Economic Action Plan 2013 Act No. 2  Mr. Speaker, it is indeed a pleasure to rise today to speak on behalf of my constituents from Selkirk—Interlake about how important the building Canada fund is to our municipalities and about the importance of our economic action plan to our farmers, commercial fishers, and small

International Trade  Mr. Speaker, through the Canada-Europe trade agreement, our government is creating new and historic opportunities in Europe for our agricultural producers. Almost 94% of EU agricultural tariff lines will be duty-free when the Canada-Europe trade agreement comes into force. Our g

National Defence  Mr. Speaker, we are very concerned about everyone who will lose their jobs. With the changes that are happening with the roll-down of operations in Afghanistan, we have gone through a renewal, looking at all our strategic assets and all our operations. We want to make sure that

Iraq  Mr. Speaker, the Mujahedin-e Khalq , or MeK, are Iranian refugees living in exile in Iraq. MeK refugees have suffered serious hardships living in camps Ashraf and Liberty, including being targeted by mortar and rocket attacks. On September 1, the last remaining residents of Camp

Tackling Contraband Tobacco Act  Mr. Speaker, we would be able to do this within existing resources, and we would make sure we were standing up a 50-member RCMP unit that would go out and target where the high levels of contraband are. They would be able to do this within existing divisions across the country. T

Tackling Contraband Tobacco Act  Mr. Speaker, we just actually renewed the federal tobacco strategy here in 2012, and we are going to continue to work on tobacco control. This is aimed to preserve the gains we have made over the past 10 years and to continue the downward trend of smoking prevalence. As the memb

Tackling Contraband Tobacco Act  Mr. Speaker, the bill does provide for co-operation between Attorneys General across this country as we have seen in other pieces of legislation. The federal Attorney General and provincial Attorneys General would be coordinating any problems they may see in increases in imprison

Tackling Contraband Tobacco Act  Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise to speak in favour of Bill S-16, an act to amend the Criminal Code (trafficking in contraband tobacco). The bill proposes amendments to the Criminal Code to create a new offence of trafficking in contraband tobacco and provide minimum penalties

Robert Cottingham  Mr. Speaker, it is with a heavy heart that I pay tribute to Robert Cottingham, whose funeral service is this afternoon. Bob Cottingham epitomizes what makes a great Canadian. He bravely fought for his country and dedicated himself to building a better nation through community ser

Privilege  Mr. Speaker, I rise today to respond to Wednesday's question of privilege from the hon. member for Avalon. The hon. member argues that subsection 463(2) of the Canada Elections Act should apply to me as a consequence of a request made under subsection 457(2) of the act. As the

Justice  Mr. Speaker, the previous Liberal government instituted a justice system that put a greater emphasis on the rights of criminals than on the rights of victims. Our government promised to change that. To further stand up for victims, I introduced Bill C-478, the respecting familie

Respecting Families of Murdered and Brutalized Persons Act  Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to reply to the comments that have been made in the House over the last two hours of debate. I want to thank those members who have spoken out in favour of my bill and the importance of it and how it stands up for victims and the re-victi

Respecting Families of Murdered and Brutalized Persons Act  Mr. Speaker, I know it is rare to have filibusters take place in private members' business. It is important that we respect the rules of the House, which means the debate has to be relevant to what is taking place. None of the comments that have been made in the last minute and a

Safer Witnesses Act  Mr. Speaker, I am sure the committee and the government considered all these things when designing the bill, when we had testimony. There were a number of great testimonies at committee. One of the quotes that is quite relevant is from the British Columbia assistant deputy minist

Safer Witnesses Act  Mr. Speaker, the committee heard from a number of different witnesses, including the RCMP. The assistant commissioner from the RCMP in charge of federal and international operations said, “As a result of the designation regime” and the way the program is going to work “the RCMP w