Organized Crime  Mr. Speaker, last week my constituents in Hamilton Centre were horrified to learn that a federal prosecutor had dropped drug and weapons charges against suspected members of a cocaine ring. These men were thought to have connections to the Hells Angels and other organized crime gangs across Canada.

Resumption of Debate on Address in Reply  Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for Mississauga—Erindale for his excellent analysis of the throne speech. It is a shame that he will be unable to give effect to that by having members of his caucus stand up and vote the way they say they believe, but that is another matter.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police  Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Public Safety today said we do not need a public inquiry to thoroughly examine the RCMP pension scandal because his hand-picked investigator found all the answers. But the public accounts committee has heard hours of testimony regarding murky dealings over pension contracts and his report does not even look into the contracting abuse.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police  Mr. Speaker, that is a minister who is clearly afraid of the truth. The government's hand-picked ad hoc investigator's report did not finish the job and has not told Canadians the whole story. The investigator did not even provide any evidence to back up his personal conclusions.

Service Canada  Mr. Speaker, my constituency office in Hamilton Centre has been inundated with complaints about changes at Service Canada. In the past my senior and disabled constituents could receive expert help from staff who specialize in CPP, OAS or GIS. Now Conservative changes mean people can only receive general information about these critical and complex programs.

Canada Transportation Act  Mr. Speaker, I congratulate the member on an excellent speech. He touched on a number of issues that are of critical importance. What I find interesting, and this will culminate in a question, and what angers me to no end, is this. When we get to this order of government, we tend to get a little further away from the people.

Infrastructure  Mr. Speaker, that answer was as much a slap in the face as the minister's speech on the weekend. Not only did the minister refuse to offer some funding for transit but the minister arrogantly decreed to mayors and councillors that transferring a share of the gas tax to municipalities for seven years is the same as permanent funding.

Infrastructure  Mr. Speaker, the infrastructure minister spoke to more than 2,000 municipal leaders at the Federation of Canadian Municipalities conference on Saturday. He should not have bothered, after all, he had nothing to tell them. The minister's big announcement on public transit was that he planned to get a plan and in the same breath said that there would not be one new cent to support it.

Points of Order  Mr. Speaker, I rise to offer up the support of the NDP caucus to the point of order of the House leader of the official opposition in that we believe it should be ruled out of order. I will not go into the clauses and references. That has been done quite adequately. However, I would add the arguments that the NDP have in support of the point being made.

Manufacturing Industry  Mr. Speaker, last week, in my hometown of Hamilton, workers rallied to protest the Conservatives' lack of action over our disappearing jobs and that list is still growing. Stelco's hot strip mill closed on May 10, taking 350 jobs with it. Hamilton Specialty Bar will shut down too, sending another 360 skilled workers to the unemployment line.

Canada Evidence Act  Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to join in the debate. I want to thank the hon. member for Marc-Aurèle-Fortin for bringing this forward. At the end of the day it would be nice to see unanimous support for this bill. Quite frankly, this should be seen as complex, yes, but controversial, no.

Canada Evidence Act  Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for introducing this important bill. It is certainly high time for it. I will speak directly to the bill later, but my first question is with regard to the blogosphere. The hon. member mentioned the not occasional bloggers and then referred to proposed subsection 39.1(1) that provides the definition of “journalist”, stating: “journalist” means a person who contributes regularly and directly to the gathering, writing, production or dissemination....

Royal Canadian Mounted Police  Mr. Speaker, at last week's public accounts hearing into the RCMP pension scandal, I asked the acting commissioner how any investigator deprived of the power to subpoena witnesses could give a fulsome report if they had not been able to meet with both sides of any issue. The commissioner said, “it would be difficult to assure yourself you had the whole case, if people didn't cooperate”.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police  Mr. Speaker, we cannot get to the truth if we cannot get to the facts. This is about the minister and his refusal to call a public inquiry that is absolutely necessary. Every day that is wasted by this backroom investigation, the RCMP's reputation drips away, Canadians' faith in their national police service drips away and we are still no closer to the truth.

RCMP Pension Fund  Mr. Speaker, recent testimony in the RCMP pension scandal has included contradictory allegations of theft and harassment, whistleblowers being reassigned, and cover-ups on top of cover-ups. The whistleblowers range from staff sergeants to a chief superintendent, all veteran police officers.