Supply  Mr. Speaker, my constituency has no obvious interest in this issue. We do not have a military base. We do not have defence contracts. We do not have any airports or harbours. Quite easily I can say with some confidence that my constituency has no particular involvement in this particular issue.

Employment Insurance Act  Mr. Speaker, I would be remiss if I did not congratulate you on your appointment. I hope that you enjoy your appointment and that you find these speeches utterly fascinating. I am somewhat reluctant to get into this subject because I am from Toronto. Toronto is of course the place that everyone loves to hate.

Financial Consumer Agency Of Canada Act  Madam Speaker, I have not had an opportunity to congratulate you on your appointment. I wish you all the best. I enjoyed the hon. member's wide ranging speech. I was at times hard pressed to know what it had to do with the subject of the debate, but I heard him talk about fiscal policy, monetary policy and the apparent demise of certain political parties.

Supply  Mr. Speaker, the hon. member raises an interesting question. My belief is that the answer is in the difference in the quality of the office, between what is a judge and what is an ethics counsellor. A judge necessarily needs independence in the process. A judge necessarily hears evidence in an open and impartial manner.

Supply  Mr. Speaker, I am not that old. For the record I did not campaign in 1993. Having said that, I want to go through the details of the election promise. It stated that a Liberal government would appoint an independent ethics counsellor. That part was done. The ethics counsellor has been in place since 1994 and has rendered decisions, which possibly the government did not really like.

Supply  Mr. Speaker, I will be splitting my time. It seems to me that when we are talking about ethics, the first way to derail the conversation is to trash talk and put the opposition, or in the other case the government, on the defensive. At the end of the day all we end up doing is maybe improving our eligibility to be NBA players.

Human Rights  Mr. Speaker, our charter of rights says that everyone has fundamental freedoms, two being freedoms of conscience and religion. Almost every bill of rights and the UN charter says the same thing. It is almost universal. The abuses of those freedoms are almost as universal. The Prime Minister will be on a trade mission to China this month.

Hazardous Products Act  moved for leave to introduce Bill C-236, an act to amend the Hazardous Products Act (fire-safe cigarettes). Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for Sydney—Victoria for seconding the motion. The bill would force cigarette companies to make fire safe cigarettes. If we could save a dozen lives a year, we would do so.

Speech From The Throne  Mr. Speaker, the hon. member is correct. I did not sign the petition. The reason was that it was the cart before the horse: first the sentence and then the conviction. The justice in the B.C. court said that subsection (4) of the child pornography laws was unconstitutional. That was upheld in the 2:1 decision in the court of appeal.

Speech From The Throne  Mr. Speaker, the striking down of that law was applicable only to British Columbia. The rest of the provinces were still proceeding with charges. In Ontario 41 cases were held up pending the disposition of the Supreme Court of Canada. I have received assurances from justice officials that all those cases will proceed in the normal fashion.

Speech From The Throne  Mr. Speaker, I want to take this opportunity to congratulate you on your election. I am absolutely confident that you will make a fair minded and wonderful Speaker. I also want to thank the electors of Scarborough East for returning me to this Chamber to offer their views on these important issues.

Economic Policy  Madam Speaker, I do not know what figures the hon. member is reading. My recollection of the budget numbers is that spending absent debt has basically been flatlined for the past two or three years. The management by this government has resulted in the ability of the government to significantly reduce debt.

Economic Policy  Madam Speaker, I would like to note at the outset that I will be splitting my time. When I first came to Ottawa I made a point of meeting with the Minister of Finance, in part to get to know him better and in part because I had run on a platform that emphasized debt reduction and tax cuts.

Hazardous Products Act  moved for leave to introduce Bill C-506, an act to amend the Hazardous Products Act (fire-safe cigarettes). Mr. Speaker, this bill, if accepted, will be an opportunity to reduce the hazardous effects of cigarettes and introduce fire-safe cigarettes. This issue was brought to my attention by Mr.

Aboriginal Affairs  Mr. Speaker, one of the most difficult issues facing Canadian society is the litigation concerning aboriginal schools. It brings the Government of Canada, a number of major churches and aggrieved aboriginal complainants into the courtrooms of the nations to settle one of the most vexatious issues of our time.