Citizen Engagement  Madam Chair, I would like to talk a bit about the abolition of the Senate first before directly answering the member's question. Polls show that the abolition of the Senate is a popular option. It is not necessarily the majority option, but it has strong support in Canada. That

Citizen Engagement  Two senators for each state. There was no change in that respect. We will remember the talk about the triple E senate being equally effective. While it was a double E senate, it was equal and effective. There were very high level debates in the senate. The office of senator was

Citizen Engagement  Mr. Chair, I am delighted to rise tonight to speak on the subject of citizen engagement. I will start my comments by making the simple premise that the more democratic the system is, the more citizens will participate. As the critic for democratic reform for the official opposit

Civil Marriage Act  Mr. Speaker, if the flood of petitions and letters to my office over the past six months is any indication, Bill C-38, the same sex marriage bill, is by far the most important bill that will be dealt with by the 38th Parliament. I have received about five times as much mail on t

Points of Order  Mr. Speaker, this arises from members' statements. I am seeking unanimous consent of the House in this matter. I brought up the issue of the dangerous state of repair of a bridge in Napanee and mentioned that the Minister of Transport had not responded to a portfolio of photograp

Infrastructure  Madam Speaker, three months ago concerned citizens sent the Minister of Transport a portfolio with over 60 photographs documenting the deterioration of the 140-year-old stone and concrete CN railway bridge in downtown Napanee. Also included were resolutions of the town and county

Petitions  Mr. Speaker, I have nine petitions all on the same subject and which were circulated among churches in my constituency, for example, the Church of The Annunciation in Enterprise, the Evangel Temple in Napanee, and other churches in Smiths Falls, Carleton Place and Lanark Highland

Points of Order  Mr. Speaker, during question period the hon. Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Justice seemed not to believe the truth of my statement that I had Beryl Wajsman's business card stating that he was special counsel to the Minister of Justice in the minister's capacity as a

Liberal Party of Canada  Mr. Speaker, today Mr. Wajsman issued a press release in which he states that he personally had been trying to set right a longstanding injustice within the Liberal Party. Mr. Wajsman said in his press release, “I faced resistance within the Liberal Party in Quebec to giving cult

Liberal Party of Canada  Mr. Speaker, yesterday in question period the Minister of Justice stated regarding Beryl Wajsman, “He is not a special counsel to the Minister of Justice”. I have with me a photocopy of Mr. Wajsman's business card and it says in English on one side and French on the other, “Speci

Zimbabwe  Mr. Speaker, leading up to the recent rigged elections, Zimbabwe was the international community's cause du jour. Now that the elections are over, Robert Mugabe has manufactured himself an increased majority and the international community is doing what the international communit

Points of Order  You're a bigot, Joe.

Petitions  Mr. Speaker, the petition I present today is one of many that I have received on the subject of marriage. The petitioners draw to the attention of the House the fact that marriage is the best foundation for families and the raising of children, that the definition of marriage as

Question No. 69  With regard to the motion adopted unanimously by the House of Commons on October 24, 2002, which requested that the Prime Minister raise with President Jiang Zemin of China the issue of the imprisonment in China of 13 Falun Gong practitioners who have close family ties to Canada,

Food and Drugs Act  For shame. You should hang your head in shame.