House of Commons Debates VOLUME 146 Ï NUMBER 053 Ï 1st SESSION Ï 41st PARLIAMENT OFFICIAL REPORT (HANSARD) Thursday, November 24, 2011 Speaker: The Honourable Andrew Scheer CONTENTS (Table of Contents appears at back of this issue.) 3513 HOUSE OF COMMONS Thursday, November 24, 2011 The House met at 10 a.m. encourage more research, prevention and specific help for caregivers. I know a national dementia strategy is a non-partisan issue. I urge Prayers all MPs from all parties to help make this bill the law of our land. (Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed) ROUTINE PROCEEDINGS *** Ï (1005) CANADA PENSION PLAN [English] Ms. Chris Charlton (Hamilton Mountain, NDP) moved for leave to introduce Bill C-357, An Act to amend the Canada Pension COMMITTEES OF THE HOUSE Plan (arrears of benefits). JUSTICE AND HUMAN RIGHTS She said: Madam Speaker, these last few years have been Mr. Dave MacKenzie (Oxford, CPC): Madam Speaker, I have incredibly difficult for seniors. They have worked hard all their lives the honour to present, in both official languages, the second report of and played by the rules. However, now their retirement savings are the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights in relation to threatened through no fault of their own by downturns in the Bill C-10, An Act to enact the Justice for Victims of Terrorism Act economy and employers who are trying to avoid their pension and to amend the State Immunity Act, the Criminal Code, the obligations. Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, the Corrections and Conditional Release Act, the Youth Criminal Justice Act, the The least we can do as legislators is to ensure that the money to Immigration and Refugee Protection Act and other Acts. which seniors are entitled through government pensions will be there for them in their retirement. That is why I am introducing legislation *** today that would allow for full retroactive benefits plus interest when NATIONAL STRATEGY FOR DEMENTIA ACT someone applies late for benefits under the Canada pension plan. Mr. Claude Gravelle (Nickel Belt, NDP) moved for leave to The CPP is a pay-as-you-go contribution-based program that is introduce Bill C-356, An Act respecting a National Strategy for funded solely by employers and employees. It is absurd that a person Dementia. who is late in applying for his or her pension under the CPP is only He said: Madam Speaker, I am honoured today to introduce my entitled to 11 months of retroactive benefits. It is not the bill, an act respecting a national strategy for dementia. government's money. The bill has its roots in my own family's experience with my This bill would put an end to this insufficient and unfair period of mother. Long before her death at 83, in 2003, she began struggling retroactivity, and would do the same for disability pensions or a with obvious memory loss. What started with forgetting things on survivor's pension and a disabled contributor's child benefit. This is the stove and forgetting appointments got worse by forgetting meds, something that should and could have been corrected long ago. forgetting language, changes in mood, loss of initiative and aggressive behaviour. I urge all members to support this important bill today. By definition, seniors do not have a lifetime to wait. My father, sisters and wife learned the overwhelming challenges (Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed) of being her caregiver. *** My mom is not alone. Over 500,000 Canadians suffer from Alzheimer's disease and other related dementia. An estimated 1.1 STELCO INC. ACQUISITION ACT million Canadians will have these diseases within a generation. Ms. Chris Charlton (Hamilton Mountain, NDP) moved for My bill would develop a comprehensive national plan to address leave to introduce Bill C-358, An Act respecting the acquisition of all aspects of Alzheimer's disease and other dementia. It would Stelco Inc. by the United States Steel Corporation. 3514 COMMONS DEBATES November 24, 2011 Routine Proceedings She said: Madam Speaker, I am pleased to rise in the House today thousands of Canadians from all across Canada who call upon to introduce a bill regarding the acquisition of Stelco Inc. by the Parliament to take note that asbestos is the greatest industrial killer United States Steel Corporation. that the world has ever known and that more Canadians now die from asbestos than all other industrial or occupational causes U.S. Steel acquired Stelco in 2007, but it was not long after that combined. the Government of Canada had to take U.S. Steel to court for failing to live up to the employment and production commitments made by the company under the Investment Canada Act. They point out that Canada remains one of the largest producers and exporters of asbestos in the world and spends