Stephen Woodworth

[Petitions, June 12th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, the second petition is from constituents who want the government to recognize volunteer service by Canadians in the regular and reserve military forces and the cadet corps with the issuance of a Governor General's volunteer service medal.

[Petitions, June 12th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, I rise to present three petitions. The first is from petitioners requesting that the Canadian Parliament and government publicly call for an end to the persecution of Falun Gong in China and pass a resolution to establish measures to prevent organ trafficking.

[Battle of Normandy, June 6th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, under overcast skies 70 years ago this very day, thousands of brave Canadians battled on land, at sea and in the skies over occupied Europe, when Allied forces stormed the beaches of Normandy and began the march to victory in the Second World War.

However, the Canadian triumph on D-Day and during the Battle of Normandy was purchased with much sacrifice, blood, and loss. Of the more than 90,000 Canadians who served in the Battle of Normandy, more than 5,000 would give their lives.

Today, we remember those who served, and we reflect on the legacy that they have given into our care: the precious gift of freedom.

Lest we forget.

[Trinity Western University, June 2nd, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, in 1981, Canada enacted the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which guarantees religious freedoms in strong terms. It means we cannot deny a job to a qualified applicant because we do not agree with their religious beliefs, as the Ontario law society recently did to graduates of Trinity Western University.

If lawyers pass the bar exam and have had a thorough legal education, it is beyond belief that they would be excluded from legal practice because of the religious beliefs of their school about marriage.

If anti-religious ideologues have led the Ontario law society to adopt such an extreme discriminatory measure, it is time for progressive-minded rights advocates to speak out loudly.

Such tyranny never stops with a single victim. This is not just a Trinity Western University issue, not just a law society issue; it is not even just a Christian minority issue. It is an issue for anyone who advocates for freedom from tyranny.

[Privilege, May 16th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, I just want to point out very briefly that nowhere in the article that my colleague opposite quoted does it say that I broke the rules. In fact, it describes me as complying with the rules. Therefore, I think it is unwise for him to rely on that article in support of his comments.

[Privilege, May 16th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, I regard it as a great diminution of MP abilities to have my integrity falsely attacked.

The member for Scarborough Southwest has falsely asserted in the House that I broke House of Commons rules in 2011. In fact, I proactively approached the House of Commons to pay for my cellphone use. The House of Commons specifically authorized me to purchase my cellphone use. On discovering that an MP ad ran after the 2011 vote of non-confidence, I immediately repaid the cost of it.

That is not breaking the rules; that is being scrupulously ethical, down to the very last penny, and complying with the rules.

I ask the Speaker to order that member to withdraw his false statement.

[The Environment, May 15th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, the Standing Committee on the Environment spent months conducting three important studies looking at how to conserve urban and other terrestrial ecosystems across Canada. Canadians are losing touch with nature as more and more people live and work in the cities and spend less time outside. Witnesses testified that the Government of Canada should be encouraging and supporting citizens to conserve our natural environment and create protected areas.

Would the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of the Environment please tell the House where we stand today on the launch of a national conservation plan?

[New Democratic Party of Canada, May 15th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, the chance today to question the leader of the NDP at length was nothing short of a real pleasure. His elaborate, repetitive, and evasive defence of the NDP's illegal satellite offices and subsequent looting of millions of dollars from taxpayers got no traction, even when rationalized in Latin.

The most telling testimony the NDP leader gave may have been his defence of partisan work by constituency workers, to which he said we all just do it, just as the senators fiddle their expenses.

Canadians know the NDP cannot be trusted to manage the public purse. When the leader of the NDP is willing to compare his party with the few bad apples in the Senate, the Duffy defence, it highlights why the NDP has lost 16 consecutive elections.

I urge the leader of the NDP to do the right thing: stop his members from using taxpayer money for election purposes and for staffing partisan political offices.

[Incorporation by Reference in Regulations Act, April 10th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to ask for the unanimous consent of the House of Commons for Motion No. 476, which simply asks that the House of Commons affirms that every Canadian law must be interpreted in a manner that recognizes in law the equal worth and dignity of everyone who is in fact a human being. Who here wants to deny the equal worth and dignity of any fellow human being?

[Human Rights, March 31st, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights correctly observes that recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation for freedom, justice, and peace in the world. Laws which falsely condemn as non-human anyone who is in fact a human being are savage and inhumane in their denial of the inherent dignity and equal and inalienable rights of the victims of such laws.

That is why I have introduced Motion No. 476, calling on the House to affirm that every Canadian law must be interpreted in a manner which recognizes the equal worth and dignity of everyone who is a human being. If even one member of the House refuses to consent to this essential principle of democratic governance, it will be a dark and dangerous day for Canada.