Citizenship and Immigration  Mr. Speaker, whenever she is asked about her selective use of ministerial permits, the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration spouts sanctimonious nonsense about her passion for human rights. Her words are belied by the fact that she is blocking genuine humanitarian cases from e

Citizenship and Immigration  Mr. Speaker, on April 21 I hand delivered a letter to the minister requesting that she intervene personally in this case. The minister wrote back that she would not issue a ministerial permit, but that Mingli Lin could apply for refugee status if he first performed the impossible

Citizenship and Immigration  Mr. Speaker, Mingli Lin, a former prisoner of conscience, continues to languish in China even though this House voted unanimously to permit him to rejoin his family here in Canada. In October 2002 the Commons voted to permit the entry to this country of 13 Falun Gong practitione

Canadian Bill of Rights  moved for leave to introduce Bill C-279, an act to amend the Canadian Bill of Rights (protection for property rights). Mr. Speaker, this is an amendment to the Canadian Bill of Rights of 1960, the so-called Diefenbaker bill of rights, which, although it has been supplemented by

Senator Jean-Robert Gauthier  Mr. Speaker, I would also like to pay tribute to Senator Jean-Robert Gauthier, who served both Houses of Parliament for 32 years. Mr. Gauthier is leaving the Senate because of a mandatory retirement provision in our Constitution. The fact that he is 75 prevents him from continui

Points of Order  Mr. Speaker, on the same point of order, I am of course newly representing the new riding of Lanark—Frontenac—Lennox and Addington. I represented Lanark—Carleton in the last Parliament. However I would encourage the minister to spend less time in Florida in order that he can wat

Economic Development  Mr. Speaker, I was happy to precipitate that announcement by raising a question in the House. Nothing happened for five months. I contacted the ministry saying that nothing had happened and an hour later it came up with an announcement. That is what goes on with this ministry. L

Economic Development  Mr. Speaker, the Liberals just cannot resist turning regional development programs into vote buying schemes. In eastern Ontario the pattern is: first, they ignore the region where Liberal seats are safe; second, they announce millions in funding the day prior to an election when

Economic Development  Mr. Speaker, the day before the election call, eastern Ontario Liberal MPs announced that our region's CFDCs would receive $10 million. Then the Liberals lost the seats. Five months went by with no hint of the funds, until my office called the department this morning at 9 a.m. t

Agriculture  Mr. Chair, I want to follow up on something that the hon. parliamentary secretary raises and that is the exports of Canadian beef product to the United States. He mentions that export levels are up to levels reasonably close to where they were prior to the shutting of the border.

Agriculture  Another outrage for the Conservative benches. When will it stop?

Agriculture  No, Mr. Chair.

Agriculture  Mr. Chair, this is my first opportunity to address the House of Commons as the member for the new constituency of Lanark—Frontenac—Lennox and Addington. On some other occasion, I will take the opportunity to acquaint the House with the many charms of this beautiful and historic d

Public Service  Mr. Speaker, Canadians who do not live near Ottawa are not even allowed to apply for half the jobs posted on the government's employment website, www.jobs.gc.ca. Most postings exclude the majority of Canadians based upon geography using postal codes as the determining factor. T

Public Service  Mr. Speaker, this issue was first raised in the House on February 15, 2001. Virtually every private employer in the country has electronic systems for sifting through electronically received resumés in order to look for key words and reduce the supply of excess resumés down to re