Youth Criminal Justice Act  Mr. Speaker, I thought I was speaking somewhat tangentially to the issue before us. We are dealing with a filibuster. We are dealing with a motion which has to do with the issue of whether we should continue to debate this ad nauseam after seven years.

Youth Criminal Justice Act  Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for his limited edification on such an obvious matter. As I was indicating before, the issue before us is the time that Bill C-7 has taken up before parliament and in particular the time that has been wasted by the rampant contradictions of me

Youth Criminal Justice Act  Mr. Speaker, at the outset I offer the fact that I am heartily sick of the bill. It has made its way through three parliaments and three separate incarnations. It has gone on for over seven years and has been subject to a 30 hour filibuster by the Bloc. At some time or another en

Modernization Of The Standing Orders Of The House Of Commons  Mr. Chairman, I do not want to turn this into a debate for members from Scarborough, but I want to ask the hon. member about his bargain, some might say Faustian bargain, the bargain that every one of us made when we came to this place, and that is that we all ran under a party l

Modernization Of The Standing Orders Of The House Of Commons  Mr. Chairman, I cannot specifically refer to the report of the House leader, but I think there is some element of good will on the part of the House leader to respond to some of those issues. I will suggest in defence of the House leader that there has been more than incremental

Modernization Of The Standing Orders Of The House Of Commons  Mr. Chairman, I thank the hon. member for his concise question. I think the government is moving incrementally along the path of parliamentary reform, but the essential problem is that no ministers, no members of government, can ever convince themselves that parliamentary reform

Modernization Of The Standing Orders Of The House Of Commons  Mr. Chairman, I would like to thank my hon. colleague for his wonderful lead into the comment that I would like to offer to the debate. This is an excellent form of debate. It gives us an opportunity to talk somewhat more frankly than we might otherwise speak. I would like to of

Supply  Mr. Speaker, I do not take issue with the hon. member's speech in some respects. I appreciate that he has identified some of the frustrations around chapter 11 and around recognition of the devolution of sovereignty in terms of going to free trade panels or some other dispute res

Supply  Madam Speaker, Mr. Hadfield is up beyond the clouds where transparency is as good as it ever gets for any of us. I listened to the transmission this morning on the CBC and he was looking down on Earth while fixing the Canadarm. He could see an amazing distance, clouds or no cloud

Supply  Madam Speaker, the question by the hon. member is well taken. Chapter 11 has been somewhat problematic in both the FTAA and the NAFTA. Sovereign nations are starting to face the reality of the sovereignty they gave up to get that deal. The Prime Minister has acknowledged that cha

Supply  Madam Speaker, I am somewhat hesitant to engage in this debate as it seems to be something of a daunting task. Like most members, I do not have any professional expertise in the area and I have not studied trade issues at a university. Frankly, at times my understanding of these

Foreign Affairs  Mr. Speaker, I know that asking a relevant question is normally the purview of the official opposition. Given its fixation du jour, I thought I would be allowed to ask a question which is relevant to Canadians and to my constituents. Sri Lanka has been in the grip of a bloody ci

Youth Criminal Justice Act  Mr. Speaker, I believe the hon. member is referring to the presumptive offences, an area that is actually a fairly significant change in the bill. Now crown attorneys and defence attorneys will not argue as to whether a case should be tried or not tried in adult court. The crown

Youth Criminal Justice Act  Mr. Speaker, I will mention at the outset that I will be splitting my time. This debate by and large generates more heat than light and has, over the past seven years of these last three parliaments, generated a great deal of heat. I do not know how much light we actually came t

Supply  Madam Speaker, the hon. member opposite is an experienced politician. He knows that negotiations carry on all the time at a variety of levels over a period of time. Everyone knows that there is a March 31 deadline. The pressure to arrive at an agreement is certainly there. I wou