Hansard -- Monday, October 24, 2005 a.m. -- Vol. 3, No. 3 (HTML)

The following electronic version is for informational purposes only.
The printed version remains the official version.

Official Report of

DEBATES OF THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY


CONTENTS

	Routine Proceedings
		Page


Private Members' Statements		1059
	Hazing
	N. Simons
	L. Mayencourt
	Northern health care
	D. MacKay
	C. Wyse
	Abandoned brides in India
	H. Lali
	M. Polak
	Street racing
	J. Yap
	L. Krog

Motions on Notice		1067
	B.C.'s military veterans (Motion 34)
	I. Black
	J. Horgan
	L. Krog
	Hon. C. Richmond
	J. Nuraney
	Life sciences industry (Motion 55)
	J. McIntyre
	M. Karagianis

N. Simons: I rise today to speak about an issue that I believe doesn't get the right attention and doesn't get the attention it needs. In the last week we've seen reference to this issue in the national media on two occasions. The issue is hazing. The issue is of concern to all of us, because we all probably know people who have been subject to this form of abuse.

Last week we heard that the McGill University football team, the Redmen, cancelled the rest of their season because of an incident involving hazing. A student came forward and let it be known that he had survived an initiation rite that was far beyond an initiation. It was a sadistic sexual assault. The university rightly took the action to cancel the rest of the season, and appropriate disciplinary action took place against the players involved.

Also last week we heard about the Windsor Spitfires, a hockey team in Ontario. A coach was suspended for 25 games because of a hazing incident and 15 games subsequent to that because of a fight that took place later on that month. The hazing in this case involved young men in the back of a bus upon which were travelling coaches, trainers and others.

Of the young men involved in this incident, one was brave enough to step forward. I believe this young man is to set an example to others involved in sports that activities that degrade, humiliate and dehumanize will not be tolerated in any sport, let alone a sport as dear to all Canadians as hockey.

I'd like to point out the difference between initiation ceremonies and hazing ceremonies. I shouldn't call them ceremonies, but they are ritualized.

Initiations often take place on sports teams where rookie players have to carry the bags for the veterans or clear the food trays in the cafeteria or other mundane chores that the veterans choose not to want to do. The rookies learn their place on the team by performing these tasks. They're usually benign. They usually involve a little bit of fun, probably a little bit of foolishness, a little bit of embarrassment.

Hazing, on the other hand, is characterized by illegal and humiliating activities, degrading actions and often sadistic sexual acts that take place within a team, in the locker room, on the team buses — in secrecy. There's a good reason that it takes place in secrecy: it's a shame on those who are conducting these ritualized ceremonies, and it's an even bigger shame for the victims, who I believe should be seen as examples to all of us when they stand up against such activities.

I believe that the biggest problem involved in this particular issue is that hazing activities often reinforce an association between sexualized behaviour and domination, coercion and repression — all the characteristics that we don't believe are healthy in young men or women as they grow up. When we encourage cooperation, teamwork and looking out for our fellow players, our peers, hazing does not belong in any sport, in any residence, in any fraternity or sorority. It's caused deaths in the past. It's caused lifelong injuries in the past. It does not reinforce the values that we want our young men and women to grow up with in this country.

Individuals who have been victims or survivors of hazing don't talk about it. They often don't even see it as a form of harassment. They believe that it's just ingrained in the culture, and I think that's what we need to get beyond now. I think, when you look at Ken Dryden and his words about the issue, and Ray Ferraro and Kelly Hrudey, who all say unequivocally that it does nothing to build team spirit, does nothing to promote cohesion, does nothing to teach the values that sport inherently does teach us about teamwork, about standing up for each other, about aggressive, strong and powerful play on the ice or on the field…. It's about shaming; it's about belittling; it's about putting people down.

I believe that we as a community and as a society need to be aware of this issue. We need to be involved in ensuring that it doesn't happen in any team close to us with any children that are close to us or youth that we know. I believe it's our responsibility to ensure that this subject is not hidden, is not scurried away under the stairs. We need to know about it. We need to discuss it. We need to ensure that the children of today are not subject to such activities in places where they should be cared for and nurtured and socialized in a positive way.

L. Mayencourt: I want to add my voice to the comments from the member for Powell River–Sunshine Coast. I think he's really touched on something that is very important in our society. As he mentioned, hazing is kind of a secret thing. It's something that people do without telling anybody except the persons that are directly involved in it. It is a form of humiliating people, of making people feel that they are less than something and that the only way you can enter into a relationship with the other people is if you're willing to humiliate the heck out of yourself, willing to let someone else do that to you.

I agree with the member about the often sadistic nature of hazing. It is about trying to put someone….

It's almost like the more degrading it is, the less likely anybody will tell anybody about it. We've seen lots of incidents of this sort of thing. I remember reading just a couple of weeks ago about a hockey team here in Canada that actually had to stop playing for the year as a result of a hazing incident. I think that's appropriate. I think it is very important that coaches of sporting teams, teachers at colleges or people that run sororities and whatever else have an obligation, when they see this stuff happening, to put the brakes on and to say: "Wait a minute. This is just not acceptable behaviour in our society."

I feel as if the issue of hazing is becoming even more important today, and it's because we are becoming more and more aware, I think, that degrading people actually degrades ourselves. I think it's important that we have this discussion. I think the way in which it's raised is very sensitive, understanding that it's not necessarily a topic that you want to have at a dinner table, but it is important that we have that conversation. It's important to the individuals that have responsibility for kids in our sporting teams or in our schools. It's important to team leaders. It is important to groups that have had this to understand that this is not okay. This is just not an acceptable thing in our society.

