Petitions  Mr. Speaker, it is with pleasure that I bring to the House a petition from Manitobans concerned the Canadian Wheat Board. As it was pointed out clearly yesterday, tens of thousands of prairie wheat farmers have sent a very strong message to the Conservative government that they

Preventing Human Smugglers from Abusing Canada's Immigration System Act  Mr. Speaker, that is why I make the reference to try to personalize this. If people understand and have an appreciation of why we have refugees coming to Canada on an annual basis or if they talk to people who came to Canada under that classification, whether it was 1 year or 30

Preventing Human Smugglers from Abusing Canada's Immigration System Act  Mr. Speaker, I will address the member's latter comments first. I do not question that many members in the Conservative caucus have a caring heart and attitude toward refugees. That is why I said one should not make the assumption that when a minister introduces a bill that it i

Preventing Human Smugglers from Abusing Canada's Immigration System Act  Mr. Speaker, it is very important that we recognize that international law guarantees that people who fear persecution have the right to seek asylum in another country. That is in international law. I do not think anything should change on that. To talk about jumping the queue,

Preventing Human Smugglers from Abusing Canada's Immigration System Act  Mr. Speaker, I believe when the Minister of Immigration gave indication as to the primary reason for the bill, it was all about smugglers and the profiteers. In trying to address the legislation, my emphasis was more so on the refugees and the way in which the legislation would h

Preventing Human Smugglers from Abusing Canada's Immigration System Act  Mr. Speaker, I have a number of thoughts to share with members regarding this particular bill. I will give a bit of an overview. We look at Canada as a great country that has all sorts of hope and opportunity and that is fairly well established around the world. Today, we have

Preventing Human Smugglers from Abusing Canada's Immigration System Act  Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. The Minister of Immigration provided his comments on this particular bill and I do have questions that I want to pose to him. The tradition in the chamber has been to allow opposition members to question a minister on legislation right aft

Privilege  Mr. Speaker, I will be brief and stick to the principle of process, about which I believe all of us need to be concerned. My colleague made reference to citations through Speaker Fraser and talked about how important it was that we respect the institution that we belong to and t

The Economy  Mr. Speaker, I am from the prairies. The prairie grain farmers in Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Alberta have indeed spoken. They want to retain the Canadian Wheat Board. I appeal to the Prime Minister, who claims to be an MP from the prairies. Why will he not stand up for the ppra

Preventing Human Smugglers from Abusing Canada's Immigration System Act  Mr. Speaker, the Conservative member recognized that immigrants do contribute to the economy. I want to kind of twist that comment around to this particular bill. Would the hon. member agree with me that the longer legitimate refugees are held in settlements the longer they are

Preventing Human Smugglers from Abusing Canada's Immigration System Act  Mr. Speaker, if I were to canvass my constituents and Canadians today, I am sure they would be somewhat surprised that here we are on the first day of the session talking about the number one priority bill for this particular Parliament when the number one issue for Canadians is

Restoring Mail Delivery for Canadians Act  Mr. Speaker, from the onset of the debate, the leader of the Liberal Party talked about the importance of amending this legislation. This is an issue of critical importance, and we look to the government to demonstrate goodwill in terms of the whole collective bargaining process

Restoring Mail Delivery for Canadians Act  Mr. Speaker, one of the most significant flaws in the back to work legislation is the fact that the government is taking the position that the postal workers are not worth the amount of money previously agreed with the Canada Post Corporation. In fact, a salary has been set withi

Restoring Mail Delivery for Canadians Act  Mr. Speaker, I know there are many people watching this debate with curiosity. We are looking for ideas. I understand there was some movement, in that the New Democratic caucus has provided some potential amendments to the government caucus. I think there seems to be an appetite

Restoring Mail Delivery for Canadians Act  Mr. Speaker, prior to my question, I just want to join with the member for Winnipeg South in recognizing the Winnipeg Jets as the formal name of our NHL hockey franchise, something that many Manitobans wanted to see. The question I have for the member is in regard to whether or