Ujjal Dosanjh

[Offshore Drilling, May 12th, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, the question I asked was about the 1972 moratorium. It is the 1972 moratorium. It was the Exxon Valdez and now it is the Gulf of Mexico.

Under the circumstances there is absolutely no guaranteeing safety on the west coast in terms of offshore drilling or tanker traffic. That is why the 1972 Trudeau moratorium is absolutely important for British Columbia and for Canada.

Do the Conservatives support the Trudeau moratorium of 1972 on offshore drilling and the 1972 tanker ban on the B.C. coast?

[Offshore Drilling, May 12th, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, for us on the west coast the Exxon Valdez was a devastating experience. We now see an environmental catastrophe happening in the Gulf of Mexico.

That is why the 1972 moratorium on offshore drilling and a tanker ban on the west coast, imposed by Pierre Trudeau, are so important for the west coast of Canada.

Does the government support the 1972 Trudeau moratorium on offshore drilling and the tanker ban on the west coast, yes or no?

[The Environment, May 4th, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, that is not very reassuring since we know that just a few years ago the former minister of natural resources, the member for Saanich—Gulf Islands, was denying that there was even a moratorium on tanker traffic in those waters.

These are environmentally sensitive areas prone to seismic activity and important to our tourism and fisheries in British Columbia.

What concrete steps is the government taking to ensure that the west coast moratorium on offshore drilling and tanker traffic will remain in place?

[The Environment, May 4th, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, Canadians look at the environmental horror threatening the Gulf of Mexico and recognize how vigilant we need to be to protect our own coastal regions from a similar fate. They know that the Conservatives, including the Prime Minister, have campaigned for years to abandon the nearly 40-year moratorium on tanker traffic and drilling off B.C.'s coast.

Given the environmental sensitivity of these waters, will the Conservatives acknowledge that they were wrong and finally drop their calls to abandon the moratorium?

[Afghanistan, April 29th, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, I was there and it was ambassador Arif Lalani who last week said that there was always a substantial risk of torture of detainees in Afghanistan.

How long has the government known that these reports have been missing at the bottom of some container in Kandahar? Will the government guarantee that the missing documents will be found?

I am asking if the government will guarantee that the documents will not be destroyed, that they will be brought back to Canada and that none of them will be shipped out of Canada. Or, will the culture of deceit prevent the government from offering that guarantee in the first place?

[Afghanistan, April 29th, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, from the moment the torture complaint was first made to the commission in 2007, the government has been systematically obstructing the commission and the Afghan committee.

It gets worse. Important detainee transfer reports have been hidden in containers in Kandahar.

I want to know what time period these reports cover, will these reports be found and produced quickly, will the government end this culture of deceit, produce all the documents and call a public inquiry for all to know?

[Afghanistan, April 27th, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, as I said earlier, we learned today from the commission that 93% of the documents that have been requested have not been disclosed to the commission. The government refuses to level with Parliament and Canadians.

Is this not the Conservative culture of deceit playing havoc with the government's duty of transparency? Why is the government allowing the culture of deceit to prevent the calling of a public inquiry?

[Afghanistan, April 27th, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, on the detainee torture scandal, the government has been obstructing, hiding, redacting and obfuscating. It is turning, twisting and contorting in the Conservative culture of deceit.

It only released 7% of the requested documents to the commission, while hiding others from some censors, censoring the censors, for God's sake.

It is the Conservative culture of deceit run amok. If not, why not call a public inquiry?

[Questions Passed as Orders for Returns, April 26th, 2010]

With regard to Afghan detainees: (a) how many Afghans or other foreign nationals were detained by regular Canadian Forces or Military Police each year since Canada began its operations in Kandahar province; (b) how many Afghans or other foreign nationals were detained by Canadian special forces since Canada began its operations in Kandahar province; (c) were the processes for the handling of detainees different depending on whether they were captured by regular or special forces and, if so, how; (d) do Canadian special forces participate in joint operations with U.S. special forces and, if so, what happens to detainees captured during the course of those operations; (e) since Canada began its operations in Kandahar province, how many Canadian-captured detainees were questioned (i) by agents of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), (ii) in the presence of a CSIS agent; (f) did CSIS provide input on which detainees should be transferred to the Afghan National Directorate of Security (NDS); and (g) was any information from the NDS interrogations of detainees passed on to Canadian authorities?

[Military Police Complaints Commission, April 26th, 2010]

Mr. Speaker, so should the government actually. It should let the commission do its work. The fact is that there is so much tension at the commission due to the antics of the government and its lawyers that now Mr. Len Edwards, a respected deputy minister, will have to appear to answer why the government is hiding documents from even its own censors. This is all a result of the Conservative culture of deceit.

All of this obstruction and cover-up tells me that a public inquiry is the only way that Canadians will learn the truth. When will the government have the courage to call the public inquiry?