More importantly, I think it speaks to the individuals that are vulnerable to hazing incidents. I think we have to make it really clear to kids who are in our school system, young people who are in university, and so on, that it is okay to say no to hazing, that it's important they do that. People in this Legislature and people in society in general will stand with them and say, as the member for Powell River–Sunshine Coast has said: "This is not okay. This is not acceptable, and we will back you up. We'll make sure that it doesn't occur in your circle of friends or in your circle of community."

I want to thank very much the member for Powell River–Sunshine Coast. He's brought a very important subject to the forefront in this Legislature today. I think it's time for us to have a dialogue about it. I know that in sporting teams across Canada there's been a new look at it since a couple of weeks ago when this really became an issue in that hockey team that I spoke about, and it's time for us to take responsibility for it. As adults, we know better. We might have to reach into a variety of places in society and let people know that we're just not going to tolerate it anymore.

Once again, thank you for this opportunity to speak on this issue. I look forward to hearing more from the member for Powell River–Sunshine Coast.

N. Simons: Thank you for the comments from my friend opposite. I believe that we agree on this subject — that it's a dangerous activity for our youth to be involved in, not just for themselves but for the statement it makes about our bodies and about ourselves. I think it's important to have this discussion. It's not easy to have the discussion, I might add.

In the United States, 45 states have legislation against hazing, specific to hazing. In Canada we don't have any laws about hazing. We have harassment policies and such, and I think those are very good to have. But what it doesn't do — the fact that we don't have the legislation…. I'm certainly not advocating for legislation, although it could potentially be a federal issue at some point.

I do believe that our job is to create the public awareness necessary to make people realize that the societal change in attitude has arrived already, and it has yet to reach some levels of sport. I believe people in those…. Coaches, trainers and team owners in junior leagues across the country have to realize that most of us think this is a ridiculous activity. Most of us think that it's an embarrassment to their sport and an embarrassment to their team. Most of us agree that there's no longer a place for that type of activity. I have no problem with initiation rites involving a little bit of giggling, but I believe that most people agree that the sexualized behaviour and the repressive nature of most of the hazing activities is not to be encouraged.

UVic has policies on harassment. There are specific policies at SFU against hazing in their residences. UBC. All these universities and all the post-secondary facilities, as well as junior teams, I believe, should have specific anti-hazing policies with strong sanctions if they're ever broken, as well as increased awareness and increased education to young people to know what to do if they're victims of this. It doesn't do anything to their character except make them more repressed, make them more fearful, give them improper associations between pain and all sorts of other emotions at the same time. These are kids who are often in the very formative years of their lives.

I'll do what I can with the member opposite or with other members of this House to see if there are ways that we can ensure that the people of British Columbia know that the stand of this government is against hazing activities and that we will do what we can to make sure our teams don't engage in this activity.

D. MacKay: Good morning. Today I'd like to talk about health care and, more particularly, health care in the northern part of our province. I don't think there's anybody in this chamber who would disagree that our health is important to all of us, regardless of where we live in this province and regardless of our financial status. You could have all the money in the world, but if you don't have your health, the money is worthless in the long term. Health is critical to all of us.

One thing that's very obvious when you look around the chamber here today: we are an aging society. When I look around here, I can see some of those with….

D. MacKay: I see a lot of grey hair, and there are some of us in this chamber who are follicly challenged. I was going to clarify that before I left that.

Yes, we are getting older, and we are living longer. I think the member for West Vancouver–Capilano made the comment that if you look out 20, 30 or 40 years from now, the way we are getting older because of better health care and better diets, we could, down the road, actually see the life span expand to 150 years of age. That's quite remarkable, but let there be no doubt: we are getting older. Some of us that are follicly challenged are getting older, and I'll tell you it sure beats the alternative.

In addition to getting older, we do have more agility. You just have to look at men and women around our province who are receiving hip and knee replacements. They have movement that they didn't have before, and it allows them to move around. We actually have bionic men and women running around our province today. When you look at the transplants, liver and kidney transplants, we are living longer, and it's because of our health care system in no small part.

We are living independently. We have more independence. As we have that independence, it allows us to move around this globe that we live in. You know, when we were younger, most of us, I suspect, managed debt. Today, as we get older — and I suspect there are some exceptions — most of us are now managing assets, and because we have those assets, it permits us to travel this world, travel this province and travel this country that we live in. It's educational. We continue to learn as we move, and we are certainly travelling.

One thing very obvious and very evident is that as we get older, we start to consume money in that budget that's allocated for the health care system. I don't think I have to remind anybody that we have a big bulge of baby-boomers coming into the health care system that's going to have a dramatic drain on the big budget we have.

The provincial health care system is not cheap. Today it consumes 43 cents out of every dollar that we send to Victoria — 43 cents out of every dollar. That is a staggering amount of money. Between 2001 and 2007, thanks to our strong economy, we will have increased health care spending in this province by an additional $3.8 billion.

Adjustments to our health care system are never easy. Anytime we make an adjustment to anything, it's sometimes difficult to accept. However, most people will understand that in 2001 it was necessary to make some changes to the way we delivered health care.

Stop and think for a moment: prior to 2001 we had 52 health regions. Can you imagine the duplication of services — people being paid, duplicating exactly the same services, doing administration and payroll? The administration costs that we were looking at prior to 2001 with 52 health regions were quite dramatic.

Today we have reduced those 52 to six health care regions. The savings have been dramatic in the administration costs alone. It has allowed us to put more money back into the health care system.

