Canadian Consular Officers  Mr. Speaker, I am usually sworn to silence by privacy and diplomatic confidentiality, however today I want to talk about the success of our team. I want to thank the army of consular officers in Canada and abroad. They know how important their job is, and they work around the cl

Foreign Affairs  Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his work on this file. We are relieved that Dr. Hoodfar has been released from jail and soon will be reunited with her family, friends, students, and colleagues. Our government has been engaged at the highest level in Dr. Hoodfar's case, an

Foreign Affairs  Mr. Speaker, this gives me a great opportunity to welcome Kevin Garratt and his family back to Canada. As the Minister of National Defence said earlier, we are engaged with China in a host of discussions on a variety of topics. We want to remind Canadians that we have high stand

Human Rights  Madam Speaker, I am not saying that we do not publicly record our interests in promoting human rights and our disagreement with the treatment of minorities in particular in other countries around the world. As I said in my opening remarks, we recognize the deplorable way minorit

Human Rights  Madam Speaker, I want to thank my colleague for his ongoing efforts in promoting human rights and for pushing the government to action. It is really important that we work together to promote human rights, no matter what party we belong to. Our government agrees with everybody w

Robert Hall  Mr. Speaker, I rise in the House with a heavy heart. As confirmed by the Prime Minister, Robert Hall, a Canadian hostage in the Philippines, was killed by his captors. President Aquino spoke with the Prime Minister and expressed his condolences to all Canadians. Our thoughts an

Democratic Reform  Mr. Speaker, the hon. member says she does not trust politicians. I wonder if she put that as a slogan in her last campaign when she asked her constituents to vote for her. We take our responsibility as a solemn and serious responsibility. Canadians elected us to do some serious

Democratic Reform  Mr. Speaker, I am glad the member's constituents trust her to do the serious work on their behalf. That is what Canadians sent us here to do. We are working together. We are extending a hand to opposition members to work together with us on striking a study and consulting with

Democratic Reform  Mr. Speaker, members of the House have been democratically elected. The special committee consists of members of the House who have been democratically elected by their constituents. We are taking this job seriously. We are calling on our colleagues on all sides of the House to

Democratic Reform  Mr. Speaker, let us not prematurely assume what the outcome of the committee work is going to be. Let us work together. Our government has extended a hand to every party in the House to work together to consult with Canadians through various means, through town halls, social medi

Democratic Reform  Mr. Speaker, the opposition members have been asking us to change the makeup of the committee. We listened to their concerns. We extended a hand. We changed the structure of the committee. We are asking for all members of the House to work together with us on making sure that w

Democratic Reform  Mr. Speaker, the Liberal Party was not the only party that ran on electoral reform, so perhaps the hon. member could redo his math. Let me stress what I just said earlier. We are looking forward to the special committee work. We will be consulting with experts. We will be consul

Electoral Reform  Mr. Speaker, we take seriously our job as parliamentarians and the noble responsibility that Canadians have bestowed upon us. Therefore, our government is looking forward to the work of the special committee to conduct a study on electoral reforms, to reach out to Canadians, to r

Consular Affairs  Mr. Speaker, I do want to thank the hon. member for raising this issue. This is a very important file. We are very concerned about the well-being of Dr. Hoodfar. Given the realities on the ground, we are raising this issue with our like-minded partners. Because of privacy concern

Consular Affairs  Mr. Speaker, the Government of Canada is very concerned about the detention of Dr. Hoodfar in Iran. We remain in close contact with her family. In fact, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and I have met with her family. Our consular officials are in constant contact with her family