Veterans  Mr. Speaker, last spring it was discovered that the member for Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie had said that First World War veterans fought “a capitalist war on the backs of the workers and peasants”. There was no demand for a retraction from the Leader of the Opposition, even after veterans themselves called the comments outrageous.

Economic Action Plan 2013 Act No. 2  Mr. Speaker, in the last Parliament I chaired the environment committee. I am proud of the work that we do through Environment Canada. A lot of people do not realize that Environment Canada is the fifth largest research organization in the world. The four larger ones are in the United States.

Economic Action Plan 2013 Act No. 2  Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for the compliment to my family. We have had a chance to work together on a number of issues and I do appreciate her comment. On the issue of environmental permits, we as a government have reduce the redundancy and duplication of services between different jurisdictions.

Economic Action Plan 2013 Act No. 2  Mr. Speaker, it is indeed a pleasure to rise today to speak on behalf of my constituents from Selkirk—Interlake about how important the building Canada fund is to our municipalities and about the importance of our economic action plan to our farmers, commercial fishers, and small businesses throughout the riding.

International Trade  Mr. Speaker, through the Canada-Europe trade agreement, our government is creating new and historic opportunities in Europe for our agricultural producers. Almost 94% of EU agricultural tariff lines will be duty-free when the Canada-Europe trade agreement comes into force. Our government has successfully negotiated an outcome that provides our exporters access to 500 million new hungry consumers.

National Defence  Mr. Speaker, we are very concerned about everyone who will lose their jobs. With the changes that are happening with the roll-down of operations in Afghanistan, we have gone through a renewal, looking at all our strategic assets and all our operations. We want to make sure that we are investing all our capabilities into our front lines by making sure that we are not investing in unnecessary practices and procedures at this point in time so that we can increase the readiness of the Canadian Armed Forces.

Iraq  Mr. Speaker, the Mujahedin-e Khalq , or MeK, are Iranian refugees living in exile in Iraq. MeK refugees have suffered serious hardships living in camps Ashraf and Liberty, including being targeted by mortar and rocket attacks. On September 1, the last remaining residents of Camp Ashraf were attacked leaving 52 dead and 7 abducted.

Tackling Contraband Tobacco Act  Mr. Speaker, the bill does provide for co-operation between Attorneys General across this country as we have seen in other pieces of legislation. The federal Attorney General and provincial Attorneys General would be coordinating any problems they may see in increases in imprisonment in provincial jails.

Tackling Contraband Tobacco Act  Mr. Speaker, we would be able to do this within existing resources, and we would make sure we were standing up a 50-member RCMP unit that would go out and target where the high levels of contraband are. They would be able to do this within existing divisions across the country. They would get the support they need from the existing budget and from their own leadership.

Tackling Contraband Tobacco Act  Mr. Speaker, we just actually renewed the federal tobacco strategy here in 2012, and we are going to continue to work on tobacco control. This is aimed to preserve the gains we have made over the past 10 years and to continue the downward trend of smoking prevalence. As the member mentioned, the worst part of tobacco use is cancer and the horrible way it impacts upon people's lives and all that we have to deal with in losing loved ones because of the cancer caused by cigarette smoking.

Tackling Contraband Tobacco Act  Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise to speak in favour of Bill S-16, an act to amend the Criminal Code (trafficking in contraband tobacco). The bill proposes amendments to the Criminal Code to create a new offence of trafficking in contraband tobacco and provide minimum penalties of imprisonment for persons who are convicted for a second and subsequent time for this offence.

Robert Cottingham  Mr. Speaker, it is with a heavy heart that I pay tribute to Robert Cottingham, whose funeral service is this afternoon. Bob Cottingham epitomizes what makes a great Canadian. He bravely fought for his country and dedicated himself to building a better nation through community service.

Privilege  Mr. Speaker, I rise today to respond to Wednesday's question of privilege from the hon. member for Avalon. The hon. member argues that subsection 463(2) of the Canada Elections Act should apply to me as a consequence of a request made under subsection 457(2) of the act. As the government House leader said Wednesday, this issue is effectively a question of accounting interpretation.

Justice  Mr. Speaker, the previous Liberal government instituted a justice system that put a greater emphasis on the rights of criminals than on the rights of victims. Our government promised to change that. To further stand up for victims, I introduced Bill C-478, the respecting families of murdered and brutalized persons act.

Respecting Families of Murdered and Brutalized Persons Act  Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to reply to the comments that have been made in the House over the last two hours of debate. I want to thank those members who have spoken out in favour of my bill and the importance of it and how it stands up for victims and the re-victimization that they face every time they have to attend an unnecessary parole board hearing.