Fisheries and Oceans  Mr. Speaker, the minister's claim that his sweeping changes to the Fisheries Act are all about farmers' ditches smelled rotten from the start. Internal documents show his department was working to “expedite the approval of large natural resource development proposals”. Yesterday

Fisheries and Oceans  Mr. Speaker, Canadians are outraged at the Conservatives' take on fisheries and the environment. They are muzzling scientists, they have closed the west coast oil spill response centre and today the minister announced plans to gut fisheries habitat protection. It seems there is

Government Programs  Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak to the short-sighted cuts by the Conservative government to public institutions that inform social policy in Canada. We know that the Conservatives have scrapped the long form census, which provided facts and information. Now they have gone a s

Citizen's Arrest and Self-defence Act  Mr. Speaker, I want to provide a bit of background before I ask my question. On May 23, 2009, David Chen, the owner of the Lucky Moose Food Mart in Toronto, apprehended Anthony Bennett, who stole from the store. After Bennett was initially caught on security footage stealing fr

Petitions  Mr. Speaker, I rise today to present petitions on behalf of several of my constituents and people in British Columbia. The petition states that larger businesses, both foreign and domestic, use smaller and more innovative Canadian businesses and entrepreneurs as a form of free m

Fisheries and Oceans  Mr. Speaker, this week our motion in support of the owner-operator and fleet separation policies was killed by the Conservatives on the fisheries and oceans standing committee. It is clear they do not support independent fishermen and east coast communities. Let us hear from the

Canada-Panama Economic Growth and Prosperity Act  Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my hon. colleague for her contribution to this debate. She outlined some of the principles that are fundamental to what we would call a fair trade agreement. She spoke of the economic piece, of course, but she also mentioned that the social and enviro

Fisheries and Oceans  Mr. Speaker, we have been asking the minister to confirm or deny that he is planning to gut the Fisheries Act, but he will not give a straight answer. Last week, two former Progressive Conservative fisheries ministers called the proposed changes foolish. One called the governmen

Fisheries and Oceans  Mr. Speaker, a leaked document has revealed a new Conservative plan to attack the Fisheries Act. It shines light on the government's plan to gut important environmental protection. Eliminating habitat protection will set us back decades, making it easier to ram through big indus

Fisheries and Oceans  Mr. Speaker, yes he is stuck. It appears the Conservatives are planning to bury sweeping changes to the Fisheries Act in the upcoming budget. The minister uses the word “modernize” but removing habitat protection from the Fisheries Act would set Canada back decades. The minis

Purple Day Act  Mr. Speaker, I rise today to talk about epilepsy and to speak in support of Bill C-278. I also want to acknowledge the good work of my colleague, the member for Sudbury, in raising awareness about epilepsy. Indeed, it is an honour for me to speak in the House today on this impor

Fisheries and Oceans  Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans has been unacceptably silent on fleet separation. The Conservatives will not say publicly what they are planning to do. However, what we do know is that for years this policy has preserved jobs for independent fishers. It is becom

Fisheries and Oceans  Mr. Speaker, east coast fishers are worried. The government is about to eliminate the long-standing fleet separation policy. It is talking about handing over the fragile inshore fishery to big corporate interests. Coastal communities depend on the inshore fishery, yet the govern

The Environment  Mr. Speaker, against the will of British Columbians, the Conservatives continue to push their Enbridge pipeline project. Their latest move was to accept a report paid for by Enbridge which says--surprise, surprise--there are no tanker traffic safety issues. We are talking about

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, earlier the parliamentary secretary mentioned that the use of fear-mongering terms was not helpful in this debate, but I cannot help but make reference to the public safety minister's comments that people can either stand with the government or with the child pornogr