Northern Health provides a full range of health care to just under 300,000 people in two-thirds of British Columbia. That's quite remarkable: 297,000 people actually live in two-thirds of our province. The rest of the people are in the lower mainland and on Vancouver Island. Within each of those six health service delivery areas, residents now have access to obstetrics, pediatrics, general surgery, orthopedic surgery, internal medicine, psychiatry. Those weren't there before. We are seeing CT scanners installed at Dawson Creek, Prince George, Prince Rupert, and slated for 2006, we will see CT scanners at Mills Memorial in Terrace and also in Quesnel. We installed an MRI at Prince George Regional Hospital. Instead of having to travel all the way to Vancouver for an MRI, now we can get that done at Prince George.

I forgot to mention that as we're getting older, some of us have to take our glasses off to read, which doesn't allow us the long-range vision that some people have. I have to be honest with you, Mr. Speaker, that I'm having trouble seeing your lights up there, so I expect that when the red light goes on, you will tell me my time is up.

We're also seeing telehealth move into our north. Video conferencing is also available at locations that never before had video conferencing or the ability to talk to doctors in the lower mainland, specialists in their field, when we were having problems with a particular case in northern British Columbia.

We're also seeing a redesign and the recruitment of staffing and more specialists in the northern part of our province. As you know, we are training doctors in Prince George, which is the first time, and it was long overdue. We're actually going to start training doctors, and we will see the first general physicians come out of the Northern Health at Prince George in 2008. Just a couple of years down the road from now, we will see the first of those physicians coming out and providing health care for the people who live in the north.

We're training nurses in the north again. Prior to 2001, we actually cancelled training places for nurses. We're doing that again right now. In addition, to keep those people in place and try to attract more doctors and nurses up north, we actually have student forgiveness loans.

C. Wyse: I would, firstly, like to acknowledge my colleague from Bulkley Valley–Stikine for providing us with an opportunity to talk about health in a part of the province that often becomes overlooked. I don't wish to go back into history too much, but if we move back in our discussion just a little bit and go back to a previous government…. In that period of time there were over 900 agencies responsible for dealing with the provision of health services, and as had been pointed out, over the passage of time it has slowly shrunk to six.

I would like to recognize the dedicated, committed staff up in this part of our province who are dealing with a large geographical area with a sparse population in it. It contains within it 35 percent of B.C.'s first nations population. My source for this has been either directly from the staff in this part of the province or

from the Northern Health Authority report. I do recognize the provision of equipment to the area and the progress that has been made there. That, of course, is very helpful.

When you look through the report, there are some identified problems contained in our area that are personnel-related, and there are issues identified in this part of the province that require some attention. For example, from 1998 to 2002 the highest mortality rate in B.C. for all causes existed in the northern health area. It has a standard mortality rate that is high in statistical significance for motor vehicles and chronic lung.

I acknowledge that the NHA is addressing the chronic lung part of it, but I would draw attention to the House here that presently there is a report from the coroner — sitting in front of the Attorney General, the Solicitor General and the Transportation Minister — of a drinking truck driver with cocaine and crystal meth in his system that directly led to the death of three individuals. Though it isn't in the NHA area, it is close to the boundary as possibly can be, and that raises an issue that needs to be addressed.

The life expectancy here is almost two years less than the B.C. average. The teen mothers are at almost twice B.C.'s normal with no intervention plan that I've been able to discover. Spousal assault greatly exceeds the 2.3-per-thousand rate in B.C., with no identified plan, and I would draw to the House's attention the reduction in funding for support in this particular area. This may have had an effect in this region of the province, where the support definitely is demonstrated to be needed.

I recognize that the improved recruitment is very good and great to see in our part of the area. I don't wish to take credit here — it was before my time — but I would remind the House, of course, that it was underneath a different administration that UNBC, in actual fact, was built. The report very clearly states that the major source of recruitment for nurses in this area does happen to be UNBC. This particular facility is not only providing the personnel that are being retained in our area; they also are staying with us, which is good to see.

There are two other issues dealing with the mentally ill. Tertiary redeployment. The area should be commended for having dealt with the Riverview deployment. Outside of the three beds at Prince George, they're completed. But once more, only half of the required psychiatrists are found here. There is a shortage of skilled mental health workers. The very mentally ill face the challenge of transportation and placement.

If one out of five people are affected by mental illness, that means about 60,000 of our population. When you take in the addition of drugs, then it is one out of four, and that means about 75,000 people. The geographical isolation leads to severe crises that do develop, which makes policing issues in this type of geography somewhat more complicated and difficult to deal with. That issue likewise needs to be looked at.

The issue in our area for mental illness is not access to beds. In this situation, in actual fact, it's finding the qualified people to treat these individuals. With reference to the detox centres, we have a transient workforce in this part of the province.

D. MacKay: I'd like to thank the member for Cariboo South for his comments on the problems associated with delivering health care throughout our province and, more particularly, in the northern part of our province. There is no doubt health care delivery is always going to be a challenge regardless of which government is in power. People are demanding more and more from the health care system.

As a matter of fact, roughly 30 years ago the entire provincial budget was pegged at $1.7 billion. Today the budget is around $28 billion. It's quite remarkable how the increase in the cost of delivering programs to people in the province has risen. Having said that, I'd just like to touch on a couple of other things.

I'm going to come back to the costs of health care, but the member for Cariboo South spoke about the problems with the accident rates in the northern part of our province. Actually, the accident rate and the mortality rate in northern British Columbia are about 2.5 percent higher than the provincial average. We have a tremendous number of accidents up there. When you stop to think about northern health care, I've always thought about northern health care as a service provider looking after people who are injured. Well, 20 percent of the entire budget for the Northern Health Authority goes to delivering health care to those people involved in motor vehicle accidents. That's quite a staggering dollar amount.

