Wayne Marston

[Bill C-38, June 6th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, the current Conservative budget, Bill C-38, not only goes far beyond simple changes to tax and monetary measures but, due to the non-monetary parts of Bill C-38, it takes away the ability of MPs to effectively do the due diligence required by the institution of Parliament to ensure and protect the rights of Canadians.

Bill C-38 has dozens of changes in policy areas, including the environment, natural resources and human resources, which demands that these changes be reviewed by the other committees of Parliament responsible for these files.

The would bill repeal the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act. It would change the Fisheries Act. It would scrap the Office of the Inspector General at the Canadian Security Intelligence Service. In the shadowy world of CSIS, independent oversight is essential. It would remove the oversight of the Auditor General from a dozen government agency. Was that because the Auditor General released less than flattering reports on the government's record on fiscal mismanagement?

The bill should have been called the eliminating transparency and settling old scores act.

[Questions on the Order Paper, June 4th, 2012]

With regard to raising the eligibility requirement for Old Age Security from 65 to 67 years as proposed in Budget 2012: (a) what will be the total impact on the fiscal framework for the fiscal years 2021-2022 to 2025-2026, (i) by year, (ii) by thousands of dollars (inflation-adjusted), (iii) by thousands of dollars (non-inflation adjusted), (iv) by percentage of the amount of planned government spending, (v) by percentage of GDP; and (b) what is the expected decline in recipients for each fiscal year from 2021-2022 to 2025-2026, (i) by number, (ii) by percentage?

[Foreign Affairs, June 4th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, by dismissing the concerns of the United Nations, we are adding to the way our international reputation is collapsing.

The United Nations Committee Against Torture also has serious concerns about the way the Conservative government expressed willingness to use information obtained under torture, in direct violation of international law.

The committee also took Canada to task for its reluctance to protect the rights of Canadians, our own citizens, detained abroad.

Instead of attacking the United Nations, will the minister take action on these very serious recommendations?

[International Trade, May 16th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, members can cheer and clap on the other side, but I ask what happened to that Prime Minister. The government's report on human rights in Colombia shamefully has nothing on human rights, yet since that trade agreement came into effect, 17 trade unionists have been murdered in Colombia.

I will ask again, will the government now consider for the next report, an independent assessment on human rights in Colombia?

[International Trade, May 16th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister used to say, “I don't think Canadians want us to sell out Canadian values, our belief in democracy, freedom, human rights”.

[Iran, May 14th, 2012]

Mr. Chair, torture has been used in many countries, including Iran. To civilized people, torture is wrong. There is a case of a Kurdish youth who was beaten, probably in Evin prison, and died of internal bleeding, yet western countries talk about enhanced interrogation techniques, and that somehow that is justifiable in any form.

Relative particularly to the Iranian situation, does the member believe that Canada has spoken out loudly enough about ending torture?

[Iran, May 14th, 2012]

Mr. Chair, I want the member to elaborate a bit more. He talked about the woman who wound up in a cemetery and then in the Evin prison.

Could the member talk about that prison—what the detention there is like, what people live through on a day-to-day basis and, more importantly, what techniques are used against them when it comes to interrogation?

[Iran, May 14th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, one of the things that can be said of the Arab people is that, when an invader comes from the outside, they band together. I think that would be one of the most detrimental things we could possibly do to democracy in Iran.

[Iran, May 14th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, the member is quite right when he says that Internet choking happens in that country. It is controlled, watched, monitored and it is another way of tracking people down. Yes, we were dismayed to learn that the cuts to CBC would lead to the ending of this kind of support. We broadcast for many years into many parts of the world where people aspired to democracy, where they learned about democracy and the freedoms of a place like Canada from our radio system or network. So it was very troubling.

In fairness to the member, he suggested that CBC could search within its budget for something else. The reality is, from my perspective, that it is the responsibility of our government to ensure that the CBC is funded to a level that it does not need to search anywhere, that it has the assigned dollars to deal with this type of issue, even if it is envelope funding where it is directed to apply it, but ensure the CBC has the revenue to continue that type of work, that essential work, that arm's-length work where the people of the country are able to proceed with their own revolution or their own change to democracy at their own pace.

[Iran, May 14th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, I have some difficulty speaking on behalf of the government as to what our government is doing. Although I know that in our committee government members have worked with us and when we had our witnesses we developed together the report on Iran that had 30 recommendations. Hopefully a good number of them will be followed through by the government.

Going back to minorities, if we look at the Baha'i faith, it was indicated by the member for Ottawa Centre that this happened after the time of Mohammed. So anything that came after was more at risk than those minorities in the country before. However, we also have a split in that part of the world between Sunni and Shi'a and the people in control of the regime are a minority in themselves but they have the power on their side. People know well that the revolution in 1979 was a student-led revolution that was basically hijacked by the Mullahs and distorted into what it became. However, when Ahmadinejad was elected there was a major change. He became the strong arm man. He became the person who travelled the world speaking about what horrors they would point toward Israel if they ever got atomic weapons. So there is a problem here because it is two stage. How much of it is rhetoric, how much is reality and how much can another government from this part of the world do about it?

In his testimony, Dr. Akhavan told us that the revolution had to happen by the people of Iran, that outside nations had to stand back and support it but not directly cause it. That is an important lesson we should learn from this Iranian who is in Canada.