The Québécois  Mr. Speaker, I am reminded of an old Japanese proverb which says, “It is more difficult to raise a family than it is to raise a nation”. I think about my mother, who is 87 years, with 10 children, 60 grandchildren and, at the last count, about 70 great grandchildren and the unity that we have experienced in our family.

DNA Identification Act  Mr. Speaker, I think that if you were to seek you would find unanimous consent from my colleagues in the House for the following: I ask on behalf of the member for Burlington, the sponsor of this bill, for this item to be designated to the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security.

DNA Identification Act  Mr. Speaker, I welcome the opportunity to speak before the House and my hon. colleagues about this issue brought forward by the hon. member for Burlington. Let me begin by telling the House that the addition of a missing persons index to the National DNA Data Bank would be beneficial on two fronts.

Access to Information  Mr. Speaker, just a few weeks ago the opposition Liberals were smearing the reputations of public servants and members of the Prime Minister's staff, accusing them of having deliberately broken the law by leaking the names of access to information requesters. However, an inquiry into the matter by the access to information, privacy and ethics committee has revealed that no laws were violated and no names were leaked.

Divorce Act  Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to speak to this bill. I would like to congratulate the member for Lethbridge for this excellent amendment to the act and I commend him for this being his third private member's bill that involves children. We can see that children are very near and dear to his heart, as they are to mine.

Town Crier Champion  Mr. Speaker, as well as being proud of people like Fergie Jenkins, the baseball hall of famer who visited us two weeks ago, the people of Chatham-Kent—Essex are proud of citizens like George Sims, the award-winning town crier of the Municipality of Chatham--Kent. George Sims, a long-time educator, has been retired from education since 1995.

Situation in Sudan  Mr. Chair, I want to make a few comments on something the hon. member stated a minute ago. The doctrine of responsibility to protect is a lofty term, and we would all agree with that. It is in all our interests to fight evil and to stop those who would propagate that. However, what assurance do we have that, should we engage in such an endeavour, we will not have the same response that we witnessed on May 17 when our troops were in Afghanistan and members opposite voted against that?

Petitions  Mr. Speaker, on behalf of the member for Simcoe North, I would like to table a petition today with over 900 signatures supporting an evaluation by the government of the Trent-Severn Waterway as proposed in Private Member's Motion No. 161, which is currently before the House. The petitioners are asking the government to consider the advisability of evaluating the future of the historic Trent-Severn Waterway and its potential to become a premier recreational asset; a world class destination for recreational boaters; a greater source of clean, renewable electric power; a facilitator of economic renewal to the communities along its 386 kilometre length; and a model of environmental sustainability.

Criminal Code  Mr. Speaker, I have been listening with some interest, especially to the Liberal side talking about crime and prevention. We keep hearing that the studies prove that mandatory minimums do not work. However, a study done by Thomas Gabor of the University of Ottawa states quite the opposite.

CUPE Ontario  Mr. Speaker, I condemn the recent decision by CUPE Ontario to boycott the state of Israel. In abruptly deciding to speak for its hundreds of thousands of members, on the Jewish Sabbath no less, CUPE Ontario has decided to take a one-sided, biased and wrong view on the Middle East conflict.

Committees of the House  Mr. Speaker, I am very encouraged. I want to let the House know at this point that, although we are known for a lot of things in Chatham-Kent—Essex, very few people know that we have the largest freshwater fishery in the world. I say that without exception. We too have some problems with our harbour.

Criminal Code  Mr. Speaker, we heard a lot today about crime and punishment. I would like to challenge some of those statistics and some of the statements. I grew up poor and I would bet that there are a lot of people here who grew up poor, too. All my friends grew up poor. Quite frankly, we did not break the law, but we did get into a lot of trouble at home.

Conservative Government  Mr. Speaker, it has been roughly 100 days since the Prime Minister and this Conservative government took office. We came into office promising to clean up government, to do things differently in Ottawa, respect Canadians and deliver real results for them. In 100 days we have cut the GST by 1% and delivered a budget with tax relief for all Canadians.

The Budget  Mr. Speaker, under the guidance of our finance minister, this Conservative government delivered its first budget and it delivered for all Canadians. There is immediate tax relief for all families through the GST reduction and child care allowance. There is relief for students, apprentices and seniors, and significant investment in public security and health care.

Darfur  Mr. Chair, I am listening with interest as we debate the atrocities that we are seeing unfold before us. It strikes me as strange that we have not yet addressed the obvious facts that much of it, if not all of it, is a result of religious conflict. I listened with interest too, to the Bloc and was reminded of Jefferson, of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.