House of Commons photoLost his last election, in 2015, with 34% of the vote.
Points of Order November 3rd, 2004
Mr. Speaker, last night in the debate on hepatitis C I unfortunately made a disparaging remark toward the legal profession of this country. I would like to withdraw that remark and apologize unequivocally, and with sincere regret to the people in the legal profession of this country.
Veterans November 3rd, 2004
Mr. Speaker, on a recent trip to Italy with my colleagues from the Ministry of Veterans Affairs I came across a gravesite that said it very clearly. This gravesite spoke for the 117,000 men and women we have buried in over 72 countries around the world. It said, “They gave the greatest gift of all, the gift of an unfinished life”. The Mayor of Casino said in a speech to the veterans that our sons have become their sons. That is a very poignant statement if I have ever heard one.
I was born in Holland. In 1956 my parents made the decision to come to this great country. As many immigrants to this country, the reason my father made that decision was because during the liberation of Holland he was a prisoner of war. He later said to my mother and to everyone who would listen, “If they have a military like that, can you imagine what kind of country they come from”. So the decision to come to this great Canada I call home was an easy decision for my father to make.
The names of Caen, Ortona, Vimy, Passchendaele, Dieppe and Hong Kong will forever be etched in the memories of all Canadians.
It is the responsibility of all members of Parliament to ensure that their memory and their history is passed on to our children so that they in turn can pass it on to their children.
At this time I want to thank the members of the legions and the ANAF clubs throughout Canada that keep the memory of our veterans alive. I wish to thank the military family resource centres, the 34 we have in this country and around the world, that dedicate their time to support the families of our current members of the armed forces. Every day these brave men and women put their lives on the line so that we can live in peace, freedom and harmony.
I would like to say very clearly that at the going down of the sun, we will remember them. God bless our veterans. God bless our armed forces personnel. God bless them all.
Assistance to Hepatitis C Victims November 2nd, 2004
Mr. Chair, what do we expect from the Liberals? The reality is, arm's length means eventually out of reach. The reality is that the money was meant for victims. I do not think one of the lawyers at Crawford ever had hepatitis C. I never met them on a personal level, but why did the government give the money to a group called Crawford? Why could it not have given that money directly to the victims? The reality is that the government wanted nothing to do with it. It sounded good politically. It would give the money to an arm's length agency.
Pierre Trudeau said once, arm's length means eventually out of reach. That is exactly what happened. The government lost control of it. We asked many times. Bruce DeVenne of my area of Lower Sackville asked the government many times from 1998 to 2000. Even today he has asked questions and for information from Crawford. Crawford is out of reach for access to information. Just months ago he asked the Minister of Health a question. That minister said to him in a letter, “Go ask Crawford”.
Why would the taxpayers of Canada accept the fact that the money would go to Crawford? Crawford has no responsibility to answer to anybody except itself. This is the part that gets stuck in my craw. It burns me up. It is simply not right. It is not fair. It is simply wrong.
The money from the taxpayers of Canada should have gone directly from the government to the victims, not to a third party and then to a certain box of victims. Those are the facts. That is the reality of today. How many people have died with hep C and have never been able to go to the government or to us and argue their point?
This is a tradition of the Liberal Party and Government of Canada, to delay, delay. The government gave it to an arm's length agency and passed it on to somebody else who dealt with it. When we ask government members questions, they no longer have responsibility because it was passed on to a separate agency. What a cop out.
I invited Liberals to come with me to Lower Sackville, Nova Scotia, and speak to Neil van Deusen and Mr. Bruce DeVenne who have hepatitis C. I asked them to speak to them and explain to them in the comfort of their own living rooms why the government did what it did.
I can assure the House, not one Liberal has yet taken me up on that invitation. However, I invite them now. With the U.S. election, how many are listening? I invite them now to come with me to the victims I have in my riding and explain the Liberal government's position. If they were willing to do that, I would be honoured to pay the flight down there because it would be very interesting to hear what they would have to say to the victims in my riding.
That is a travesty of justice. It is a sin that the Liberals can stand up in the House and say “Well, what is done is done and we are now moving to the future”. Any member in the House who says that, especially members from Nova Scotia, should know better. My colleague from Digby knows better. He knows darned well that what the government did was wrong. Now it is trying to slough it off with any words or move the argument to other professions. That is simply wrong.
In conclusion, that money should have gone directly to the victims, not to a third party of lawyers. It does not demean lawyers. But no lawyer that I know of that works for Crawford got infected with hepatitis C. Yet they are making a mint off the funds from the taxpayer.
If a person is infected with hepatitis C and somebody else makes money from his or her pain, is that right? I would say no; it is wrong. It was wrong then and it is wrong now.
Assistance to Hepatitis C Victims November 2nd, 2004
Mr. Chair, I thank the hon. member from Winnipeg for allowing me to share some of her time.
I mention the names of Bruce DeVenne, Neil van Deusen, Scott Hemming and Joe Haché. These are people who are infected with hepatitis C through no fault of their own. Three of them live in my riding and one of them lives here in Ottawa. He is a young man who years ago took a bicycle in Halifax and said he wanted to ride in every major centre in the country in order to bring attention to the concerns of people infected with hepatitis C outside the window. This was a young man who was going to receive the compensation because he was in the window of 1987. He was already taken care of. This young man thought not of himself but of other people throughout the country, those outside that so-called window.
What is really amazing is how cynical the Liberal government was at that time and still is. This was not about care or compassion for people who were suffering with a terrible disease through no fault of their own. This was about dollars and cents. That is all it was.
