Citizenship Of Canada Act  However, when I did attend citizenship court and saw people from Bosnia-Herzegovina coming to get their citizenship, there would be Croatians, Serbs and Muslims. What I always said to them was “Please, for God's sake, bring the best you have but do not bring over your centuries' old grievances because Canada needs the best you have. We cannot handle your strife”.

Citizenship Of Canada Act  The reality about the Canadian history, our life, is that every kind of Canadian has had an association with God. Whether we are a Christian, or a Muslim, or an aboriginal, actually 80% of Canadians believe that there is some sort of higher authority. We as Canadians owe our good fortune of having one of the most wonderful countries in the world to something more than just NASDAQ, the stock exchange or our mining riches.

Petitions  Mr. Speaker, I have a second petition which was sponsored by the Muslim Students' Association at the University of British Columbia. It notes that the atrocities taking place against the innocent people of Chechnya are a campaign of brutal and unjust terror that violates the human rights code of justice and freedom.

Vietnam  Religious rights do not get much play in the news here, in part because we take them for granted and in part because of journalistic apathy toward people of faith. It does not much matter whether they are Catholic, Buddhist, Muslim or Evangelical. If they do not worship at a state sanctioned patriot facility, they are abused, arrested or imprisoned. Religious rights are like the proverbial canary in the mine shaft.

Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty Implementation Act  I point these things out because this is the reality of where it is really at. Today we have 100,000 troops on the Iranian-Afghanistan border. We have the Shiite muslims who make up 89% of Iran faced off against the Taliban, the Sunni muslims who make up 84% of Afghanistan. They are within days or weeks of a major outbreak, a major conflict, occurring in that region.

Division No. 1265  May I suggest that the majority of Canadians, people of faith, whether they be Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu or Sikh, have a common belief that the institution of marriage, one man and one woman, was part of the Creator's divine plan for the orderly conduct of life and the continuation of the human race.

Division No. 1265  It is not just the so-called Christian right that is uncomfortable with the implications of the bill but well meaning Jewish and Muslim communities as well. Average Canadians who express their beliefs about fairness and equality in various ways are also concerned with the long term impact of omnibus bills which purport to sweep away supposed inequalities in one fell swoop.

Modernization Of Benefits And Obligations Act  The second concern was that “the bill disregards the deeply held beliefs of millions of Canadians, including Christians, Jews, Muslims, Sikhs and many other faith groups”. This is a very difficult area. Some of the statements and some of the critique of the bill made from the faith perspective have been severely criticized.

Personal Information Protection And Electronic Documents Act  It can be in the United States or anywhere else. I have noticed, Mr. Speaker, that the religious denomination, be it Christian, Muslim, be it whatever, by the way you actually search the Internet becomes part of your profile. Suddenly people in the United States, people anywhere in the world who are the masters of this information can profile you wherever you are because you have used your computer to go to various sites that are related to your particular religious interest.

Religious Discrimination  The world is an increasingly dangerous place for people of many faiths, depending on where they happen to be born or where they live. The Baha'is in Iran and the Christians in Sudan come quickly to mind, but Muslims, Jews, Sikhs, Hindus, Buddhists and all other faiths each find themselves persecuted in various contexts. What I find most distressing is state sanctioned official persecution. The NDP believes, as I am sure most Canadians do, that the 21st century is a time when religious discrimination and hatred should be put behind us forever.

Recognition Of Crimes Against Humanity Act  For the record they are: Association for Learning and Preserving of the History of WWII in Asia, ALPHA; Belarusan Canadian Coordinating Committee; Buddhist Communities of Greater Toronto; Canadian Arab Federation; Canadian Islamic Congress; Canadian Ukrainian Immigrant Aid Society; Council of the Muslim Community of Canada; Cypriot Canadian Federation; Federation of Associations of Canadians Tamils; Federation of Canadian Turkish Associations; Hellenic Canadian Congress; Hellenic Committee for Human Rights and National Issues: Latvian National Federation of Canada; National Association of Canadians with Origins in India; National Federation of Pakistani Canadians; Palestine Heritage Canada; Pan African Movement of Canada; Serbian National Shield Society of Canada; Slovenian National Federation; Toronto Kurdish Community and Information Centre; Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association; Ukrainian Canadian Congress; Ukrainian National Federation of Canada; and Ukrainian Women's Organization of Canada.

Bosnia  Yes they are all of Slavic background but they are of three religious backgrounds. There are Muslims, there are Orthodox and there are Catholics. It is very different and they feel very strongly and are very emotional. In Drvar when the Croats attacked the Serbs who were returning home it can be seen why.

Eid-Ul-Fitr  The end of Ramadan is celebrated with Eid-Ul-Fitr, one of the most joyous occasions in the Muslim calendar. Over one billion Muslims worldwide, including nearly 500,000 here in Canada, use Eid-Ul-Fitr to give prayers of thanks, celebrate with friends and family, and rejoice in the love of God and of course Islam.

Supply  The God of the member for Hochelaga—Maisonneuve is not the God the Reform Party member might invoke. It is not the God that certain of our Muslim colleagues or some of our colleagues from other religious denominations might call on. It is therefore not our place, as parliamentarians, to try to limit debates to religious considerations given that religion is a question of pluralism.

Supply  I am quite convinced that the definition I hold, which adds that further dimension to marriage, is one that is held by the majority of Canadians; not only by those of the Christian faith, but also by those of other faiths. I think of the Sikhs, the Muslims, the Hindus. They all have a relationship of marriage which they clearly understand to be the union of a man and a woman. We err terribly by even suggesting that possibly some court could change that definition.