Citizenship and Immigration  Mr. Speaker, this week we have reports of the stoning to death of two gay men in Syria. That is the reality too many LGBT refugees face around the world. When seeking asylum in Canada, LGBT refugees rightly fear disclosing their status for fear that the basis of their claim wil

Public Safety  Mr. Speaker, the report tabled by the Public Sector Integrity Commissioner today paints a troubling picture. RCMP flights took off overweight and then logs were falsified to cover it up. This report raises concerns from both a safety and an integrity perspective. What is even mo

Privacy  Mr. Speaker, the Conservative government's instinct for secrecy has reached new and absurd heights. A newly revealed memo released under an ATIP request shows that when telecom companies decided to tell the public how often they share subscriber information with the police and in

Public Safety  Mr. Speaker, in the wake of the Liberal sponsorship scandal, the Office of the Public Sector Integrity Commissioner was created to give principled whistleblowers a place to go. Conservatives promised it would stop corruption and abuse. Now, La Presse is reporting that serious a

Common Sense Firearms Licensing Act  Mr. Speaker, on the same point of order. While the member may not be breaching a specific rule here, he is breaching the spirit of debate in the House and taking a complete departure from the reality of what is going on inside the House. I heard no one sneer at hunters and fis

Common Sense Firearms Licensing Act  Mr. Speaker, at the beginning, I was pleased to see the minister staying for the debate, but I wonder if the member for Malpeque thinks like I do that perhaps his extreme agitation is because of the shaky ground he is standing on with regard to this bill. We heard the minister,

Common Sense Firearms Licensing Act  Mr. Speaker, as I said in my speech, I am concerned that there was not a broader range of people consulted about the impacts of the bill—in particular, in-depth consultations with the law enforcement community—on the very questions he raising. However, there are also many groups

Common Sense Firearms Licensing Act  Mr. Speaker, I have two points. I am a former municipal police board member, and I have done a lot of international policing work. It is very rare to come across police who believe that gun regulations are red tape. Police are very supportive of reasonable regulations. They do n

Common Sense Firearms Licensing Act  Mr. Speaker, that is exactly my point. Public safety has to be our first concern in any of the changes we are making to gun licensing and gun regulations. However, I would also like to remind the House that, when the gun registry was being eliminated, the Conservatives were sayi

Common Sense Firearms Licensing Act  Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the minister's reference to my family background, for once accepting that some people on this side actually have families with similar experience to those on the Conservative side. With respect to why we are changing our position on the bill, what I wou

Common Sense Firearms Licensing Act  Mr. Speaker, I have to start by saying that everybody is law-abiding until they are not, so the question does not make much sense to me. It is more rhetoric from the gun lobby. Obviously there are legitimate uses for guns. There are legitimate reasons for having guns if one is a

Common Sense Firearms Licensing Act  Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak against Bill C-42, the so-called common sense firearms licensing act. While this is not the most egregious short title assigned by the Conservatives to a bill, even in this session, the bill might better be titled “the special interest firearms

Common Sense Firearms Licensing Act  Mr. Speaker, in a few minutes we will be given the opportunity to speak on the bill, and there are of course some good things in it, but I am concerned that the minister may inadvertently be misleading the House. The minister said that the Conservatives are not changing anything

Common Sense Firearms Licensing Act  Mr. Speaker, I have to say I am always disappointed when I hear the minister adopting the rhetoric and the language of the gun lobby. It is revealing of who he talked to before introducing the bill. Even today, the only people he mentioned are those who have a direct interest in

Veterans Hiring Act  Mr. Speaker, as I touched on briefly in my speech, I do think there is a direct connection here. If those who have suffered either physical or emotional injuries as a part of their service to Canada cannot get these taken care of, they cannot really move on to that transition to