Todd Russell

[Aboriginal Affairs, June 12th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, I am saddened and hurt by the attitude expressed by the official spokesperson for the government. Referring to the residential school settlement, he said, “Some of us are starting to ask, are we really getting value for all of this money?” However, how do we place a value on a stolen child?

Just two hours later the Prime Minister stated, “There is no place in Canada for the attitudes that inspired the Indian residential schools system to ever again prevail”.

Will the Prime Minister stand by his words and remove his parliamentary secretary?

[Aboriginal Affairs, June 12th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, first, let me thank all party leaders for their words yesterday. They were words of apology and sorrow for the horror of residential schools. I honour those words and hope they are embraced by all Canadians.

However, yesterday the Parliamentary Secretary to the President of the Treasury Board demonstrated through his words ignorance and intolerance, the same attitudes that led to the historic wrongs that were the subject of yesterday's apology.

Will the Prime Minister denounce those words, words that smack of racism and paternalism?

[June 10th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, I think the parliamentary secretary's answer says it all. It was evasive, but it is much along the lines of the responses that we have been getting from the government for the last year or so.

I want to thank the parliamentary secretary for congratulating the Liberal government of the day in announcing and putting in the money for the runway. That was an initiative we carried out. The other initiatives that he talks about in Goose Bay are not new.

There was nothing concrete. There were no timelines. There has been no planning whatsoever on the UAV squadron and the rapid reaction battalion. Can the parliamentary secretary tell us what work is being carried out in the next days, weeks, months and years to make sure that these promises are fulfilled?

Right now, the parliamentary secretary is telling me that they are not going to do anything with regard to the specific commitments made to 5 Wing Goose Bay. Can he tell me something concrete? Can he tell me something specific instead of the same lines that we have had day in and day out for the last year?

[June 10th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, on April 18, I asked the defence minister about his broken promises to 5 Wing Goose Bay. I cannot say that I took any comfort from the parliamentary secretary's answer.

Goose Bay is supposedly a priority, and I wish I could believe that. Instead we have seen time and again the Conservatives try to forget the promises that they have made.

We heard a senior officer tell the defence committee there really had not been specific action taken on the Goose Bay initiative by the government. We have been told that Indian Affairs, not DND, is the lead department on the Goose Bay file.

Earlier this year, I asked the minister what steps had been taken toward the promised rapid reaction battalion and unmanned aerial vehicle squadrons. His response that the government was examining options, but not options for a rapid reaction battalion. It is exploring a role for UAVs without saying where those aircraft will be stationed, or if the forces will use UAVs at all, or if are, how they will be integrated into the overall force's capability.

I also note that the minister, replying to a written question from the member for Chicoutimi—Le Fjord, says that since 2006 the number of personnel, albeit small, has increased at Bagotville, Comox and Trenton, but not at Goose Bay.

I have even heard that the current Minister of National Defence has washed his hands of his government's Goose Bay promises. He, or his office, now say that it was not the minister who made those promises in the first place, putting the blame on his predecessor.

It is a nice try, but Happy Valley Goose Bay residents, myself included, remember that the current Prime Minister, his leader, made those promises in the 2005 Labrador byelection and then again in the general election of 2006. We also remember the current Minister of National Defence promising not just a rapid reaction battalion, not just a UAV squadron, but promising to increase military flight training at 5 Wing Goose Bay.

For the minister's information, that was in his press release of May 23, 2005. He should have kept a copy. We did.

We were told to wait for the Canada first defence plan. We waited. We were patient. It was announced and yet again, Goose Bay was nowhere to be found. In fact, one can barely find the plan itself. According to the Conservatives, it is all in the Prime Minister's head. It is probably out of order to ask the government to table his head, but it should consider tabling the defence plan. So much for transparency.

The government is not keeping its promises. All the evidence points to the fact it had no intention of doing so. It is not getting the job done. Goose Bay and Labrador deserve real answers, not evasion.

Could the parliamentary secretary say anything concrete about what is being done for 5 Wing Goose Bay?

[National Day of Action, May 29th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, today's national day of protest is no surprise. It is a direct result of the actions, and inactions, of that Conservative government.

The action was to break its promise to put the wheels on Kelowna. The inaction was to do nothing to replace the accord that it killed.

