Criminal Code  Madam Speaker, I want to share my hon. colleague from St. Albert—Edmonton's compliments. His intellect and his work at the justice committee is always very much appreciated. I know what he said about the government taking groups of offences and making them hybridized. I would note as well that the amendments offered by the Conservatives did essentially the same.

Criminal Code  Madam Speaker, as my friend from St. Albert—Edmonton well knows, the committee had discussions long before amendments were submitted about these issues. The committee members had all put forward the proposal that genocide and terrorism be deleted. Rather than vote against the clauses, which is what the committee had originally talked about doing, the Conservatives put forward amendments to retain other language that had been amended in the clause and to delete these provisions.

Criminal Code  Madam Speaker, I thank my colleagues. As chair of the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights, I am very pleased to rise to talk about our work on Bill C-75. I want to thank the members of the committee for their hard work. I also want to thank the more than 60 witnesses who appeared before our committee to share their opinion on the bill.

Shooting at Tree of Life Synagogue  Mr. Speaker, there are more than six million Jews in the United States. Since 1654, generations of Jews have come to America's golden shores. They came to escape bigotry and hate they faced in their native lands. They came looking for freedom and a better life in a country where the words of a young female Jewish writer, inscribed on the Statue of Liberty, warmly welcomed them.

Divorce Act  Mr. Speaker, certainly I am not one to tell a couple whether or not they should get divorced. I think that would be very intrusive. What I can say is I have tried to cancel a cellphone contract in Canada and I found it to be very difficult. I can assure the member that for all of my friends who unfortunately divorced, their divorces were far more difficult than cancelling a cellphone contract.

Divorce Act  Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague. It was a pleasure working with her, especially on minority language rights. We will of course hear from witnesses when this bill is studied in committee. We will pay close attention to those witnesses from linguistic minority communities. Our committee will discuss this with the minister, the parliamentary secretaries and all of the parties represented in committee to see whether we can effectively make improvements to ensure that linguistic minorities in this country can access divorce courts in both official languages.

Divorce Act  Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to work with my friend across the way. Sometimes we have a bit of a different view on some social and justice issues, but on this we are finding common ground. This is one of these excellent bills where we are finding common ground, because we all care about the best interests of the child.

Divorce Act  Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the parliamentary secretary and tell him how much of a pleasure it is working with him as our new parliamentary secretary. I completely agree with the way the bill approaches the question of maximum parenting time. The presumption that would be created by equal parenting causes problems.

Divorce Act  Mr. Speaker, I really appreciated what my colleague had to say and her speaking of her own personal experiences. It was incredibly touching, and I think her husband Mike is very lucky. With respect to the question, having not practised family law, I also have only dealt with the situation as a member of Parliament.

Divorce Act  Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague from Jonquière for her excellent question. That is something we always need to ask ourselves when making amendments to the Criminal Code. Do we need to provide very specific definitions? Should we provide a non-exhaustive list? Should we leave the concept more open?

Divorce Act  Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to rise today to speak to Bill C-78, which aims to strengthen our family justice system by amending three federal laws, the Divorce Act, the Family Orders and Agreements Enforcement Assistance Act and the Garnishment, Attachment and Pension Diversion Act.

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, in some ways, I am in violent agreement with the member for Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, whom I greatly respect. I agree this was a horrible crime and this person a horrible criminal, and it seems completely wrong that she is in this facility. I do think that the minister has taken steps to say that we have to review this policy and that we just cannot apply a policy to only one woman.

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, I think we all value the input from our constituents. It is absolutely essential. It is true that there is a horror across Canada about the fact that this murderer is in a healing lodge. I do not dispute that whatsoever. I do not even need to be called to be told that.

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, that is absolutely false. Everyone has rights in Canada, including the accused and offenders. No individual has more rights than anyone else. We have agreed to live in a country where we have a Charter of Rights and Freedoms. It is why I am a Liberal. The Charter of Rights and Freedoms protects everyone, even if the majority does not like this minority.

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to rise today to discuss this issue. Over the 20 years that I served on city council as a councillor and mayor, two murders occurred in our community. One of the most difficult things I had to do was talk to the family of the person who had been murdered, to try to comfort them at an unspeakable time of horror, and to try to assure them that our justice system would work effectively for them.