I never really thought about northern health being proactive in trying to do something to reduce the number of accidents we have in our province. Actually, in the first part of October of this year I went to a conference in Prince George and made some opening comments to a group of people who had come to Prince George to look at what they could do to reduce accidents. They've actually set a target for 2010 to reduce the number of accidents in northern British Columbia by 30 percent. They've come up with a number of ideas. I suspect that those ideas will be expanded upon in the future.

One thing that really stood out in my mind was when they talked about…. Just to give you some idea of the staggering impact on people in this province, what you have to do is imagine a 747 loaded with people, not an empty seat on it, crashing into B.C. Place, that big round dome there, and killing everybody on the aircraft and injuring everybody inside the stadium. That is the impact that motor vehicle accidents have on the people of this province every year. That's a staggering, staggering number.

I want to talk about one of the other problems associated with health care in the north, and that is that not all the things we need up there are available in northern British Columbia. Quite often people have to travel to Vancouver. There's a cost associated with traveling

to Vancouver. We all pay exactly the same MSP premiums, but we in the north have to pay extra money.

H. Lali: Anywhere across the world, you find young women, when they're of marriageable age, thinking about getting married and having children one day and having successful married lives, raising families. They have dreams and hopes as they're growing up, and they are often looking for their knight in shining armour so they can have a nice, romantic life together.

Just imagine, for instance, that one of these young women is your younger sister or daughter. She has all these hopes. She's growing up in a very good family, good background, and she's getting an education. Perhaps the family is not that well off economically.

For instance, imagine this young woman who is your daughter or your young sister is saving herself for the right man to come by to sweep her off her feet so they can get married and have a nice life together. Then all of a sudden this knight in shining armour comes in from somewhere across the world — from Canada, for instance — and promises her the land of milk and honey, marries her and tells her all of the nice things about the foreign land where he's going to take her.

Then he goes away, and often this girl is left impregnated. Of course, she waits for him to send the sponsorship papers — whether it's Canada, the U.S.A. or England — and finds she has actually been abandoned, because she has been waiting for years and years and years. If you can imagine that, then the reality is that there are 30,000 — estimated number — of these abandoned brides in India, 15,000 of them in the state of Punjab in northwest India alone.

There are 12,000 villages in Punjab. That makes it at least one per each village in terms of how many brides have been abandoned in India, because there are 12,000 villages there. India's official estimate is that 10,000 of those Punjabi brides are abandoned by their Canadian husbands. Almost 50 percent of Canadian Punjabis live in British Columbia. In B.C. alone, you're looking at approximately 3,000 to 5,000 Punjabi men who have abandoned their brides — perhaps a number as high as 7,000 men of Indian origin living in British Columbia, most of whom live in the lower mainland.

These girls are easy targets for these predators. They're disadvantaged in society already. Last week reporters from the Calgary Herald, Valerie Fortney and Ted Rhodes, and also from the Province, Fabian Dawson and Mike Roberts, actually did a five-part series, very well documented and researched, after having gone to India.

Who are these victims, these unsuspecting victims? They're certainly not from the upper class or from the upper middle or solid middle class, nor are many of them from urban parts of India and the Punjab, because these families in these upper classes have the wherewithal and the resources to do their due diligence. They usually check out the background, call their relatives and friends across the world to find out the backgrounds of these young men who are coming to marry their daughters.

These victims are almost exclusively from lower-income Punjabi families. They are lured by the land of milk and honey and the false promises that these young men make. These women are very naïve, as are their parents, and often do not do their due diligence in checking backgrounds. These young women — some are only teenage girls — range from 17 years of age to the early 20s. Their parents usually, as I said, are of lower income and have maybe two to seven acres of land. These young women and these families lose everything. These young women and their families are out financially and emotionally, and these young women feel that they have been sexually used and violated by these young men from across the world.

I mentioned that many are impregnated by their husbands, and then they are abandoned. They lose their pride; they lose their dignity — especially in a society that values sexual purity for young women until they are married. They are completely devastated and suffer quietly in despair. Often there are suicides involved as well. These women are doomed to a life of stigma and shame, and that's why they contemplate suicide. Families are ruined, as I said, financially and emotionally.

Who are these culprits? Who are these supposed grooms? Who are these lawbreakers? They're non-resident Indians — for instance, in Canada, Canadians of Indian origin who happen to reside in Canada. They're either citizens or landed immigrants here, and they're called NRIs. Every community has its bad apples, and the Indo-Canadian community is no different. It has its bad apples and its criminals.

These men are mostly recent arrivals from India in the last five to 12 years. When they are of marriageable age, often they are unacceptable to Indo-Canadian women here in Canada. These men are usually from lower-income to lower-middle-income families, and often not your most educated types. Sometimes they're described as not very bright and usually from questionable socioeconomic backgrounds. Many are involved in crime already, or in drugs or in gangs. That's why Indian women here do not find them acceptable, so they go off to India to find their brides.

Why do they do it? Obviously, greed is a big factor, and also because they know they can get away with it in India. They feel that they're beyond the long reach of the law 14,000 kilometres away, and most of them will never go back to India.

Who's going to touch them here in Canada? More often than not, their parents are complicit. The parents of these young men are complicit in their criminal activity. They're deceitful. They're thieves. They're criminals. They're sexual hypocrites. They're actually brought up here in Canada. They'll go out, and they play the field. Then they want to get married. They feel

they want to marry a virgin. They go back to India to find somebody in an unsuspecting village in the old country. Often these girls, if they do happen to make it into Canada, are abandoned here as well.

