Petitions  Mr. Speaker, I rise today to present a petition on behalf of a number of petitioners from the province of Ontario. The petitioners ask Parliament to reopen the issue of marriage and to repeal or amend the Marriage for Civil Purposes Act in order to promote and defend marriage as the lawful union of one man and one woman to the exclusion of all others.

Justice  Mr. Speaker, that is an excellent question from the member for Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke. I can also say that constituents not only in her riding but in ridings across Canada have those concerns. I can tell the House today that CBSA has deemed this individual a risk and has detained him for removal.

Witness Protection Program Act  Mr. Speaker, I think if you seek it you would find unanimous consent to see the clock as 2:30 p.m.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police  Mr. Speaker, I think the hon. member is referring to a report that came out recently. RCMP officers and foreign agencies meet regularly. That is part of international policing, and it does occur.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police  Mr. Speaker, there have been changes. There are 23 recommendations in Mr. Justice O'Connor's report and those are being followed up. There are regular meetings between members of the RCMP and foreign police agencies taking care of international security issues.

House debate  Mr. Speaker, this Government of Canada is committed to effective firearms control that targets criminals while maintaining the highest standards of public safety. There is no reliable evidence indicating that registration has reduced crime committed with long guns. According to the Auditor General, data in the firearms registry is often unreliable.

House debate  Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the hon. member for Don Valley East for giving me the opportunity to rise in the House today and answer her questions. The question put forward concerns the firearms program. I would like to give her and Canadians some statistics from the Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, which are quite interesting.

Maher Arar  Mr. Speaker, nothing could be further from the truth. This government has done things already and it continues to do things. This government has instructed counsel to contact Mr. Arar's lawyer to begin negotiations and that contact has been made.

DNA Identification Act  Mr. Speaker, I compliment the member for Burlington for bringing forward this private member's bill. I suspect in the last hour that he has learned a great deal about private member's bills, what other people think and how they can pick them apart. I am sure he will see his way through to continue to push this forward.

Emergency Management Act  Mr. Speaker, I cannot say that I could follow all of my friend's original talk on this bill, but I do know that he has some concerns about the federal government getting into provincial concerns. I for one believe that there are a lot of safety provisions here. As much as he has always strongly supported his own province and its autonomy, I suspect that if there were a natural disaster in the province of Quebec, he would also want the federal government to be there in many ways.

Emergency Management Act  Mr. Speaker, if I understood my colleague correctly, he referred to clause 5 and asked about coordinating responses with our neighbours to the south in emergency situations. A few years ago we might not have contemplated that, but last year, with Hurricane Katrina, we had a coordination of response from our people to assist the American emergency responders.

Emergency Management Act  Mr. Speaker, if the member opposite looks at clause 3 of the act, it indicates that the minister is responsible for exercising leadership among government institutions and in cooperation with the provinces and other entities. Clause 6(3) of the act states, “A government institution”, which is a federal government institution: --may not respond to a provincial emergency unless the government of the province requests assistance or there is an agreement with the province that requires or permits the assistance.

Emergency Management Act  Mr. Speaker, the member asked an excellent question and has raised a couple of issues. Today we recognize that emergencies are not necessarily what we thought they were a number of years ago. We would not have contemplated 25 years ago that 14 aircraft landing in one community was an emergency, but we recognize today that is an emergency.

Emergency Management Act  Mr. Speaker, it gives me pleasure to be here today to support the bill. I have some firsthand knowledge of emergency situations, having been a young police officer when a horrific tornado struck my community some 25 years ago and without a plan it certainly left us in dire straits.

Petitions  Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise today to present a petition from a number of constituents in my riding. The petitioners request the government to take all measures necessary to immediately raise the age of consent from 14 to 16 years of age.