Tuesday, May 16, 2000
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CANADA 2nd SESSION • 36th PARLIAMENT • VOLUME 138 • NUMBER 56 OFFICIAL REPORT (HANSARD) Tuesday, May 16, 2000 THE HONOURABLE GILDAS L. MOLGAT SPEAKER CONTENTS (Daily index of proceedings appears at back of this issue.) Debates and Publications: Chambers Building, Room 943, Tel. 996-0193 Published by the Senate Available from Canada Communication Group — Publishing, Public Works and Government Services Canada, Ottawa K1A 0S9, Also available on the Internet: http://www.parl.gc.ca 1351 THE SENATE Tuesday, May 16, 2000 The Senate met at 2:00 p.m., the Speaker pro tempore in the North. The vice-chair of this group is John van Dongen, Liberal Chair. MLA for Abbotsford. Prayers. Honourable senators, the coastal parliamentarians meet yearly at the Coastal Community Network’s annual conference. It provides an important venue for coastal parliamentarians to SENATORS’ STATEMENTS address issues that have impacted on the region and to bring forward the issues that concern the mayors and councillors, tribal councils and chiefs. THE LATE KEIZO OBUCHI • (1410) TRIBUTE Topics during this year’s meeting included the lack of modern Hon. Dan Hays (Deputy Leader of the Government): telecommunications infrastructure on the West Coast that inhibits Honourable senators, on Sunday, May 14, former prime minister tourism and Internet small business, the location of fish farms Keizo Obuchi of Japan died in Tokyo’s Juntendo Hospital. As and wild salmon migration routes, the continuous divestiture of honourable senators are aware, this has come some weeks after docks and wharves in small communities, as well as inadequacies former prime minister Obuchi suffered a stroke and fell into a of ferry services. The CCN theme this year was “New Initiatives, coma. New Beginnings,” representing communities that have been hard hit by the disastrous fishing policies of the Liberal government. I wish to join the Right Honourable Jean Chrétien, and I am sure I speak for all senators in this respect, in offering In the past few years, the Coastal Community Network has condolences to former prime minister Obuchi’s family, the taken on an increasingly important role in providing a forum for Japanese people, as well as members of the Japanese Diet and his B.C. coastal communities to express their concerns, seek Liberal Democratic Party. information and seek solutions. The CCN has proven that cooperation is the essential ingredient of the decision-making Prime Minister Obuchi was a respected world leader admired process affecting our coastal communities. for his humility and soft-spoken approach to politics. The Japanese people have been well served by him as a political [Translation] leader. His tenure will be remembered for many things, among them stimulating Japan’s stagnant economy after its worst recession in 50 years and for officially giving the people of Japan THE NAVY LEAGUE OF CANADA a national anthem and flag. He demonstrated an innate ability to bring consensus among the many factions of his party and had a Hon. Lise Bacon: Honourable senators, last Saturday, long-standing interest in facilitating friendly relations between May 13, I had the pleasure to attend the annual review of the Canada and Japan. Laval corps of the Navy League of Canada. Once again, this was an opportunity for the 12- to 18-year-old members of NLCC For one so young, he made a notable and extraordinary impact. Annapolis 43 and RNCC Sioux 11 to show off what they have Former prime minister Obuchi will be long remembered and learned in the past year. missed. I have had the honour of attending the annual review of the BRITISH COLUMBIA Laval Navy League more than once, and was therefore pleased to COASTAL PARLIAMENTARIANS note the increase in numbers over previous years. It is nice to see that, at a time when the consumer society is so full of Hon. Pat Carney: Honourable senators, I report to this increasingly sophisticated attractions for teens, some of them are chamber on the work of the B.C. Coastal Parliamentarians. This still involved in activities that require of participants a sense of is an all-party, all-partisan group, including senators, MPs and discipline and of duty. MLAs, formed out of a mutual desire to exchange views and concerns relevant to British Columbia’s coastal communities. It would be far easier for them to spend all their free time in There are about 40 villages and towns from Alaska to Steveston. front of a television set or computer screen. Yet week after week, these young men and women, from a variety of cultural and Coastal parliamentarians have worked diligently together since economic backgrounds, meet and join in activities aimed at this group’s formation three years ago. I have chaired this group attaining and surpassing joint objectives. The quality of the since its inception