M. Polak: I want to, first of all, commend the member for Yale-Lillooet for raising the issue in the House. I think we also owe a debt of thanks to the media — the Province newspaper and many of the Indo-Canadian media outlets — who have recently brought up the topic as one for discussion. It really is a topic that needs to be brought out into the open. As the member opposite highlighted, one of the difficulties in addressing and challenging these kinds of behaviours is that people feel uncomfortable talking about it. There is a lot of shame associated with it.

I want to begin, though, by highlighting for this House the fact that this is not an issue that is easy to unravel. It certainly is challenging for us to keep from oversimplifying it. For example, it would be a logical assumption to make that the majority of women who are negatively impacted by this are from poor rural villages. In fact, one of the more interesting parts of the documentary articles in the Province was that this really runs far and wide throughout the Punjab, from poor rural villages but also into upscale city suburbs. That has its cause back in the idea of Canada as this great and wonderful place to live, which it is, but it means that even those who might be doing financially all right in their own country are certainly seeing Canada as a place where dreams come true.

I suppose that's fitting. When one thinks of marriage in whatever culture one is in, marriage is that place of happily ever after. Marriage is what we read about in the fairy tales. Marriage is supposed to be the lasting dream that's there for a lifetime. Certainly for these brides who are abandoned, it is not that.

It also reaches further, though. There are also many cases where we see women who agree to be a bride and who engage a marriage and then, when they come to Canada, do not arrive and take up residence with their husband and, instead, will go elsewhere in Canada. So this is a problem that has many, many facets.

I also want to highlight the fact that this is, unfortunately, an issue where people often mistake arranged marriages as the culprit. I want to be sure to say to this House that I think that is an unnecessary confusion. There was a very well-written paragraph from the Voice newspaper in which Shashi Assanand, the executive director of the Vancouver and Lower Mainland Multicultural Family Support Services Society, wrote about arranged marriages. I'll just read that briefly:

Certainly, although there are those who would seek to defraud, there are those who are greedy, and all those things come in as motivators in these terrible incidents. At the same time, we have to recognize that for the most part, families are looking for something better for their children — certainly better for their daughters — and that's one of the things that motivates them to become unfortunately involved in such tragic cases.

Certainly, we have to recognize that this is a problem across the piece. It's contributed to by immigration laws that are not founded on a sensitivity to different cultural mores and, therefore, allow it. We also see this same kind of issue crossing over into areas where we have Caucasian-Canadian men searching the Internet for brides that they can take from other countries. So this is a broad issue. It has been highlighted well by both the Province newspaper documentary and also within the Indo-Canadian Punjabi language press. I think it's time, certainly, that this issue be brought forward and talked about and that we try to reduce the shame and understand that this is people defrauding one another. It's people taking advantage of one another.

It is not all Sikhs, it is not all Indians, and it doesn't involve all arranged marriages. By and large, we have the same values as cultures, in that we want to promote our families to be healthy. We want to promote our children into a better life, and we seek the best for them.

Certainly, I'm confident that by working together in Canada, we can find ways to assist the Indian authorities as they address this issue. Hopefully, our federal government will address itself to necessary legislative changes that may improve the immigration process in such a way as to deter further victimization of women in this way.

H. Lali: I want to thank the member opposite. She is absolutely right. Arranged marriages are not the culprit. As a matter of fact, 95 percent of all arranged marriages are successful.

These young women are waking up to the fact of what is happening, and they're fighting back. That's a good thing, because the more action they take, the better it is in terms of warning other unsuspecting females. They're going after them by using the police and the court system. They're going after the properties of the families of the young men in India, and also exposing their criminal activity. There's also a backlash that's happening in India.

But as far as government action, politicians have been very, very quiet on this in India, and so have the religious authorities. Obviously, more pressure is being put on the politicians and the religious authorities to take action.

Obviously, there are a number of people…. There are social activists. There's Balwant Singh Ramoowalia, a former cabinet minister in the central government of India. He's a legislator. He's actually on this in a big

way and exposing many of these young people. He's also educating folks as to the dangers of marrying off their daughters without any kind of background check.

There are a number of alternatives that have been put forward by various agencies — individuals in India and here. A lot of them involve actually changing the laws and also having some sort of a uniformity between Canada and India to make sure that these culprits are brought to justice. But nothing works better than public shaming of these individuals and naming these culprits who actually go out and break the law and misuse and abuse these women. Aboriginal culture has shaming circles. We have something similar in India at the village level and the panchayat level — the council of five. If somebody is done something wrong, they're publicly shamed.

Until victims speak up and name these culprits and talk to the newspapers and the media and expose them, this problem is not going to go away. Obviously, this has to be done in a bigger fashion, and there also has to be an end to the conspiracy of silence amongst relatives and friends of the abandoned brides here in Canada. There are thousands of these brides in British Columbia, and these relatives and friends of these young brides have to speak up and hold their relatives to task.

I feel that this House should also encourage the Legislature in Punjab, through a letter, to bring in some laws that are going to end the dowry system so that…. This is actually rooted in land, and the dowry system has to be ended. The religions in India — the Muslim, the Sikh, the Hindu religions and others — have to get active and pass edicts that are going to ban this scourge of the dowry system. It's there in law, but it's not in force. Politicians have to enforce it, and the religious personnel in India have to pass edicts to make sure that this does not happen.

J. Yap: I rise today to discuss the scourge of street racing — or criminal driving behaviour, as it is referred to by the police.

Street racing has been a problem in my community and throughout our province for several years now. We are honoured to have two very special guests in the gallery this morning who have a special interest in this matter, as their lives were altered forever by this scourge two years ago. Their names are Dr. Chris and Mrs. Therese Ng, parents of the late Const. Jimmy Ng.

