Safe and Accountable Rail Act  Mr. Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague for Winnipeg North for that question, because it is the subject of a lot of public debate and it needs to be addressed. I know that the pipeline industry tried to seize on Lac-Mégantic as an argument for pipelines in a way that was seen at the time as a bit inappropriate, given the tragedy that had occurred.

Safe and Accountable Rail Act  Mr. Speaker, before I begin, I just wanted to double-check because I believe there was still some time on the clock for the hon. member for Gaspésie—Îles-de-la-Madeleine. I thought I saw him here a moment ago, but if that is not the case, I am more than prepared to proceed. I rise to speak today on a bill that is important and has my support, but it opens up an area of public policy that really bears fuller examination.

Privilege  Mr. Speaker, I was here as well. I am not suggesting for a moment that the RCMP is not performing admirably, and I appreciate him calling me up short on that. As we know, we do not have a report. However, as I understand, and I have talked with virtually everybody to get different eyes on the scene, I think it is fair to say that we have seen a great increase in the number of RCMP vehicles in the last few years, circling the perimeter of the House of Commons.

Privilege  Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague. Quite simply, it is important to preserve those privileges. We must protect our system and the principles of Parliament. The incidents raised by this question of privilege are important events that warrant a more in-depth examination.

Privilege  Mr. Speaker, yes. This has been raised a bit in this debate, but I do think that it needs to be underscored. We know through an access to information request, there was a point when the current Prime Minister was checking out the cost of taking the former U.S. embassy and converting it into a more imperial greeting centre for the Prime Minister to greet heads of government or heads of state coming to Canada.

Privilege  Mr. Speaker, I also, with my friend from St. John's East, do not intend to use the full 20 minutes. We have been talking in this place this morning about parliamentary privilege and its roots in our Constitution. I just want to review some of them. I want to start by saying that I appreciate the Speaker's ruling of a prima facie finding of a breach of parliamentary privilege in the delays that occurred and in the indiscriminatory way pedestrian travel and vehicular travel was stopped by the RCMP without regard to whether they were stopping members of Parliament, who have a specific privilege to access Parliament Hill, tourists, or anyone else.

Privilege  Mr. Speaker, I want to reiterate something that was just mentioned by the member for Burnaby—New Westminster and ask my friend from Winnipeg North about this. There have been dramatic changes in the security here that I believe do infringe on fundamental constitutional principles of the supremacy of Parliament, the role of the executive and the differences in how parliamentary security should be handled.

Privilege  Mr. Speaker, this opportunity to discuss the role of Parliament, parliamentary privilege, security and the role of visiting dignitaries needs to be examined at PROC, and we need to go back to first principles. Parliament is supreme. Parliament is not the place of the head of state.

Petitions  Mr. Speaker, I rise to present two petitions to the House this morning. The first petition is from residents of Saanich—Gulf Islands to specifically encourage the Government of Canada to develop policies internationally to assist family farmers, who are often women, so that the policies work to protect the rights of small family farmers in the global south.

Petitions  Mr. Speaker, the second petition is from residents of British Columbia outside of my riding, primarily from Grand Forks, and a few from Ottawa as well. The petitioners call upon the government to re-examine the whole regime of security certificates, pointing out that holding people for very long times with essentially secret trials violates the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Petitions  Mr. Speaker, the second petition is from residents primarily in the Vancouver area, who continue to be concerned that we have not got to the bottom of the so-called robocall events that took place during the election of 2011. They would like an inquiry.

Petitions  Mr. Speaker, I rise today to present two petitions. The first has over 475 signatures from residents within my riding and calls for an end to fracking. This is an important petition.

Safe and Accountable Rail Act  Mr. Speaker, as a regular train passenger, one becomes acquainted with what is on the freight, because freight takes precedence over passenger rail in this country. I tried to make a trip across Canada this past summer, only to find that the volume of fossil fuel travelling by freight delayed passenger rail by as much as six to seven hours a ride with different stations.

Petitions  Mr. Speaker, I rise to present two petitions. The first is from residents primarily in my own riding but also from the Vancouver area. They are concerned about HIV-AIDS treatments being made available to everyone who needs them. We might have thought this was dealt with, but the petitioners point to a particular highly active antiretroviral drug therapy, a strategy known as “treatment as prevention”.

Petitions  Mr. Speaker, the second petition is related to the ongoing issue of marine protected areas: how we get them formed and how we take care of them once we create them. The petitioners call on the federal Minister of Fisheries and Oceans to work with all relevant government branches to simplify communications and responsibilities.