The absence of the Kelowna accord has left aboriginal people with few alternatives to address the issues of health, education and infrastructure in their communities.

In fact, conditions have worsened since last year's day of national protest; a shameful condemnation of the Conservative government. The Conservatives did not get the message. Aboriginal people in this country are frustrated; frustrated about needs unmet and frustrated about Conservative promises broken.

The minister has chucked aside their voices, chucked aside their hopes, and chucked aside their dreams of a better life. One would say that the minister has done sweet chuck-all.

The Conservative government promised to do more. Aboriginal people deserve better.

[Aboriginal Affairs, May 28th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, there will be a second day of action, which comes as no surprise. Aboriginal people are frustrated by the government's refusal to address our concerns. It has been more than two years since it cancelled the Kelowna accord and all we get in its place is window dressing.

More aboriginal people are in care now than there were students at the height of the residential schools era, and the education of aboriginal children is sorely lacking.

When will the government stop ignoring aboriginal people and deliver a real plan? Will the minister stop his swagger and give us some substance?

[Municipal Affairs, May 14th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for some senior minister over there who might want to earn his or her salary.

The OPP, who have not cleared the environment minister in the O'Brien affair, interviewed John Light, who works in the constituency office of that parliamentary secretary. Mr. Light says that Conservative operatives told him Mr. Kilrea would not be a factor in the Ottawa election because he was being taken care of and was going to be offered something.

Could some senior minister over there tell the House when they first learned of the bribe to Mr. Kilrea?

[Specific Claims Tribunal Act, May 12th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, only in the Conservative Government of Canada when a parliamentarian gets up to have a say, which is my right as an aboriginal person and as a parliamentarian to do, would it be called filibustering. I have never heard those things come from a Conservative before. Usually they do not say that much, unless they are given the go-ahead and the old green light from the Prime Minister.

With all due respect, we have a right to debate these issues. We have a right to talk about these particular issues in the House. To be quite frank, I would not be shut up by the supposed attack on the fact that I have a right to do this.

[Specific Claims Tribunal Act, May 12th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, indeed my colleague has a challenging riding but he handles it very well. In talking to some of the aboriginal leadership and aboriginal people within his riding of Kenora, he has a great relationship, a respectful one with the aboriginal people in that part of Canada.

I travel quite extensively throughout my riding. I go through many remote communities. They cannot get a meeting with the minister. They cannot get heard by the minister. For the most part, they are dealt with through memos or emails. They cannot get direct answers to the questions they raise.

The member has raised in another way the whole issue of trust and the essential point that I made about how to resolve land claims. In Labrador we have one of the newest land claims, the Nunatsiavut government. While this bill is supposed to resolve claims about historic treaties, the government also has an obligation to carry out its responsibilities and obligations under modern treaties and to make sure that they are implemented properly.

There are also other claims that have not been accepted from a comprehensive perspective by this particular government. The government also has an obligation to sit down and negotiate those particular treaties.

A government cannot build trust if it does not talk. It cannot build trust if it does not listen. It cannot build trust if it thinks that the very people who are affected by the government's policies do not have some of the answers. It cannot build trust if it does not think that the fathers and mothers who give care to their children know best how to care for their children.

It is important that the government listen. It is important that the government engage in a respectful relationship with all aboriginal peoples in Canada.

[Specific Claims Tribunal Act, May 12th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, I would say to my hon. colleague that I am a Liberal for that very reason: because this party has been committed to aboriginal people and we have seen more progress under Liberal governments than those members of the Reform Party, or whatever guise they use or whatever they call themselves, would ever bring to the House.

Kelowna was real and Kelowna had over $5 billion. The hon. member talks about housing money that was booked, but it was far less than what was booked for Kelowna, which was over $1 billion.

He talks about aboriginal people having the right to go out there and protest peacefully and civilly. Yes, we have that right, just like every other Canadian, and we are going to do it. Our voices are not going to be shut down.

The Prime Minister may shut down the voices of his own caucus. The Prime Minister may try to shut down the voices of the people on committees. The Prime Minister may try to fire bureaucrats who do not agree with him. The Prime Minister may shut up his backbenchers.

However, I can tell the member that the voices of aboriginal people are going to be heard. They are going to heard peacefully in this country and they are going to be heard loud and clear. It is about time that the government started listening to the voices of aboriginal people, once and for all.