Salaries Act  Mr. Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague for reminding Canadians of the many different ways the government has tried to defend the bill. I was thinking today, as I walked up to the House after the latest winter snowfall, of the different ways of looking at winter. For example, Gilles Vigneault sang “Mon pays, ce n'est pas un pays, c'est l'hiver”, which translates to “my country is not a country, it's winter”.

Salaries Act  Madam Speaker, I would like to compliment my colleague for his very thorough speech, particularly in detailing the many excuses the Liberal government has made to defend this terrible piece of legislation. Personally, I see it as a long, expensive, time and resource-consuming exercise to correct the Prime Minister's original goof when he created a cabinet and suddenly discovered that his junior ministers, his ministers of state, were women, and that they were paid somewhat less, as is the Westminster tradition for secondary jobs supporting major ministries.

Salaries Act  Madam Speaker, I listened very carefully to my hon. colleague's remarks. I look to the day when a future government returns to the traditional position of minister of state, an honourable junior minister with appropriate compensation. My question is prompted by my colleague's reference to the Prime Minister's authority to appoint and assign responsibilities.

Latin American Heritage Month Act  moved that Bill S-218, An Act respecting Latin American Heritage Month, be read a first time. Mr. Speaker, I am truly honoured to table and sponsor Bill S-218, an act respecting Latin American heritage month. I am particularly honoured because the legislation, which recognizes the significant contributions to Canada's social, economic, and political fabric by our Latin American community, was created and lovingly fashioned by our late colleague, the hon.

Ethics  Mr. Speaker, the clock continues to tick on three important investigations by the Ethics Commissioner: two of the Prime Minister's conflict of interest holiday violations and, of course, the most recent of several involving the finance minister. However, as Canadians wait patiently for the commissioner to report, her spokesperson says that if these reports are not completed before she leaves office in the coming weeks, it will be up to her unnamed successor to continue, restart, or abandon those investigations.

Ethics  Mr. Speaker, delay is the deadliest form of denial. Canadians can clearly see, by the Liberals' unacceptable delay in appointing a new Ethics Commissioner and the PM's flippant disregard of the ethics laws and regulations fundamental to the House, that ethical practices are discretionary for Liberals.

Criminal Code  Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for a fine speech, reflecting his previous career in law and as a scholar. I would like to ask him about one of the elements of the Liberals' proposed legislation that is important to many of us on the official opposition benches. I am wondering whether my colleague sees, as we in the official opposition see, something of a forewarning in the removal of Her Majesty's portrait from that vast wall in the Global Affairs entrance hall in favour of the two admittedly fine works of art by the great Quebec master, Alfred Pellan.

Political Prisoners  Mr. Speaker, four years ago this week, the world lost a human rights hero: Nelson Mandela's legacy, the inspiration he sparked globally in those who similarly stand in opposition to political injustice and tyranny. That is why the Raoul Wallenberg All-Party Parliamentary Caucus for Human Rights was moved to convene in this building today, a gathering of families of political prisoners.

Salaries Act  Mr. Speaker, I will begin with the hon. member's last question. Being in the official opposition, I enthusiastically support pay equity and equal pay for equal work. With respect to gender parity, we also enthusiastically support equal opportunity for women in politics. Of course, we had the first female Canadian prime minister.

Salaries Act  Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague, my friend. The short answer to his question is no. At committee, gender equality experts effectively told us that the confection of ministers of state to full ministers was cosmetic, cynical, and tokenistic. Some even suggested it was dishonest.

Salaries Act  Madam Speaker, I have been waiting for months to speak to Bill C-24. The official title is an act to amend the Salaries Act and to make a consequential amendment to the Financial Administration Act. A more accurate title for the bill could be an act to cover up this Liberal government's embarrassing mistake of claiming to create a gender-balanced cabinet while actually appointing five women as junior ministers, and, under the traditionally appropriate practice of Canadian governments, paying them substantially less.

Access to Information Act  Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague and friend for his explanation of the origins of that remark, when the Prime Minister promised to lift the veil on how Liberal sausages are made. Indeed, to go back to his explanation, we have seen that the sausages the Liberals make have some very unhealthy and unappealing contents.

Access to Information Act  Mr. Speaker, I must again say that this living document, which is on life support, certainly in the court of public opinion, will be imposed on Canadians by the Liberal majority. I want to speak positively about the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics, because it is a productive committee.

Access to Information Act  Mr. Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the member for Richmond—Arthabaska. As we have heard many times today, again, the legislation before us, Bill C-58, which the Liberal government is steamrolling to pass through the heavy-handed imposition once again of the legislative guillotine of time allocation, has been characterized in many ways.

Access to Information Act  Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague for his comments. I agree fully with his observation that the Liberal government promised much. It promised transparency, accountability, but did not deliver it, spectactularly. The Liberals claim they consulted widely and they did, but they did not listen.