Rob Anders

[Canada Elections Act, February 18th, 2003]

They are more concerned about political party financing.

Are they more concerned about the Commonwealth status of Zimbabwe and Robert Mugabe's murder and starvation of half his population, or are the Liberals more concerned about political party financing?

[Canada Elections Act, February 18th, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, I am talking about the priorities of the Liberal government. If you want the questions directed to you, Mr. Speaker, I can direct them to you.

Mr. Speaker, do you think the Liberals today are more concerned about Senate reform or about political party financing? I would say it is political party financing. For example, are the Liberals more concerned about diplomatic immunity for terrorist supporting states or are they concerned about political party financing?

I can see you are loving this speech so much, Mr. Speaker, that you are actually leaving the chair.

I would say that the Liberals are more concerned about political party financing.

Are the Liberals more concerned about foreign aid to China, especially when we consider its occupation of Tibet, recent executions and dismemberment of Tibetan monks, the torture and murder of Falun Dafa practitioners and the suppression of freedom of speech in Hong Kong? Are the Liberals more concerned about that or are they more concerned about political party financing, Mr. Speaker?

[Canada Elections Act, February 18th, 2003]

Yes, the Liberals are more concerned about political party financing than they are a pedophile registry.

What about consecutive sentencing? I see the member for Prince Albert paying attention. Do you think the Liberals are more concerned about consecutive sentencing for criminals or political party financing?

[Canada Elections Act, February 18th, 2003]

Political party financing I think the member behind me from Edmonton would say.

If we were to ask people in the House what are the priorities of the government, is a priority of the Liberals a registry of pedophiles or is it political party financing?

[Canada Elections Act, February 18th, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, just for the folks at home who are listening and watching, the bill is about political party financing. I will play a bit of game with some of my colleagues around the House and ask them some questions on this and they can feel free to chime in.

Is the bill about lack of harbour police in this country or is it about political party financing?

[Assisted Human Reproduction Act, February 5th, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, one of the interesting things about this debate is that we have people in the House of Commons and in society at large who are concerned with the subject of animal rights, yet today we are dealing with the subject of the rights of human beings and, in a sense, embryos as the beginning of human life. I always find it intriguing that in our modern age we have a scenario where in this place and in society at large sometimes the rights of animals are more pristinely maintained or upheld or looked after, or there is more concern for their rights than the rights of human beings. We are in a perverse situation in these decades where animal rights issues seem to trump some of the very concerns that we are trying to deal with in this legislation. It is a perverse warping of a sense of priorities and a sense of rights.

It reminds me in a sense of the whole criminal justice debate in our country, where the rights of the criminals trump those of the victims. We deal with those issues, whether it is conditional sentencing, early parole, consecutive sentences, age of consent with regard to pimps and minors, or pedophiles. We get into this perverse situation where the government many times seems to take the rights of the criminals into account more than it does the rights of the victims. It is a shame.

This reminds me of the whole idea that somehow the rights of human beings, embryos and babies are not as important as even animal rights would be. We had that debate in the last session.

Going on to the specifics, I would like to talk about how I and my party believe that the preamble should have an acknowledgement of human dignity and respect for human life. We also believe that the bill is intimately connected with the creation of human life and yet there is no overarching recognition of the principle of the respect for human life. It is a grave deficiency.

I could go on with all of these things I have in front of me, but I would like to touch on some of the things that I think other people will not cover. One is the question of what sword upholds the covenant.

As I am running out of time, I will say that we have to ask this question: Who profits from the bill? I would say it is the drug companies who are going to be coming up with anti-rejection drugs.

As well, would it pass a referendum? Fundamentally that question should be answered with this one: Why is it not being put to a referendum of the Canadian people?

[Petitions, February 5th, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, I have the honour today to present some petitions with regard to the issue of Tibet. March 10 marks the 44th anniversary of the 1959 Tibetan uprising in occupied Tibet where hundreds of thousands of Tibetans were slaughtered by the People's Liberation Army of China.

I am calling attention to the lack of religious freedom in Tibet and the recent execution of Tibetans who are not given fair trials shows that nothing has changed.

Amnesty International, the United States, Germany and others have come out strongly condemning the recent executions. Canada has been relatively silent.

I would also like to stress that 2,200 Buddhist monasteries were destroyed with the Chinese occupation of Tibet.

[Question No. 60, January 31st, 2003]

For the fiscal years 1993/94, 1994/95, 1995/96, 1996/97, 1997/98, 1998/99, 1999/2000 and 2000/2001, from all departments and agencies of the government, including crown corporations and quasi/non-governmental agencies funded by the government, and not including research and student-related grants and loans, what is the list of grants, loans, contributions and contracts awarded in the constituency of Toronto Centre—Rosedale, including the name and address of the recipient, whether or not it was competitively awarded, the date, the amount and the type of funding, and if repayable, whether or not it has been repaid?

Return tabled.

[Petitions, December 12th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, I have over a thousand petitions asking the government not to ratify the Kyoto Protocol from residents of Calgary and from the riding of Perth--Middlesex, which currently does not have a member of Parliament.

[Petitions, December 9th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, the second petition that I wish to present has over 450 signatures so far. This one is with regard to the Bronze Star. It states that our Canadian troops fighting the war on terrorism have not received medals recognizing their heroic and meritorious achievement in battle because of bureaucratic delay.

The petitioners are calling upon the government to, without delay, remove the bureaucratic obstacles preventing our soldiers from being awarded the Bronze Star and the Bronze Star with distinction for their heroic performance in the war on terrorism.