National Defence  Mr. Speaker, everyone agrees we need to replace the CF-18s. However, sole-sourced procurement is costly, bad for accountability and often ends up taking even longer to deliver the equipment we need. In opposition, the Liberals complained about the Conservatives when they sole-s

National Defence  Mr. Speaker, during the campaign, the Liberals said that they would not purchase the F-35, but right after being elected, they said maybe yes, maybe no. Now it looks like they may have already decided on another fighter jet, but still without the promised open and transparent com

Public Service Labour Relations Act  Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie for his work on a day-to-day basis in the House as an effective voice for working people. His question gives me an opportunity to say again what I think has happened in Bill C-14 and again in Bill C-7. I do not k

Public Service Labour Relations Act  Mr. Speaker, earlier in a response to one of the hon. member's speeches, I trucked out what I called blue herrings, raising issues about unions and policing that really nobody shared. I have never met a rank and file police officer who is worried about being intimidated over the

Public Service Labour Relations Act  Mr. Speaker, that is probably one of the more absurd comments I have heard on the decisions. The Supreme Court did not require the House of Commons to legislate. It said that existing law, both for Bill C-14 and Bill C-7, was unconstitutional, and if the House of Commons would

Public Service Labour Relations Act  Mr. Speaker, I thank the parliamentary secretary for his question because it allows me to once again say that he is dead wrong on this. If this bill does not pass, the RCMP has the right to unionize. That is what the Supreme Court has said. Therefore, the principle is already the

Public Service Labour Relations Act  Mr. Speaker, the hon. member for Cariboo—Prince George is one of the new members whose comments and contributions I have learned to respect in the House. He raises a very good point. Having a union is not necessarily something that always increases costs. Given the context the g

Public Service Labour Relations Act  I did see him in the precinct today, Madam Speaker. He now works for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, so he is still doing very good work. The Supreme Court of Canada decision is what brought us to where we are today. It is interesting that the Supreme C

Public Service Labour Relations Act  Madam Speaker, I would like to start in a way that almost all members have when they began speaking to Bill C-7 and express my thanks to the RCMP for the work its members do every day in our communities and at the federal level in policing to keep us safe. We have one of the most

Public Service Labour Relations Act  Madam Speaker, I always find my colleague's contributions important even though I almost always disagree with him. In this case I simply do not see where the issue is coming from in terms of whether or not the RCMP wishes to form a union. When surveyed, over half of the uniforme

Public Service Labour Relations Act  Madam Speaker, my question for the member is about what I would call blue herrings, instead of red herrings, and the idea that the Supreme Court required a union. The Supreme Court decision does not require a union. It gives the RCMP members a choice of how they wish to be repres

Public Service Labour Relations Act  Madam Speaker, I have a question about what the member just said. She said she thought the RCMP should fall under the same regulations as other public servants and yet that is not what Bill C-7 would do. It would take away fundamental issues from bargaining that in any other work

Public Service Labour Relations Act  Madam Speaker, this is another example of what the Liberals have been doing lately. They are implying that if the bills they are putting forward, narrow and restrictive as they are, do not pass, there would somehow be a legal vacuum and RCMP members would lose their right to orga

Criminal Code  Mr. Speaker, I always value hearing from the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Justice. On the question of words before “reasonably foreseeable”, he has asked me to back up a couple of words, but if I do that, I want to back up to “who's natural death has become reasona

Criminal Code  Mr. Speaker, I first have to say that I am shocked that the government again is denying members, under a very reasonable proposal that would not affect the ability to meet the June 6 deadline, the opportunity to speak in this debate because like the hon. member, I have learned ve