Wayne Marston

[Canada-EFTA Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act, March 30th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, contained in letters from workers in Lévis and other places across Canada are some heartfelt concerns. The thing that strikes me is they are appealing to us to appeal to the Liberals because they do not want to wind up on EI, which the Liberals gutted in 1995. The Liberals set in place the rules that have excluded people from EI today. This is a huge irony.

Has the member seen some of these heartbreaking letters?

[Canada-EFTA Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act, March 13th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the member for Burnaby—New Westminster on behalf of U.S. steelworkers and the former Dofasco workers of Hamilton, who produced his steel.

Earlier in the debate on this particular motion, I think we heard the member for Sackville—Eastern Shore talk about the command centres of our ships now looking like they are from Star Trek or some futuristic place. In fact, Canada is a leading nation in the development of shipping. I cannot help but remember that just recently we passed the 50th anniversary of the death of the Avro Arrow. I am very fearful that we are at the beginning of the end for the shipbuilding industry in Canada. For steelmakers across this country, who rely on making steel for auto manufacturing and for vessels, this is crucial.

I want to thank the member and again refer to the fact that the United States, since the Jones Act of 1920, has been doing exactly what this member has asked. Did the member try to put this through a committee similar to this?

[Points of Order, March 13th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, I was elected in 2006. Since that time I attend the food court of a local mall and I try to do that each Saturday for a couple of hours. One of the things I hear about repeatedly is the disgraceful conduct in this place.

I want to commend and thank you, Mr. Speaker, for your actions today. I want to commend the Speaker for taking a stand on something that is so fundamental to the operation of this place.

[Committees of the House, March 12th, 2009]

Madam Speaker, I would like to begin with a short comment to correct the record. Earlier, the hon. member for Crowfoot said that the NDP moved this motion to somehow delay other debates. In fact, we are not opposing debate in the House, we are generating debate. We delayed moving concurrence in this report while the House was addressing Bill C-10. We were very responsible. However, this is a particularly important issue.

I listened to the hon. member for Calgary East go on about terrorists. The type of discussion that is happening here leads one to wonder how many members of the government have decided that Omar Khadr is in fact guilty.

I want to thank the member for Pierrefonds—Dollard for his intervention. The critical importance of this debate is the fact that we are shining light on a turn the government has made, which seemingly puts the government in the position of making decisions around guilt or innocence.

We have heard from Bloc members and others talk about the case in Colorado of Mr. Smith, who was sentenced to death, and the government chose not to intervene. There is something very wrong happening in our country.

[Committees of the House, March 12th, 2009]

Madam Speaker, I want to thank the Bloc member in particular for raising a point about Canada's human rights record. I also want to thank the Bloc members for their participation at the committee. Recently there was a United Nations working group periodic review on Canada's human rights record, which spoke to the fact that Canada avoided its responsibility to sign on to the optional protocol to the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. Like the hon. member from the Bloc, I am very concerned about Canada's reputation.

The subcommittee came up with recommendations which went to the foreign affairs and international trade committee not once but twice, and were brought back to the House. One hears the staunch defence of the government position day in and day out in the House, and as alluded to before, it comes to the point that the very serious charges almost imply there is guilt.

There are many people across Canada who have very serious charges filed against them and are ultimately proven innocent by our justice system. The system of military commissions in the United States has been ruled to be unconstitutional and as violating the rights of the prisoners. One would think a government that wanted a reputation of defending human rights would bring Omar Khadr home to a court system that does have the proper reputation.

[Committees of the House, March 12th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, the member for Mount Royal will know that I am very quick to point at the Liberal Party from time to time when I see shortcomings. I am very heartened to hear in this place today the member for Mount Royal talking about the fact that under the circumstances of the time his government did err because it is very important for all of us to realize that from time to time, with new information, we need to change positions. I respect that.

However, the present government has seen the same evidence that we have all seen and it has not moved its position. In fact, today, when the minister of state spoke, he talked about Omar Khadr being part of al-Qaeda. Now I have been on this case for three years and I have not seen that particular allegation any place as yet.

Would the member for Mount Royal agree that the one flaw, the one problem, the one wedge in this case is the age of Omar Khadr and the fact that our government is refusing to abide by the United Nations protocol, to which we are a signatory, and that once it does that its house of cards will fall?

[Committees of the House, March 12th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, the Supreme Court of the United States has ruled that the rights of the Guantanamo prisoners as a whole were violated, including Omar Khadr's. The Court of Military Commission has been put into disrepute by that ruling.

How does the government rationalize the fact that Omar Khadr was indeed a child soldier of 15 years of age under the terms of the protocol Canada has signed onto at the United Nations?

We are not asking the government in any fashion to conclude on the guilt or innocence of Omar Khadr. Every other western nation has stood up for its citizens and asked for its particular prisoners to be repatriated to its country. Beyond that, none of the prisoners were child soldiers like Omar Khadr. One even has the mitigating circumstance of his age. Why will Canada not ask for him to be brought home and put before a Canadian court where we know there is a reputable system to decide this case?

[Committees of the House, March 12th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, I have been concerned for some time that the Conservative government, and perhaps even the Liberal government that preceded it, had already decided that Omar Khadr was guilty.

Canadians will be quick to tell us they do not see that as the prerogative of a government. They see the guilt or innocence of anyone accused of a crime as being resolved in a court.

At our committee we heard Romeo Dallaire speak of that slippery slope that Canada appeared to be starting down. He was actually referring to any country that started down this type of a path.

Would member comment on the military commissions and the fact that the U.S. had ruled them unconstitutional?

[Committees of the House, March 12th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, to be very clear, the idea of torture is repugnant to all Canadians and repugnant to myself.

To have our government accept complicity in torture in any fashion, or to be seen to be, is an embarrassment in front of the world, in front of the international community.

Mr. Obama has done the right thing. He is starting on the road back. He is closing Guantanamo. He is trying to recapture the human rights reputation of the United States, and we should do the same thing in Canada.

[Committees of the House, March 12th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, to be very clear, Canadians in their judgment early on decided that they were not pleased or happy with the Khadr family, and in particular, Omar Khadr's father.

Whether Omar Khadr was taken abroad with his father or whether he was a dutiful son following his father, he wound up in a part of the world that is a combat zone. He was left behind by his father. The dutiful son was left with fighters and eventually came in contact with American Navy SEALs. The end result, of course, was his wounding and his capture.

It is hard to go back and say that at the time he was not a child soldier in line with the covenants, because at that time the covenants very clearly said any child “under the age of 18 years”. It has since been lowered to under the age of 15. Either way, at that time, Omar Khadr was a 15-year-old child combatant.