and run an e-mail network of information and annual review I attended on the weekend, and the serious correspondence out of our office. This year, I have handed over approach participants took to it, show just how enthusiastic and the chair to John Duncan, Alliance MP for Vancouver Island determined these young people are. 1352 SENATE DEBATES May 16, 2000 In addition to the technical and physical training offered by the his integrity have marked us profoundly. He was an example to Navy League of Canada program, cadets also have the all, and I shall not forget this great man. opportunity to put into practice values and principles which will make them better citizens. The Navy League provides the Predeceased by his wife, Jacqueline Lachapelle, he is survived opportunity to develop leadership skills in an atmosphere of by their five children and 15 great grandchildren. At his funeral camaraderie, and to assume responsibility while developing a yesterday in Saint-Germain d’Outremont church, I was struck by sense of solidarity. Far from the picture of today’s youth seen so the many eminent jurists and politicians who came, quite rightly, often in the media, the young people I met on Saturday gave me to pay their respects. great hope for the future. In his autobiography entitled In the Line of Fire, In closing, I should like to draw attention to the hard work and Justice Deschênes wrote of his hope: devotion of volunteers and parents, which is what makes it possible for these young people to enjoy this unique experience. ...to making the world a little better than if I had not lived... These Canadians richly deserve our recognition and support of their remarkable work. Justice Deschênes, your wish has been granted. [Later] THE LATE JUSTICE JULES DESCHÊNES [Translation] TRIBUTES Hon. Gérald-A. Beaudoin: Honourable senators, Justice Hon. Michael A. Meighen: Honourable senators, on Deschênes was born on June 7, 1923, in Montreal, completed his Wednesday last, May 10, the Canadian Bar and the Barreau du classical studies at Collège Grasset, and took his law degree at Québec lost a great luminary in the person of the Honourable the University of Montreal (LL.M. 1946). He received the Mr. Justice Jules Deschênes, who passed away at the age of 76. Governor General’s Award for Excellence, several honorary doctorates in law, and a number of other awards during his A Companion of the Order of Canada, prolific author of lifetime. He was made a Companion of the Order of Canada 10 books and over 100 articles, speaker in great demand in in 1993. Canada and abroad, the judge was brilliantly successful in all three of his careers: first, as a lawyer and law professor; second, I attended Justice Deschênes’ lectures at the University of as Chief Justice of the Quebec Superior Court; and, finally, as an Montreal. He taught civil procedure and always expressed international jurist elected by the General Assembly of the himself with great clarity. United Nations to sit on the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. A private sector lawyer, a talented litigator, a Superior Court justice, an Appeal Court justice, and Chief Justice of the Superior Court for 10 years, he was without a doubt one of our greatest Born in Montreal on June 7, 1923, Justice Deschênes was a legal minds. brilliant student and winner of the medals of the Governor General and of the Lieutenant-Governor of Quebec. Called to the He found the time to write many highly interesting books, Bar in 1946, he founded the law office of Deschênes, such as The Sword and the Scales, L’école publique de Grandpré, Colas, Godin and Lapointe, which became in the confessionnelle au Québec, Conflits linguistiques au Canada 1960s the greatest firm of French-speaking lawyers in Montreal. 1968-80, Justice et pouvoir: A Passion for Justice, and his memoirs entitled In the Line of Fire. His remarkable intellect combined with an exceptional capacity for work. His decisions always reflected his He took part in the work of the International Court of Justice exceptional legal mind, his impeccable logic and his great in The Hague and was a member of the International Criminal intellectual courage. Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. He was very active internationally. He was appointed by Prime Minister Brian Mulroney to head the Commission of Inquiry on War Criminals from 1985 to 1987. I wish to pay tribute to the learned symposia he organized in This is where, honourable senators, I had the opportunity of Canada and abroad on international judicial independence and on making his acquaintance and working with him as legal advisor rights and freedoms. to the commission. During this period of close cooperation with Mr. Justice Deschênes, I had the opportunity to observe closely He was, without a doubt, a remarkable person, an incredibly his tireless and painstaking work.