Toronto Humane Society  Mr. Speaker, for over 100 years the Toronto Humane Society has provided a desperately needed haven for injured and abandoned animals in the City of Toronto. In any given year, over 8,000 animals pass through the shelter, which is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. The injured receive veterinary care.

Supply  Mr. Speaker, I would like to ensure that we do everything humanly possibly to stamp it out completely. When we are doing legislation, we must ensure that it achieves the goal that we want it to. Whatever we have been doing, we will continue to do. I think if we can put some more emphasis on it, that would even be better.

Supply  Mr. Speaker, at the end of the day, people have rights in this country. There is always the right of appeal and that is where the danger comes. Let us ensure that we bring in legislation that achieves what we want and can go before a court. Sure enough, there will be people out there who think differently than those of us in this room right now.

Supply  Mr. Speaker, there are a whole lot of reasons in and around the issue of age of consent. I have not sat on the committee. I have not been part of the ongoing work on this particular bill. I know it has been raised. The member can ask us on a personal basis what we might like and we might have one view.

Supply  It is not as simple as someone wanting it or someone else not wanting it. No doubt there is some reason that it is where it is and Liberal members are maintaining it where it is. Certainly, those are issues that matter and have been thought through. The Liberals have worked very carefully to ensure that Bill C-20 and the legislation is as tight as it can be to protect the children.

Supply  Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for the question. Certainly, dogging the minister in order to get a piece of legislation as important as this through is something that we should all be doing. The work has been going on in the justice committee for some time. Members who have an interest here, as we all should, will continue to monitor this to ensure, on behalf of all of our children and Canadians, that we get this legislation through and we tighten up whatever areas that still need to be tightened.

Supply  Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to speak to this issue today and, specifically, to follow my colleague on the other side of the House from Edmonton North. It will be a sad day when we no longer have her in the House standing up and arguing issues that matter to all of us. The motion on the Order Paper today is about how we can better protect children from all forms of sexual exploitation, including child pornography.

Assisted Human Reproduction  Mr. Speaker, for too long Canadian women and their children have waited for Parliament to pass legislation on assisted human reproduction and genetic technologies. Bill C-13 is the result of more than a decade of careful consideration and consultation that is designed to protect the health and safety of women and the children born to them through assisted human reproduction.

Questions on the Order Paper  Mr. Speaker, Question No. 251 will be answered today.

Question No. 251  Mr. Speaker, I ask that the remaining questions be allowed to stand.

Petitions  Mr. Speaker, pursuant to Standing Order 36, I would like to present two bundles of 10 petitions each containing many hundreds of names from my riding of York West and from the greater Toronto area. The petitioners call upon Parliament to take all necessary means to maintain and support the definition of marriage in Canada as a union between one man and one woman to the exclusion of all others.

Government Response to Petitions  Mr. Speaker, pursuant to Standing Order 36 I have the honour to table, in both official languages, the government's response to 35 petitions.

Toronto and Region Islamic Congregation  Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the 25th anniversary of the Toronto and Region Islamic Congregation, TARIC, and to congratulate it on the launch of phase 2 of its building project. I was honoured to be invited to the recent 25th anniversary celebration. TARIC was first registered as a non-share capital corporation in 1978 and over the last 25 years has grown into a large multipurpose organization, serving the Muslim community in the GTA.

Supply  Mr. Speaker, maybe the hon. member should be sitting on a different committee. Those of us who have been sitting on the Government Operations and Estimates Standing Committee have been able to do some fabulous work over the last six months or so, regardless of the issues he says are big problems.

Supply  Mr. Speaker, this is so ridiculous it is hard not to laugh. Every time we turn around we have a party that replaces its leader every year. There is another one struggling and the one at the very end is trying to deal with the whole issue of who is leading the Conservative Party.