National Defence  Mr. Speaker, Lieutenant-Colonel McCrae has given a great deal to Canada and the world. Canadians are very proud of him. Members should know that the Minister of Canadian Heritage and her officials have been in touch with the family of Lieutenant-Colonel McCrae who are now looking to ensure themselves that those medals are authentic.

Employment  Go to your seat.

Multiculturalism  Mr. Speaker, that is precisely why the multiculturalism program exists. We have just set up the Canadian Race Relations Foundation so that we can deal with the issue of racism across the country. We also have programs in our health institutions, municipalities, police forces and schools to be able to develop grassroots programs to assist communities in dealing with racism and tolerance.

Tamil Eelam Society  Mr. Speaker, with regard to the funding of any group, we always have clear criteria. We evaluate and we ensure always that the funds spent are spent for the things they were in fact asked for.

Tamil Eelam Society  Mr. Speaker, any organization as I said before that is funded by multiculturalism programs is insured. We evaluate them to ensure the money is spent on the programs that they specifically are funded for and nothing else.

Italian Canadian Community  Mr. Speaker, the Liberal Party's position on this issue is quite clear. My predecessor, the hon. member for Mount Royal, made a statement in the House in 1994 which said very clearly that while things had happened in the past history of the country, that if history could be repeated, they would never happen again.

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation  Mr. Speaker, the minister announced recently that there will be stable funding for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. This is an opportunity for the CBC to start looking at how it fulfils its mandate, to look at how it does things more effectively and efficiently.

Canadian Culture  Mr. Speaker, the so-called propaganda the hon. member talks about has done a great deal to assist Canadians. Let me point out some of things the CIO has done. It has set up programs to promote exchanges in sharing among Canadians, such as the recently organized Canada student exchange project.

Canada Marine Act  A Reform calculation.

Employment  Mr. Speaker, I find it very interesting that hon. members across only seem to ask questions about women's equality and women's economic autonomy on International Women's Day. What happens to the rest of the year? We spent a whole year as a government dealing with issues of women's economic autonomy in terms of training, literacy and looking at women's transfer payments from their custodial parents for their children, sustainable training for women, bringing women into the real world where construction jobs are open to them.

Status Of Women  Mr. Speaker, again the hon. member does not understand the full and holistic component of what is done for women's jobs. Many women cannot have sustainable full time jobs because they have children, a fact which statistics support. We are looking at how to assist women with children.

Status Of Women  Mr. Speaker, I will reiterate. In the new employment insurance bill over 700,000 women, including 495,000 women who pay EI premiums today, will not have to pay EI premiums. That is a major breakthrough for women. Second, when we talk about cuts not benefiting women, the child benefit that has been put in place by the government will make a difference to women.

Status Of Women  Mr. Speaker, I would draw the attention of the hon. member to some of the very important initiatives that the government has taken since it came into power. In its strengthening of employment equity it has targeted women as a key group for employment equity strategy. Second, when we talk about the infrastructure program, I think the hon. member should know that some of our youth strategies are aimed at helping young women into non-traditional jobs like construction work, which will be part of the infrastructure program.

Status Of Women  Mr. Speaker, I think the issue that my hon. colleague is talking about has to do with transfer payment cuts. I would like to draw the hon. member's attention to some comments made by Lucien Bouchard when he made it clear that he knows that restraints involve tough choices. He said in the National Assembly on March 25, 1996: "For those who say not in my back yard I reply that there would be something in everyone's back yard".

Status Of Women  Mr. Speaker, that question is exactly why this government has embarked on certain initiatives to deal with economic autonomy of women. It is precisely why we have started to build a strong infrastructure that will assist women to get sustainable jobs in today's economy and also in the information, technology and science economy of the 21st century.