Yasmin Ratansi

[Elections Canada, May 7th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, I was finishing with the question anyway. He is young so he will do what is asked of him without too much questioning.

Why does the parliamentary secretary, every day, spew nonsense that the Federal Court has already ruled irrelevant?

[Elections Canada, May 7th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, the government House leader has responsibility for the Canada Elections Act, yet he refuses to answer questions about the in and out scam. That is probably because he currently employs one of its key architects, Mike Donison.

Instead, every day we hear from junior over there because as senior Conservatives say, he is young so he will do what is asked of him--

[Committees of the House, May 2nd, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present, in both official languages, the 10th report of the Standing Committee on the Status of Women in relation to the main estimates.

[Geoffrey Pearson, April 14th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, on Saturday hundreds of people gathered here in Ottawa to celebrate the life of Geoffrey Pearson.

A career diplomat and recipient of the Order of Canada, Geoffrey Pearson held many key posts at the Department of External Affairs, including ambassador to the Soviet Union during the height of the Cold War and special representative for arms control under Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau.

As the son of Nobel prize winning Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson, Geoffrey Pearson established his own brand of diplomacy with an ambitious view of the role Canada plays in the international community. He served as the first executive director of the Canadian Institute for International Peace and Security and later as president of the United Nations Association of Canada.

A loving father and grandfather, Geoffrey Pearson leaves behind his wife, retired Senator Landon Pearson, his beloved children and grandchildren and, ultimately, a legacy that serves every Canadian around the world today.

[Committees of the House, April 11th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present, in both official languages, the seventh report of the Standing Committee on the Status of Women in relation to gender analysis.

Gender analysis is critical if we as a country are to address the problems of poverty and social injustice.

Gender analysis that was introduced and recommended in 2004 according to the Standing Committee on the Status of Women states that we would like that to be legislated.

[Government Programs, April 11th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, the minister still has not explained why the Canadian Association of Independent Living Centres is angry with his government for concocting “this entire program...as a means for pork-barrelling for the riding of Whitby”.

Will the minister admit that rigging the application in favour of an organization where his own wife and executive assistant are members of the board is just wrong? What does he have to say to all other disabled Canadians?

[Government Programs, April 11th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, there is new information out this morning that suggests the call for proposals under the enabling accessibility fund has been rigged by the Conservative government. The very complex nature of the application requirements and apparent advance notice to one particular applicant seems designed to favour people connected to the member for Whitby—Oshawa.

Could the minister explain to all disabled Canadians why the process is rigged to divert disability funding into the finance minister's riding?

[Committees of the House, April 7th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, I wholeheartedly agree with the member. Human rights were something brought in by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms under the late right hon. Pierre Elliott Trudeau and the Liberals are the proud custodians of that.

[Committees of the House, April 7th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, it would take me 10 minutes to answer his question, but I want to ask him a very simple question.

The Conservatives claim that they have the aboriginal community at heart. The declaration says to establish a universal framework of minimum standards for the survival, dignity, well-being and rights of the world's indigenous people, to address individual and collective rights, rights to education, health, employment and language. What is it within that declaration that the Minister of Indian Affairs finds unacceptable? What is it that the Conservatives find so unacceptable?

The Conservatives simply want to play with words. They have done nothing, absolutely nothing.

If the Kyoto protocol is something the Conservatives could not follow through on, it is because they lacked the leadership. Theirs was the Prime Minister who did not even believe in the science of climate change. They are later converts to climate change.

When the Conservatives do not have any knowledge, any background, any inclination to support climate change and any inclination to support aboriginal people, they will fall flat on their faces and keep on talking rhetoric.

[Committees of the House, April 7th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to speak to the motion that the government fully implement the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Canada was an active participant in the drafting of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People over the course of many years. It was a long, overdue declaration that flowed from 20 years of deliberation. A working group of independent experts worked on it. It was debated and refined at the UN and was passed by the UN General Assembly by a vote of 144 in favour and 4 against.

It, therefore, came as a shock to the international community that Canada was one of the countries that voted against this important effort to advance the cause of human rights.

Canada used to be a leader at the United Nations. We were signatories to the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. We, therefore, call upon the Conservative government to respect the rights of indigenous people.

I would like to remind the House that one of the first acts of the Conservatives was to cancel the $5.1 billion Kelowna accord, which was an agreement reached under the former Liberal government.

This was an extraordinary agreement that included the leadership of the Assembly of First Nations, the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, the Métis National Council, the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples, the Native Women's Association of Canada and, ultimately, the first minister of each province and territory in Canada. It was a plan that was developed over 18 months by experts in 14 governments across Canada and in our aboriginal communities.

We in the Liberal Party consider it unacceptable that the incidence of infant mortality is almost 20% higher for first nations and that suicide can be anywhere from three to eleven times the national average.

Furthermore, teen pregnancies are nine times the national average.

The Kelowna accord would have doubled the number of aboriginal health professionals in 10 years from the current 150 physicians and 1,200 nurses today. Housing would have also been a national priority for first nations. Under the accord, a national effort would have closed the housing gap on reserves by 40% within five years and 80% within ten years.

The Premier of British Columbia, who was the chair of the Kelowna process, stated the following in the provincial legislature:

I characterize that agreement...as Canada's moment of truth. It was [our] time to do something that had eluded our...nation for 138 years. It was our chance to end the disparities in health, education, housing and economic opportunities.

Canadians are, therefore, dumbfounded as to why the Conservatives have chosen to abandon this historic opportunity to improve the quality of life of our aboriginal people.

Why has the finance minister blown off the surplus without any long term plan on behalf of the federal government to assist first nations? In a country as wealthy as ours, how is it that the Conservatives have no regard whatsoever for first nations? Why do they just pay lip service?

What is it about the UN declaration that they find so difficult to accept? The declaration talks about survival, about dignity and about health and education for aboriginal people. What is it that the Conservatives find so difficult to accept?

When we hear in the House that the Conservatives have done so much for the aboriginal people, it is all rhetoric, all talk, no action and no money.

I am not sure if any members on the government side have gone to the trouble of seeing what it is like to live with a constant boil water order that lasts for years.

I am not sure why the Conservative government is so insensitive to the basic needs of first nations or why it is opposed to an international Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. What is so flawed about it that the minister claims he cannot support? What is it that the Conservatives really want for aboriginal communities?