Ralph Goodale

[Justice, November 21st, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, let us talk about balance. First we had the outrageous Conservative member for Saskatoon--Wanuskewin directly insulting the chief justice and there was no rebuke from the Prime Minister.

The Conservatives then cancelled the court challenges program. They strangled the Law Reform Commission. They politicized judicial nominations. They systematically ignore the advice of the Canadian Bar Association. They demean the Supreme Court. Their own government lawyers will not certify Conservative legislation as constitutional.

When will the minister stop learning his law from trailer park boys and stand up for the charter of rights and an independent judiciary?

[Justice, November 21st, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, the vast majority of Canadians cherish our charter of rights as a fundamental characteristic of a diverse, inclusive and welcoming society. But the Prime Minister sees the charter as only an impediment standing in the way of his extreme ideology, his intolerance, and his republican social engineering.

During the election the Prime Minister said not to worry, the courts will hold his extremism in check. The government's political meddling with the courts and its assault on judicial integrity is all a concerted plan to limit the independence of judges and undermine the charter. Why?

[The Environment, November 10th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, the Conservative pattern of deceit continues. The government is following blindly the advice it got from its now discredited Republican pollster, that if one tells a big enough falsehood long enough and loud enough, one just might get away with it.

However, the Conservatives keep dragging others into their tangled web. They blame the Urban Transit Association for erroneous numbers on transportation emissions but that association contradicts the government. They blame private sector consultants for erroneous numbers on electricity costs but those consultants contradict the government.

Why can the government not just tell the truth?

[The Environment, November 10th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister also has his pants on fire. He was caught misleading the House about a memo on access to information. On Challenger aircraft, he was dead wrong. The Conservatives do not disclose the same information as their predecessors. On the agenda for the Helsinki summit, the diplomatic corps exposed his falsehood. However, he never lets the truth get in the way of a good smear.

Why did the parliamentary secretary give false information about the government's time frame on climate change, making it sound 13 years more favourable than it really is?

[The Environment, November 10th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, as the Minister of the Environment leaves for Nairobi for a meeting on implementing the Kyoto protocol, she is burdened by her own pattern of deception and disinformation here in Canada.

Obsessed with partisan games and laying blame, she told Canadians that hundreds of millions of dollars had been spent by the previous government to buy international carbon credits.

The minister's officials, the environmental auditor and the news media have all confirmed that it just was not true.

Why did the Conservatives tell such a deliberate, barefaced falsehood?

[Business of the House, November 9th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, with the parliamentary break that is due for next week, I wonder if the government House leader would be kind enough to inform us of his schedule for the rest of today and for tomorrow, and then what he would anticipate for at least the first week back when the House resumes after the Remembrance Day break.

I wonder if he is now in a position to give us any more information about when he would intend to call the measures that the government has indicated it will call, at some point, with respect to same sex marriage.

[Business of Supply, November 7th, 2006]

Mr. Chair, I rise on a point of order. It seems to me that procurement policies have everything to do with the estimates. Whether the minister is in a position to handle procurement fairly is a fundamental question.

[Business of Supply, November 7th, 2006]

Within the country?

[Business of Supply, November 7th, 2006]

Mr. Chair, briefly back to the topics raised by my colleagues having to do with the very difficult situation in Afghanistan, can the minister indicate to us specifically what he expects to be the duration of the Canadian rotation in Kandahar? When would he anticipate that the Canadian assignment in Afghanistan would move on to some other theatre in the normal practice of NATO rotations?

[Business of Supply, November 7th, 2006]

Mr. Chair, that will be followed with a great deal of interest by the people of Moose Jaw.

I have one other very specific question about the estimates. There is an item that notes a transfer from the Department of Western Economic Diversification to the Department of National Defence. I expect that to be for certain Métis issues associated with the Primrose Lake air weapons range.

Can the minister confirm that the Conservative government is in fact honouring that important commitment to the Métis people made by the former Liberal government in respect of the Primrose Lake air weapons range?