I remember very well when John Nunziata, the so-called disgraced Liberal of the GST debacle, walked across the floor and sat as an independent. He went to Allan Rock's desk, then the health minister of Canada, and put a hepatitis C ribbon on his desk and asked him to wear it. Mr. Rock did not even have the compassion in his body to wear the hepatitis C ribbon. That said a lot about the minister's intentions of what he was prepared to do. He was going to do nothing.
What I find most disgraceful, as a lawyer, is that the bulk of the funds went to a firm called Crawford, made up of mostly lawyers. Mostly the lawyers received the money. Why would a lawyer receive any money from a hep C fund from people who were infected with tainted blood? Why should those leeches of society receive money from something that was not intended for them? It was intended for the victims, not for lawyers who showed up and said they could argue this point or argue this case. I feel ashamed for every single lawyer at Crawford. I am absolutely ashamed that they accepted money from this fund that was meant to go to victims with hepatitis C.
Mr. Chair, I have no idea if you, or any member of your family, or any friends of yours have hepatitis C. I can assure you it is not a pleasant experience. The fact is it was inflicted on victims through no fault of their own. They had trust in the public health system. They believed in the Government of Canada and members of Parliament to protect their interests, and then they came to the realization that the blood was tainted.
I do not blame any member of Parliament. I do not believe for a second that any Liberal, Conservative, Alliance, Reform, Bloc or NDP member purposely tainted that blood. I do not believe that for a second. It was an unfortunate circumstance of errors that led to the result of hundreds of thousands of people becoming infected with hepatitis C.
However, lawyers should not be making any money from this. Every single penny of that should be going to the victims. Unfortunately, the Liberals at that time said they were going to give it to a bunch of lawyers and they would distribute it to whomever they believed qualified under their circumstances. To this day, I will never ever forgive the government of the day for allowing that to happen. That money came from the taxpayers of Canada. The taxpayers of Canada said very clearly they wanted that money to go to the victims and not to the lawyers.
Assistance to Hepatitis C Victims November 2nd, 2004
Mr. Chair, as my hon. colleague was the NDP health critic during the time of that debate, does she remember Allan Rock, the minister of health at the time, saying “care, not cash”? Those words sounded great but the reality was that he put a restriction on the people who would receive the care between the years 1986 and 1990.
What we found out was that the money went to a firm called Crawford. Crawford is a firm made up of a bunch of lawyers, not a bunch of victims. These lawyers obviously charged for their time and some of them did extremely well and are still doing extremely well living off the avails of the funds that were meant to go to victims.
Does my hon. colleague, who is a well learned and respected member of the House of Commons, know why the government turned the money over to an independent agency instead of giving it to the victims? The money was turned over to an independent agency called Crawford, which is made up of a bunch of lawyers who skimmed off everything they could, and are still doing so, and whatever was left may have trickled down to the victims between 1986 and 1990. That was one of the most disgraceful episodes that we have ever had in the House of Commons.
Assistance to Hepatitis C Victims November 2nd, 2004
Mr. Chair, I have great respect for the hon. member from Vancouver. The reality is when Mr. Alan Rock set up this program, it was a program designed for lawyers, not for victims.
We all know Crawford. Try to get information out of Crawford who handled this fund. It is extremely difficult. It is exempt from freedom of information. Try to get information from Crawford about where the money is going.
The hon. member knows that many people outside the window have already died. She may recall a gentleman in my riding named Bruce DeVenne who has sent many e-mails to many members of Parliament. The money from the Canadian taxpayer was meant to go to the victims, not to the lawyers.
Of the money that was given to Crawford to handle the fund between 1986 and 1990, how much of that money went to lawyers and how much of that money went to victims?
Committees of the House November 1st, 2004
Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. I am sorry, but there was another bill on the order paper, that I inadvertently omitted. I would like to seek the unanimous consent of the House to introduce it at this time.
Employment Insurance Act November 1st, 2004
moved for leave to introduce Bill C-256, an act to amend the Employment Insurance Act (compassionate care benefits for care-givers) and the Canada Labour Code.
Mr. Speaker, we introduced this bill back in 1998. It basically states that people caring for persons who are relatives, under palliative care or severe rehabilitative care, should be able to take up to six months off work, have their job protected and be able to collect employment insurance so they can care for their loved one.
We have a program for maternity or paternity leave at the beginning of someone's life, but we are just starting a program for the end of someone's life. Right now it is only six weeks. We would like to see that extended to six months.
(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)
Income Tax Act November 1st, 2004
moved for leave to introduce Bill C-255, an act to amend the Income Tax Act (volunteers).
Mr. Speaker, the country would be unable to operate without the access to the generous support and opportunity by volunteers. In Nova Scotia alone, volunteerism puts $2 billion back into our economy.
Basically, we are asking that any person who volunteers 250 hours a year or more to a registered organization or charity should be able to claim up to $1,000 in tax deductions for their efforts in this country.
(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)
Internet Child Pornography Prevention Act November 1st, 2004
moved for leave to introduce Bill C-254, an act to prevent the use of the Internet to distribute pornographic material involving children.
Mr. Speaker, this bill was first introduced by Mr. Chris Axworthy back in 1996 when he was the member from Saskatchewan. The premise of the bill is to make the service providers partially responsible for what they provide to the Internet users in the country.
It is being done in Britain, where service providers are partially responsible for what is on their sites. We believe that should happen in Canada as well. No matter how much money the government puts toward this or the amount of resources the police forces have, they simply never have enough to protect our children from the concerns of the Internet. We believe those providers should be partially responsible as well.
(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)