Conservative Party and Bill C-36
Wednesday November 28, 2001
Mr. Bill Blaikie (Winnipeg--Transcona, NDP): Mr.
Speaker, in recent days we have been treated to the kind of gap between
rhetoric and reality that causes Canadians to have a lot of cynicism about
Canadian politics.
The leader of the Conservative Party has said that
Bill C-36 is about shutting down the information commissioner, that it is a
power grab, that it is muzzling a parliamentary watchdog, that it represents a
culture of secrecy, that it is an assault on Canadian civil liberties, that it
is comparable to the War Measures Act and that it must be stopped.
If that is the case, why is it that the Conservative
Party voted for Bill C-36 when it could have joined New Democrats and the Bloc
in opposing Bill C-36?
It is one thing to approve of a bill and suggest how
to improve it, but to denounce it in its final form and then vote for it is the
height of cynicism.
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