, and to whom; and (c) since 2006, how many federal heritage properties have been disposed of by the federal government, broken down by year and by province, and to whom?

[Telecommunications Industry, October 2nd, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, cell phone theft is a serious problem in my riding and across Canada. It especially affects high school kids who are being violently mugged for their mobile devices. There is a simple solution to this crime: make stolen cell phones useless and force cell phone companies to refuse to activate phones that are reported stolen. The CRTC already has the power to do this.

Will the government get smart on crime and direct the CRTC to take action?

[Helping Families in Need Act, September 26th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague for his comments and the quite touching stories and family histories he gave us.

While we do support the notion of the bill, I think some on the other side might agree that this is only the beginning of the changes to EI that are necessary to make it easier for families in this country.

For example, women are discriminated against because if they are receiving maternity benefits, they cannot quality for regular EI if they are laid off after they return from maternity leave.

The Liberals brought in a measure which lowered the rate payable from 60% to 55%. It was supposed to be temporary because of a temporary blip in the economy, but it has been there ever since and no government has ever done anything to put it back to what it was.

Would the member comment on these two issues and whether these things need to be fixed in the EI system as well?

[Helping Families in Need Act, September 26th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, I listened to my hon. colleague's comments with some interest. I want to note that the bill does not actually fix one of the most egregious problems of the EI system, and that is its discrimination toward women.

Women are the only sex that I am aware that can have babies. As a result, women are the only sex that can take maternity leave, and in large measure, of the maternity and parental leave, most of them are taken by women.

I am aware of at least six in one of the workplaces I dealt with where women had taken maternity leave and did not have time to accumulate enough hours before their permanent layoff from their employer. As a result, those women, in my view, were being discriminated against. It was only women who took maternity leave and therefore those women were not eligible for regular benefit when they were subsequently laid off from the employer. They were back at work for a month or a month and a half, so they did get a few hours in, but they were not able to collect regular benefits.

Would the member like to comment on the lack of government response to this issue?

[Petitions, September 26th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, I am going to change the channel again.

I rise in support of a petition from many of my constituents, calling upon the government to impose a moratorium on the erection of cellphone towers and to call for immediate implementation of unbiased, non-industry-funded scientific research on the short-term and long-term biological and health effects of human exposure to microwave radiation.

[Faster Removal of Foreign Criminals Act, September 24th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, I want to ask my colleague if he would agree with me that while some of what is in the bill is welcome in that it prevents an abuse of the system, the overall push by the Conservative government is in the wrong direction.

In fact, there are many bigger problems with our immigration system that need attention long before this does and we should see from the government ways to fix the length of time it takes to reunite families, the length of time it takes for people to become Canadian citizens and the irrationality of some of the deportation systems that exist. Would he agree with me on that?

[Faster Removal of Foreign Criminals Act, September 24th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, I have to agree with the member that the discretion in that circumstance is very strangely put.

Without any guidelines, without any indication of exactly what a public policy consideration is, one could imagine, certainly in a third world country, a gazillion different things that would be public policy considerations that would keep people from becoming Canadian citizens.

We are not a third world country, but the same problem exists in that there is no definition, no direction and no example given of what a public policy consideration is. It is a very scary prospect.

[Faster Removal of Foreign Criminals Act, September 24th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, it is a mug's game to try to second-guess which six-month crimes and under which circumstances we should be deciding to deport people for. That is essentially what we would be doing, as we would be kicking them out the country.

The example the member gave may very well be an example of a person who should not have the right of appeal, who should be in fact told “Okay, once your six month sentence is up, you're being deported. Here is the plane ticket and you are out of the country”, although I should add that we do not give way plane tickets any more, but we make them buy the tickets themselves.

It is difficult for me to start to guess what crimes people have committed can be used by this legislation.

The example was given earlier of a person who happens to grow six pot plants. I know of such a person who grows them for his mother who has multiple sclerosis. It is not trafficking because he is giving them away, but he happens to grow six. Luckily, he has not been caught. If he had been caught, it would a minimum six-month sentence. With a six-month sentence, that person, if he were not from Canada, would be deported automatically for trying to do good.

That is the kind of nuance that is missing from the bill. As described by my colleague from Newton—North Delta, it is hitting a fly with a sledgehammer. There are very few people who are causing trouble for the system and yet we are using an enormous bill to try to get at them.