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Index of Subjects
Friends, Following is a list of recently updated Hansard files with short blurbs on what is new in each title. Please let me know if any of these are of interest to you. Also, please let others know if you think this service may be of interest to them. Lastly, if you asked me for materials in the last ten days please repeat your request because I accidentally deleted my backlog of mail last night. Thanks very much, Michael Posluns. * * * Nisga’a Treaty Reform MPs now charge that the Nisga’a treaty cedes to the Nisga’a powers that the Liberal Government has been unwillilng to cede to Quebec. Charles Caccia’s Endangeredc Species Act. Second reading debate on a private Member’s bill spponsored by the Chair of the Commons Committee on the Environment and dedicated environmentalist. Leonard Peltier. Anne McLellan, the Minister of Justice told the Commons Committee on Justice that Peltier was extradited on testimony other than the fraudulent affidavit of Myrtle Poor Bear. Jack Ramsay (Crowfoot, Ref.) asks the Minister to identify the other testimony. RCMP. Reform MPs continue to claim that cutbacks are preventing the RCMP from doing its job while the Government boasts that it has given the RCMP an additional $115 million. Senate Special Committee on Secutiy & Intelligence Report on Terrorism. This report offers no evidence in support of its claim that cyber-terrorism needs to be taken not as a metaphor but as a form of violence against people akin to bombing. The seven Senators say that Canada needs to upgrade its intelligence capability to keep pace with the U.S. The glossary and bibliography are valuable introductions to the arcane literature of the Security & Intelligence community. The report also provides important descriptions of the Canadian intelligence establishment and the roles of the Privy Council Office and the Solicitor General’s Office. Kosovo & NATO Intervention. The debate continues through Question Period interjections largely centred on the need to emphasize diplomacy as an alternative to bombing by Members who supported the Government when it first sent Canadian troops to particpate in the NATO intervention. Nisga’a Treaty. The Reform attacks on the treaty and support for the B.C. Liberal Party position that the treaty represents a constitutional amendment may cause progressive critics of the treaty to reconsider. Sexual Awareness Month. Mrs. Michelle Dockrill (NDP, Bras d’Or-Cape Breton) announced that May is Sexual Awareness Month. Eric Lowther (Calgary Centre, Ref.) introduced a private Member’s bill, C-504, raising the age of consent for sexual acts from 14 to 16. Guy St-Julien (Abititi-Baise-James-Nunavik, Lib.) continues to introduce petitions from Inuit villages in Nunavik for relief from “housing conditions [which are] extremely distressing.” National Housing Act, Bill to amend, Commons second reading on this bill which largely recasts fedral programs for social housing in Canada is now complete. Grandparents’ Rights. A compendium of petitions asking the government to implement legislation allowing grandparents’ access to children in situations of marriage breakdown. Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Seventh Committee Report. A provisional report on the pressing problems noted by the committee when it travelled to northern Quebec and to Nunavut in May, 1998 recommends that the government act quickly to meet the basic needs of the Cees and Inuit in the Ungava peninsula with respect to housing and to Nav Canada infrastructures. Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans Seventh Report entitled “The Nunavut Report”. Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans Eighth Report entitled “The Prince Edward Island Report”. Health Care, Members’ Statements and Question Period exchanges on Health Care from February, 1998. RCMP funding, Members’ Statements and Question Period exchanges on funding of the RCMP including closing of training depot and the ability of detachments to maintain full complements of officers. Homelessness. Members’ Statements and Question Period exchanges on homelessness. Employment and Human Resources Development, Statements and Question Period exchanges since May 2, 1999 in both Houses. Kosovo and NATO Intervention. Exchanges in both Houses of Parliament for any period from February, 1999. This topic now runs to 695 pages and has been divided into three files. Correctional Services. The Reform Party ‘s growing attack on conditional sentencing and its demand for cumulative rather than concurrent sentencing upon conviction. Nisga’a Treaty. Members’ Statements and Question Period exchanges on the Nisga’a treaty emphasize Reform’s hostility to the entire process and the pressures on the Liberal Government to continue in the historic policies of British Columbia. The latest attack on the Nisga’a treaty by a Reform MP is a flight of fancy which alleges that the treaty is a breach of the Crown’s trust responsibility, under Magna Carta, with the general population. Defense of Provocation. Motion 255 is a private members’ motion to establish a Commons’ committee to draft legislation removing the defense of provocation from the Criminal Code. Commons Debate 31 pp. Employment Insurance. Questioins and Statements on E.I. and related issues of social security. 78 pp. Judicial Activism. A record of ongoing attacks on the Supreme Court by Reform MPs and Sen. Anne Cools. The latest contribution to this topic was Preston Manning’s demand for parliamentary approval of Supreme Court nominees. 34 pp. Medical Use of Marijuana. BQ pushes for accessibility to marijuana for medical use while Reform demands appeal of a judicial decision permitting access. Alan Rock skips down the middle way. 31 pp. Child Custody Report. Justice Minister continues to explain why access parents should be assured access in the near future just because all parties in both Houses agree that they should. 27 pp. Kosovo and NATO Intervention. Debate in both Houses continues. Three files totally about 700 pp. Early Parole. Opposition MPs continue to allege that recent statements of the Commissioner of Corrections mean that he plans to grant early parole to half the prison population. 7 pp. Head Tax. Recent regulations require that each immigrant pay a feel of almost $1,000 in order to have her or his application for entry into Canada considered. Similar poll taxes against immigrants in the past have long been considered highly discriminatory. Some parliamentarians find a similarity between past head taxes and the current one. 1 page. -- Michael W. Posluns, The StillWaters Group, First Nations Relations & Public Policy. Please note new address: mposluns@accglobal.net Phone 416 656-8613 Fax 416 656-2715 36 Lauder Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, M6H 3E3. We offer Canadian parliamentary debates available by topics and bills.
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