Kelowna Accord Implementation Act  Mr. Speaker, I listened with great interest to my hon. colleague's statement about commitments from the Government of Canada. I worked for the people of the Algonquins of Barriere Lake. I remember the 1998 agreement signed by the federal government to rebuild that community and how the federal government walked away from that agreement right after.

Criminal Code  Mr. Speaker, it is one of the main issues we end up having to deal with when someone is returned to society. It does not matter whether it was for stealing shoelaces or stealing cars, or even for violent crimes, at one point they have to be returned to society. What we need at that point are the resources to get them back into society in a safe and functioning way.

Criminal Code  Mr. Speaker, I fully agree with the hon. member. The problem is that we are not dealing with that bill today. We are not dealing with a bill dealing with the need to ensure that people who are committing violent crimes are not getting conditional sentencing. We are dealing with a much larger omnibus bill that is dragging in a whole lot of other people.

Criminal Code  Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to rise and speak to the bill because the issue of protecting our citizens is a fundamental priority of all members of Parliament, regardless of our political stripes. The question is whether or not the legislation that we bring forth will achieve that end.

Criminal Code  Mr. Speaker, I would like to share with the hon. member my concern about the effect that this law is going to have on aboriginal people. We see how the courts have played out over the last 100 years. We have seen the loss of hope on aboriginal youth who were incarcerated, treated as criminals, taken to the edge of some cities and left to freeze to death.

Canada Elections Act  Mr. Speaker, this week one of the potential leaders of the Liberal Party of Canada had to give back money he had taken from schoolchildren. What is astounding about this, though, is that the Liberal Party of Canada condones the practice of shaking down kids for their lunch money.

Criminal Code  Mr. Speaker, I want to follow up on the member's last answer. There is a concern that the bill would not survive a charter challenge. There are many unanswered questions and we are being asked to vote on a bill that will have profound implications for the dispensing of justice right across this country.

Criminal Code  Mr. Speaker, I listened with interest to the hon. member's speech. I am concerned about the issue of how the conditional sentencing changes will affect the aboriginal population who are incarcerated at rates much higher than anyone else in the general population. In Saskatchewan 64% of conditional sentences are being handed out to aboriginal offenders.

Criminal Code  Mr. Speaker, I listened with great interest to my hon. colleague's speech, because one of the things that I have come to realize is that legislation is a very blunt instrument. When we want to respond to a specific incident that has happened in the community and we propose legislation that runs across Canada, it has profound implications.

Aboriginal Affairs  Mr. Speaker, for months the people of Kashechewan have tried to work with the government to implement the agreement for a new community on safe ground. They have supplied study after study and they have jumped through hoop after hoop. Yesterday they were told that there was no money, that there was no plan and that there was no political recognition of an agreement signed by the Government of Canada.

Aboriginal Affairs  Mr. Speaker, he can blame anyone he wants. He has had ample opportunity to find the money and come up with a plan. He has done nothing. I would like to read into the record today what the member said in the House. He said Canadians were “sickened by the squalor of Kashechewan...the third world squalor, filth and poverty...their children with scabies”.

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, definitely this cuts to the heart of where we go with broadcast, which would be AT&T; delivering broadcast television over the Internet and bypassing any domestic cultural rights. I am somewhat confused. There is the fear that if we do not kneel before capital all the time, it will pick up its toys and go someplace such as the Caribbean.

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, it is a very germane question because we are perhaps 21 million anglophones spread across 4,000 kilometres. We know our biggest trading partner and our number one ally sees culture as a product, the same as Tide soap or GM cars. We know the necessity of maintaining a sense of culture.

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, I will be splitting my time with the hon. member for Parkdale—High Park. Mr. Speaker, I am honoured to once again rise in this House and represent the people of Timmins--James Bay and the New Democratic Party in a discussion on the importance of maintaining cultural diversity.

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, I would like to follow up on the question the parliamentary secretary posed in terms of choice. We see in this world of privatized culture often the choice of do we want a Coke with our fries or do we want a Sprite with our fries. The question being put forward with the example of the cars is that we have now mandated in Canada a notion of choice where of 100 stations that the CRTC gave licences to, how many were set aside for Canadian programming?