Business of Supply  Madam Speaker, my hon. colleague who gave such a wonderful speech invoked the name of Stanley Knowles and J. S. Woodsworth who pioneered the concept of security for people in their old age. We all know that the Canada pension plan in its current form does not provide that for pe

Komagata Maru  Madam Speaker, May 23 marked the 95th anniversary of one of the most shameful events in Canadian history. On that date in 1914, the Japanese ship Komagata Maru arrived in Vancouver with almost 400 passengers. Most of these people were Sikhs, and there were also Hindus and Muslims

Questions Passed as Orders for Returns  With respect to applications to sponsor family members for permanent residency made by residents of the constituency of Vancouver Kingsway: (a) what is the average processing time for applications made to sponsor family members from (i) China, (ii) the Philippines, (iii) India, (

Questions Passed as Orders for Returns  With respect to the Canada Summer Jobs program administered by Service Canada: (a) what was the amount of funding allocated to each federal riding (i) for 2009, (ii) for 2008, (iii) for 2007; and (b) what are the criteria used to determine the funding amount for each riding?

Questions Passed as Orders for Returns  With respect to applications to sponsor family members for visitor visas made by residents of the constituency of Vancouver Kingsway: (a) what is the average processing time for applications made to sponsor family members from (i) China, (ii) the Philippines, (iii) India, (iv) al

Questions Passed as Orders for Returns  With respect to Employment Insurance claims made by residents of the constituency of Vancouver Kingsway: (a) what is the number of claims that have been made since January 2008, (i) broken down by month, (ii) in total; (b) what is the percentage of claims that have been approved

Canada-Colombia Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act  Mr. Speaker, I would like to congratulate my colleague on an excellent speech and on injecting some humanity and intelligence into this debate. I was a trade unionist myself, prior to being elected to the House of Commons in October. I worked for a trade union for 16 years. Wer

Canada-Colombia Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act  Mr. Speaker, I want to echo comments I heard earlier. I believe every member in the House is a proponent for human rights and that no right-thinking person advocates violence against any person because of one's political beliefs. I would like to make that point clear. The questi

Canada-Colombia Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act  Mr. Speaker, since we are ahead of trade agreements at this point, should we make Colombia demonstrate improvement before we sign a free trade agreement with it?

Infrastructure  Mr. Speaker, in January the government promised to deliver infrastructure dollars to cities and municipalities to get our economy moving. In my riding of Vancouver Kingsway, we are counting on those federal dollars to boost business and create jobs. However, just this weekend I

Infrastructure  Actually, Mr. Speaker, those are not Vancouver. He should look at a map. The Conservative government seems to have forgotten the action in its own action plan. The government cannot get infrastructure dollars into Vancouver, but it has no problem getting money out of people's po

Petitions  Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise today to present two petitions on the same subject, signed by my constituents and other residents of Vancouver. The petitioners assert that every country has an obligation to protect the human rights of its citizens and Canada should be a stron

Employment Insurance Act  Madam Speaker, 1.6 million Canadians are unemployed. This winter that number will grow. Many will run out of EI and risk ending up on welfare, and we have a responsibility to help. New Democrats have long called for improvements to our EI system, particularly during this time of

Employment Insurance Act  Madam Speaker, what is an absolute fact is that for 13 years, through three successive majority governments, the Liberal Party did nothing to improve EI for the workers of our country. In fact, the Liberals gutted EI and they took $57 billion of workers' and employers' premiums a

Employment Insurance Act  Madam Speaker, my hon. friend talked about propaganda and misinformation. Liberals promised a national child care system. They promised a national housing program. They promised to pull out of NAFTA. Talk about propaganda and misinformation. This member has the audacity to talk