Street racing is the height of criminally dangerous stupidity and ignorance. Unfortunately, too many people have died needlessly so that someone could feel the quick rush of adrenaline that comes with racing down the street.

Irene Thorpe should not have been taken away from her family for this quick rush. Nor should Jerry Kithithee have been taken away from his community. And Const. Jimmy Ng should still be alive, a loving son to his parents and proudly serving his community and our province.

Street racing on our roads is a menace. Year after year hundreds are killed and thousands injured in car crashes due to excessive speeding. Many of these tragedies could have been prevented if only people slowed down. We know that street racing is reckless and stupid and that we have to try to stop it.

Fortunately, all levels of government have come together to deal with this menace. For example, in Richmond one component of the solution is enforcement. Mayor Malcolm Brodie and the city of Richmond provided $250,000 to deploy an arsenal of anti–street racing equipment in 2003. The $250,000 purchased new car cameras, 20 radar units, two new spike belts and two new unmarked police vehicles. Supt. Ward Clapham and his RCMP officers are putting this equipment to good use. Richmond RCMP has actual dedicated shifts to specifically focus on street racing.

In addition, and in keeping with Superintendent Clapham's world-renowned and innovative approach to crime fighting, Richmond RCMP have taken a holistic approach to this problem and made street racing a community problem, asking the community to take ownership of the problem and the solution. The community has responded by coming up with a number of activities and initiatives in partnership with the RCMP. There has been more education for parents as to what happens when you provide the keys to a fast car to young kids. Parents are becoming better educated in this regard. So far, the RCMP is seeing diminishing interventions because the message about the dangers of street racing is getting out.

I'm proud to be the MLA for a community that so clearly understands its responsibility and has stepped up to the plate with better equipment, enforcement and community engagement.

ICBC also has a role, and ICBC has also helped us. They know that fewer car crashes mean fewer claims, fewer lives lost and safer communities for all British Columbians. ICBC provided extra resources to pay for overtime for police officers to target street racers. ICBC also provides programs to educate youth about the dangers of reckless driving.

Of course, the provincial government has a major role. I am proud to support the work of this government in this area. In the previous mandate the government introduced many legislative changes that will, in the long run, improve the safety of all communities throughout British Columbia. The government added penalties for street racers. For example, drivers who reoffend within two years face a 30-day impoundment of their car. Teens may have to face their parents to explain why the family car will not be available for a while. I'm sure this will prevent many kids from street racing a second time. The province also ramped up the cross-jurisdictional integrated traffic unit to combat dangerous driving because it happens everywhere, not just in one community.

Government amended the new drivers program to help our newest drivers to learn right. For new drivers

education, the learner's stage of the program now lasts one year. This can be reduced to nine months if the learner driver completes an ICBC-sanctioned course. Many will choose this option to make for better drivers. Previously the learner stage only lasted six months.

The novice driving program now lasts two years. This is important, because a novice cannot drive by himself or herself with more than one non–family member. We will have fewer cars loaded with teenagers encouraging a new driver to go as fast as he or she can. Novice drivers who receive any kind of driving prohibition will have to begin their 24-month novice period from scratch.

We also had an ally in our fight against street racing in Ottawa in Chuck Cadman. Mr. Cadman had a private member's bill before the House of Commons in 2002 which would stiffen vehicular crime sentences for street racers. This would have included criminal negligence causing bodily harm or death, and he also would have imposed a mandatory driving prohibition on street racers.

Even though Chuck Cadman passed away, his legacy will continue. Federal Minister of Justice Irwin Cotler has promised to pass Bills C-230 and C-287 implementing these changes proposed by Mr. Cadman. A lot of work has been done to try to resolve our street racing problems.

L. Krog: I don't think there's a person in this House who cannot be moved this morning by the presence of Dr. Ng and his wife. It was a case that received much notoriety in this province.

I suppose, having grown up in a rural area, I have some understanding of the kind of mentality of young people who want to go out and stretch the limits. I also note the presence of veterans in the gallery this morning. Youth have always been willing to take risks — stupid risks sometimes. As a society, we have taken advantage of those risks. We have encouraged young men and women, on occasion, to go off to war to fight for their countries, because they believe at that age that they're invincible.

The negative side of that is that when they engage in stupid adventures, such as the young men involved in the death of Constable Ng, the consequences are deadly. It means there are parents across this province who have to face that worst of all possibilities, and that is burying their own children. What is it about young men? And it is largely young men who do this. What is it about them that makes them think they can engage in this kind of activity on our streets — driving powerful automobiles, putting at risk the safety and lives of not only themselves but those who observe, those innocent victims?

I'm not sure what the solution is. Stiffer penalties and law may help. But we have laws against many things in our society, and it doesn't seem to stop the stupid behaviour. It doesn't seem to stop the selfish behaviour. But it is a step, and it reflects in a concrete way us as a society saying: "We will not tolerate this behaviour. We will not accept this behaviour. We will not condone this behaviour."

There are always those who wish to maximize their own pleasure without regard to the consequences for others — the thrill of driving a fast automobile. Yet as a society, we promote through advertising the joy of getting behind the wheel of a fast and powerful car. There's no question about that. The automakers do it. We condone it. We buy the magazines that advertise it. We watch the TV shows that advertise it.

We, in a sense, send a mixed message out in our society. I think it comes back to what we have to consider that we do as parents. Do we set examples for our children? If we make jokes, if we minimize the behaviour and talk about someone speeding as if it's a meaningless activity, an activity of no consequence, do we perhaps encourage people to engage in this? I'm not sure. All I know is that we have a problem in our community. We have a lot of people still engaging in it.

