Paul Dewar

[G8 Summit, June 14th, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, when the Prime Minister announced that child and maternal health would be a top priority of the upcoming G8, we all applauded.

However, despite the rhetoric, we have seen no action. While the government is spending billions on security and its fake lakes, it is flatlining its aid budget and is refusing to commit any concrete money to maternal health.

Last week Bill and Melinda Gates committed $1.5 billion over five years to maternal and child health. Could the government tell us what its commitment is and if it cannot tell us that, when can we know the exact amount for child and maternal health?

[G8 Summit, June 14th, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, today we learned that the Prime Minister has invited leaders from several countries to attend special outreach meetings at the G8. Inviting Haiti is worthwhile, but the choice of other countries shows the Prime Minister's misplaced priorities.

The Prime Minister has ignored countries struggling with poverty. He has ignored countries that will pay the price in climate change. Instead he has chosen leaders who share his Conservative ideology, like the president of Colombia, who is on his way out.

Is this really a meeting of the G8 or is this just a meeting of the campus Conservative club?

[G8 and G20 Summits, June 11th, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, back in January we were told that Canada's G8 and G20 summits would highlight the environment, development and the global economy. Climate change, we were told, would figure prominently at both meetings, and Canada would set an example by increasing its own spending on maternal and child health in developing countries.

Today the Conservatives are offering nothing more than an expensive tourism ad campaign. The environment is nowhere on the agenda. There is no money on the table for maternal and child health.

The question is: What went so wrong? How did it go off the rails? Where is our commitment--

[Aboriginal Affairs, June 11th, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, today is the second anniversary of the government's historic apology to first nations. Our country was deeply moved by the authenticity of that nation to nation exchange. However, an apology without action is empty rhetoric.

The promise of the government to sign on to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples has yet to be honoured. With the stroke of a pen, that could be changed today.

Nationally, we must take action on those rights to improve the lives of first nations, Inuit, and aboriginal peoples. Here, on Algonquin territory, we must join the call for the establishment of a national aboriginal centre on Ottawa's Victoria Island, just metres away from this place. This is a joint vision by elder William Commanda and the renowned architect Douglas Cardinal.

Reconciliation requires acknowledgement. Acknowledgement requires action.

We have acknowledged. Now it is time to act.

Meegwetch.

[Rights & Democracy, June 10th, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, we get the same tired answers.

This board is serving at the pleasure of the Prime Minister and its members are government's appointees. The message we are getting from the government is that if one is a friend of the Prime Minister, it is okay. It can ignore waste and mismanagement, no worries.

Money for human rights and democracy is what is being left out here. That money should be going for human rights development and ensuring we have accountability.

Where is the accountability? Where is the government's notion of the pleasure of the Prime Minister's service? Right now the board is flaunting that and the Prime Minister does not seem to care.

[Rights & Democracy, June 10th, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister's hand-picked president at Rights & Democracy has paid himself $57,000 for less than two months work. At that price, the Conservatives could have bought another fake lake, I suppose. However, in his short reign, the interim president wasted over half a million dollars to manage this self-induced crisis, hired a fellow board member and paid him off too.

Does the government still have confidence in this current board and these members after this massive waste of taxpayer dollars and this flaunting of accountability?

[Afghanistan, June 4th, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, I did not know Parliament was a suggestion box.

The lack of commitment to peace and human rights is not limited just to Afghanistan. We learned today the Conservatives have cut funding for human rights and protection of civilians under the global peace and security fund from $1.1 million down to a paltry $30,000.

Why is the current government cutting support for peace and human rights at a time when it is so fundamentally needed?

[Afghanistan, June 4th, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, without a plan, confusion will continue to reign. What we heard is no plan for the future.

The government should support negotiations and reconciliation in Afghanistan, and the neighbourhood. The government should be there to ensure those commitments are solid. We have not heard those commitments. There have been no dollars put on the table and no serious commitments.

We need to have a debate in this House of Commons on what is going to happen post-2011. We need to clear up the confusion.

Will the government join us in asking for all parliamentarians to have a debate in this House on Afghanistan post-2011?

[Afghanistan, June 4th, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, Conservative confusion reigns over our mission in Afghanistan. The Prime Minister will not come clean on Canada's role in Afghanistan after the full withdrawal post-2011. His parliamentary secretaries and some Liberals are calling for an extension, instead of finding a path to stability and peace.

I will ask a very simple question. What is the government's plan post-2011 in Afghanistan?

[Public Safety, May 28th, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, we need more than talking points. We need answers. Five months ago, the Prime Minister promised that Canada would champion maternal and child health in the developing world, yet with less than a month to go until the G8 meetings, there is no government plan for any funds announced to back it up.

The government is spending $1 billion on sound cannons and tear gas. Why can we not see that kind of money go to children and women for maternal health? Where is the money for that? Why can it spend $1 billion on sound cannons and tear gas, but not commit at least $1 billion—