millions of dollars I have raised issues related to U.S. Steel on numerous occasions in subsidizing the asbestos industry, both domestically and abroad. this House. I have raised the lockout of members of USW Local 1005, the denial of pension indexation for Stelco retirees, access to Therefore, these petitioners call upon Parliament to ban asbestos EI benefits for the locked out workers, and of course the inadequacy in all of its forms and institute a just transition program for asbestos of the Investment Canada Act in protecting Canadian interests in this workers and the communities in which they live; to end all foreign takeover. government subsidies of asbestos, both in Canada and abroad; and to Sadly, it has been impossible to get full accountability because the stop blocking international health and safety conventions designed to agreement signed between U.S. Steel and the Government of Canada protect workers from asbestos, such as the Rotterdam convention. has never been made available publicly. JUSTICE It is for that reason I am introducing this bill today. It would require the Government of Canada to publish all written under- takings given in the right of Canada under the Investment Canada Mr. Glenn Thibeault (Sudbury, NDP): Madam Speaker, I am Act in respect to the acquisition of U.S. Steel. pleased to rise today to introduce two petitions. Furthermore, it would require the publication of all correspon- The first one is signed by hundreds of individuals from my riding dence between the minister and the company regarding the and my area in support of an aboriginal man whom they believe to enforcement of this agreement. be wrongly convicted. The Investment Canada Act demands that a foreign takeover have a net public benefit, but the public is being kept in the dark. That is It speaks to a Mr. John Moore, who was accused and convicted of simply not good enough. That is why my bill would finally bring second degree murder in a case where the Crown agreed he was accountability into the light of day. nowhere near the scene of the crime and the trial determined he (Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed) played no part in the crime. *** As Mr. Moore was convicted in 1979 by an all white jury, which Ï (1010) resulted in a 10 year prison sentence and a lifetime on parole, the PETITIONS undersigned in this petition call on the government to recognize that this was a wrongful conviction, overturn the conviction and enter an HEALTH OF ANIMALS ACT acquital. Mr. Alex Atamanenko (British Columbia Southern Interior, NDP): Madam Speaker, I have a petition supporting my private ANIMAL WELFARE member's bill, Bill C-322. The petitioners, primarily from Saskatchewan, say that horses are Mr. Glenn Thibeault (Sudbury, NDP): Madam Speaker, the ordinarily kept and treated as sport and companion animals. They are second petition wants the Criminal Code and provisions within the not raised primarily as food processing animals, and they are Criminal Code to be strengthened to prevent animal cruelty. commonly administered drugs that are strictly prohibited from being used at any time in the food chain, and I would like to emphasize The petitioners believe the current laws are inadequate to prevent that. The drug, which is phenylbutazone, is administered to probably animal cruelty and that the Criminal Code provisions on animal about 80% of the horses on this continent. Once that drug is cruelty have not changed much since 1892. The undersigned call on introduced, that animal is no longer fit for human consumption. the government to present legislation to increase penalties for animal cruelty under the new section of the Criminal Code, extending The petitioners call upon the House of Commons to bring forward protection to all vertebrate animals and limiting the slaughter of stray and adopt Bill C-322, An Act to amend the Health of Animals Act and wild animals without lawful intent. and the Meat Inspection Act, thus prohibiting the importation or exportation of horses for slaughter for human consumption as well as horse meat products for human consumption. EMPLOYMENT INSURANCE ASBESTOS Mr. Mark Warawa (Langley, CPC): Madam Speaker, I am Mr. Pat Martin (Winnipeg Centre, NDP): Madam Speaker, I honoured to present a petition from a number of constituents in the am proud to rise today to present a petition signed by literally Fraser Valley. November 24, 2011 COMMONS DEBATES 3515 Government Orders There are a number of severe, potentially life-threatening say that it would be ready to be implemented as such a critically conditions that do not qualify for disability programs because they important piece of regulatory legislation to govern and guide are not necessarily permanent. Therefore, the petitioners call upon something as important as copyright in this country.