I want to say very clearly that this House has an opportunity this morning, I think, to thank the member for Richmond-Steveston for raising this issue, because it is something that we should have an opportunity to comment on. We must make clear to those in our society who think that their freedoms extend to risk-taking that that is not acceptable in British Columbia. It is not acceptable for anyone to engage in that behaviour.

My friend the member for Richmond-Steveston talked about the scourge of street racing. Perhaps with the publicity that's been given, perhaps with what's been said here this morning in this House and perhaps with the work of communities like Richmond, to whom I extend my compliments, and with the work of ICBC, we will do something to prevent this — that there will not be other parents in this province who will have to face that grim prospect that I talked about earlier this morning of having to bury their own children.

The late Mr. Cadman did a right and worthy and correct thing in pursuing this at the federal level. I encourage the members of my party at the federal level to support the legislation and to support the Liberal government, presuming that they bring it in. It is a necessary and appropriate step, so that perhaps someday we will be able to say that the scourge of street racing is just a distant memory in this province.

J. Yap: I appreciate the comments of my hon. colleague from Nanaimo. Yes, stiffer penalties are but one step in this process, as is societal and community engagement in dealing with this scourge. As I said, I'm proud of the steps that we've taken to combat the problem and proud of the unity that every government and agency involved has shown in trying to tackle this problem.

However, there's one idea I'd like to propose, and I think it's an idea whose time has come. This is to discuss the mandatory minimum sentences for street rac-

ing causing death or injury. Many in my community are outraged when they hear about lenient sentences handed out to convicted street racers. For example, with regard to the two drivers convicted in the death of Const. Jimmy Ng, Yau Chun "Stuart" Chan was sentenced to only 18 months in jail for criminal negligence causing death and six months for leaving the scene of an accident. David Guan pleaded guilty to helping a hit-and-run driver leave the scene of an accident and was given three years' probation, 240 hours of community service and a three-year driving prohibition. Bahadur Singh Bhalru and Sukhvir Singh Khosa were handed two-year conditional sentences for criminal negligence causing death — the death of pedestrian Irene Thorpe.

The judges in each case did their job and carried out the law, but it shows that the federal Criminal Code needs to be changed to deter more people from street racing so that we can better protect our communities and our families. As you can see, Mr. Speaker, everyone has come to the table to try and tackle this problem. We have better driver education, tougher laws and better enforcement, thanks to the work of cities like the city of Richmond, RCMP, ICBC, the provincial and federal governments. All these bodies should be commended for their efforts to protect our communities. I'm confident that thanks to the work done — and there's more that needs to be done — many lives will be saved. At the end of the day, that is what matters.

Mr. Speaker: Hon. members, unanimous consent of the House is required to proceed with Motion 34 without disturbing the priorities of motions preceding it on the order paper. Is leave granted?

In introducing this motion today and delivering my remarks, I have the obligation to review some of the history of our military in the past 100 years, the honour of discussing the role and contributions of the Royal Canadian Legion, and the delight of bringing to your attention an initiative being announced later today called Project Remember on which I will proudly serve as the honorary chair.

Before I begin, I would like to make all members aware that we are privileged to have with us observing our various remarks Mr. Dave Sinclair, who is the second vice-president from the B.C.-Yukon Command of the Royal Canadian Legion. We were to have with us Mr. Gerry Vowles, the command president, but Victoria's famous fog precluded his flight from taking off from Vancouver this morning. He sends his sincere regrets. I do know from my conversations with him last week that he was indeed looking forward to being here today, and he's likely watching his television at the moment along with many other branch presidents and legion members from around the province.

The command oversees 156 branches along with 113 branch-affiliated ladies auxiliaries and collectively represents approximately 90,000 British Columbians in more than 150 communities throughout B.C. and the Yukon. Mr. Sinclair will be with us again this afternoon at 2 p.m. and will be appropriately introduced at that time and, I suspect, made to feel most welcome in this House.

They are most worthy of our praise for their continuing efforts to both assist veterans and educate all Canadians as to their sacrifices. Without them, the world would be a very different place for vets and non-vets alike.

Every year in November, Canadians from all provinces come together to remember the sacrifices made by veterans. This is an important time. While the number of veterans is decreasing, it is important that we do not forget.

We all stop on Remembrance Day, and we should. In recognizing the 60th anniversary of the end of the world war, the federal government has made 2005 the Year of the Veteran. This year Veterans Week runs from November 5 to 11 with events throughout the country. An additional theme this year is: honouring veterans by teaching youth.

November 11 was picked as Remembrance Day, as it marks the anniversary of the Treaty of Versailles, signifying the end of World War I. It is said that Canada made her mark on the world stage because of her sacrifices during this Great War. With a population of just over eight million people, over 619,000 men — most of them volunteering — were enlisted in World War I. Over 60,000 never returned home and are buried in Commonwealth war cemeteries throughout France and Belgium. Thousands more were severely wounded, never to fully recover.

For four terrible years men fought in brutal trench warfare with gains and losses being measured in yards, not miles. No other war has seen more merciless conditions. Poison gas was first used against soldiers from both sides. Trenches flooded with water from constant rain. The wounded were often left to die a slow and agonizing death in no man's land. Others froze to death or drowned.

There is no doubt that through all this, Canada punched above its weight. It achieved victories others

could not, the most notable being at Vimy Ridge on Easter Monday in April 1917. Beginning before dawn, the Canadian Corps and the British 17th Corps advanced on the defending German forces. When the battle was over, they had captured more prisoners and more guns than any previous British expeditionary force offensive.

