Drug-Free Prisons Act  Mr. Speaker, my colleague's question reminds me of two things I need to say. One is that nothing in our remarks about family visits and the addiction problem was meant to imply that families are the main source of drugs in prison. They are not. The second is the question of manda

Drug-Free Prisons Act  Mr. Speaker, I believe the rules of the House are clear with respect to not casting aspersions on whether other members are being truthful in their presentations to the House, and I would ask the parliamentary secretary to withdraw those remarks.

Drug-Free Prisons Act  Mr. Speaker, with respect, I disagree with the hon. member on double-bunking. If she looked at any of the independent evidence, not the government's own evaluations of itself on double-bunking but those from experts in corrections, it will show that double-bunking has a negative

Drug-Free Prisons Act  Mr. Speaker, I want to start by saying that we are supporting this bill at third reading because of its narrowness. That is not something people would recognize from looking at the title. They would think this bill had sweeping and miraculous provisions allowing Correctional Se

Drug-Free Prisons Act  Mr. Speaker, I thank the minister for his remarks. It is true that the NDP has supported the bill. I want to ask the minister if he will admit that the only thing the bill would really do is put into law the practices of the Parole Board of removing parole from those who fail d

Public Safety  Mr. Speaker, the word “lawful” is a new insertion there, which seems to say that most dissent is something other than lawful. Today the government failed to give us a single example of the new activities CSIS would be allowed to engage in to disrupt under Bill C-51. The minister

Public Safety  Mr. Speaker, Canadians are right to be concerned that the Conservatives are going too far with this bill. Yesterday the minister failed to explain how the bill would impact legitimate dissent, and so today let us talk about another section. Bill C-51 proposes a new criminal offe

Public Safety  Mr. Speaker, experts have raised serious concerns about the impacts that Bill C-51 could have on legitimate dissent and peaceful protests. The bill creates a new definition for activity that undermines the sovereignty, security, or territorial integrity of Canada. This includes t

Public Safety  Mr. Speaker, many Canadians are concerned that Bill C-51 would go too far by lumping together legal dissent with terrorist activity. When it comes to critical anti-terrorism outreach at home, the Conservatives are still missing in action. The only counter-radicalization program t

Public Safety  Mr. Speaker, many Canadians are raising serious questions about the Conservatives' new anti-terrorism legislation. Everyone in this place agrees that terrorism is a real threat and must be confronted head on, so people are wondering why the Conservatives are dismissing advice fro

Public Safety  Mr. Speaker, the current government does not seem to get the message. More powers for CSIS means a need for better oversight. In case the minister missed it, let me quote the latest annual report from the Security Intelligence Review Committee. This report said that “...it seems

National Defence  Mr. Speaker, emails released to the Ottawa Citizen today show that on the day of the shooting on Parliament Hill in October, Canadian military leaders were saying that the event presented a “strategic opportunity” to affirm Canada's participation in the war in Iraq. Subsequently

Protection of Canada from Terrorists Act  Mr. Speaker, I am a bit astounded by this debate. First we have the Liberals endorsing the concept of time allocation, and now we have the minister telling us not to worry, that it can be debated in the Senate. When this bill was introduced, time allocation was used at second re

Public Safety  Mr. Speaker, the U.S. Senate report on the CIA's so-called enhanced interrogation techniques is very clear: torture is not only morally wrong, it does not work. Information obtained through torture is unreliable. However, despite this, the Conservatives have directed Canadian s

Petitions  Mr. Speaker, I rise today to present a petition containing dozens of signatures from the Greater Victoria area, the majority of them from my riding, forwarded to me by the very engaged citizens of Fair Vote Canada. The petition notes the unfairness of our winner-take-all system,