The cost, however, was great. Out of 10,602 Canadian casualties, 3,598 would not come back to Canada. Today hundreds of thousands make a pilgrimage to the Vimy Memorial to honour those buried there. After Vimy the Canadians went from one success to another to be crowned by their achievements in the 1918 "advance to victory." This record won for Canada a solemn, but very proud, separate signature on the Versailles peace treaty ending the war.

World War I was called the Great War for a reason. The horrors of that conflict had never been seen before. With the war finally over, it was hoped that a war of that scale would never be seen again. Unfortunately, this was not to be; 30 years later the world and Canada were forced to go to war once again. The rise of fascism in Germany and Italy, combined with the imperialistic ambitions of the Japanese, brought the world into conflict yet again.

With the invasion of Poland by Germany, World War II had started. By the time it ended in 1945, more than one million Canadians had served in that war. Over 45,000 troops were killed and a further 55,000 were wounded in the struggle to liberate Europe and Asia from the Axis Powers. Again, Canada did her duty with honour and with dignity. By the time the war had ended, Canada had become a significant military power possessing the world's third-largest navy, fourth-largest air force and an army of six divisions. Canada had arrived on the world stage and was now a major player.

On the western front, Canadian troops played a vital role in the 21st Mediterranean campaign which led to the liberation of Italy during the Second World War. It was during the Italian campaign that the battle for the Hitler line took place. A monastery, sitting on the top of a plateau and built into a mountain, was the key in breaking through that line. It was called Monte Cassino. Both American and British forces had failed to capture it. It was left to the Canadians to accomplish this goal, and after four days of hard fighting in May of 1944, we did.

In 1985 I visited Monte Cassino. My tour bus could hardly get up that terrain. I cannot imagine troops engaged in battle doing so. I was astonished at the rows upon rows of brilliant white tombstones, each one signifying the death of a soldier not much older than I was at the time. I have rarely, if ever, felt as solemnly but fiercely patriotic as I did that day.

It was also during the Italian campaign where Ernest "Smoky" Smith earned the highest military honour, the Victoria Cross, at the Savio River in Italy on October 21 to 22, 1944. The Victoria Cross is simply inscribed with the words: "For valour." Only 91 Canadians have ever been awarded the medal. Smoky Smith was the last surviving member of this elite group of the bravest of the brave, and he died this year on August 3.

On D-Day, Canadians stormed across Juno Beach and were the first Allied country to secure their beachhead. On that fateful day 340 men of the third Canadian division were wounded and 574 were killed battling entrenched Germans.

We also played an important role in liberating Holland from the German invaders in 1945. That spring Canadians were ordered to push the German troops back to the sea and to drive German troops in the west back to Germany. This advance was halted on April 12 because of concern for the well-being of the citizens in the western Netherlands who, having been starved for many months, ran the risk of having their country flooded if the Germans panicked and opened the dikes.

On April 28 the Canadians negotiated a truce, which permitted relief supplies to enter the western Netherlands and end the "hunger winter." No part of western Europe was liberated at a more vital moment than the Netherlands, and the Dutch people cheered Canadian troops as one town after another was freed. To show their appreciation to the pilots who dropped food from the air, many Dutch people painted on the roofs of their homes: "Thank you, Canadians." In honour of their gift of freedom, the Dutch people have, every year since, donated 10,000 tulip bulbs to Canada for the national capital region.

The love of the Dutch for our military was wonderfully evident at the recent commemoration of the 60th anniversary of VE day. Alongside thousands of others, my friend and constituent Ken Woodward took his father back to Holland for an extraordinary emotional pilgrimage and, like all others, was treated like a hero. Adults and little children were cheering madly in the streets when many of their parents, and in some cases their grandparents, weren't even born yet when all this took place.

The end of World War II led to the rise of another threat: communism. On June 25, 1950, the North Koreans crossed the 38th parallel into the Republic of Korea. The newly formed United Nations condemned the invasion, and this led to the first combined UN military force, with Canada playing its role. Through the three years of combat 26,791 Canadians served in Korea. Out of our 1,558 casualties 516 Canadians died, halting the spread of communism and thus keeping South Korea as a democratic republic.

As I referenced a moment ago, today Canada is known for its commitment to international peacekeeping efforts, especially for the United Nations. From the first mission to supervise the ceasefire between Israel and its Arab neighbours in 1948, peacekeeping has become a Canadian tradition. In fact, it is a reflection of our fundamental belief in supporting humanitarian deeds. The term "peacekeeping" and the famous blue berets worn by UN forces are now synonymous with Canada itself.

Over the years more than 120,000 men and women from Canada have served with distinction in over 50

peacekeeping missions around the world. In the course of fulfilling these missions and maintaining the peace, over 110 Canadians have given their lives. It is our duty to honour and remember, also, their ultimate sacrifice in the service of protecting the defenceless.

But back here at home, when they have completed their duties, veterans and active servicemen and servicewomen know they can rely on one organization above all others to serve and advocate for them and their families: the Royal Canadian Legion. A fundamental mandate for the Legion is to ensure that for all time, Canadians of all ages remain aware of and thankful for the sacrifices made by members of the Canadian military over the past century.

The primary mandate of the Legion, however, is to provide support and assistance to the currently serving and all former members of the Canadian Armed Forces and their families whether or not they are Legion members. Each year the 156 branches within the B.C.-Yukon command, some of which have been active for more than 75 years, raise more than $2½ million through various, mostly local, fundraising activities. In addition, the funds generated from the annual poppy fund in November average another $2 million annually.

Underlying these fundraising activities and expenditures, however, is a deliberate focus on preserving the Canadian traditions and values of good citizenship, community service, tolerance, physical fitness and education, especially among our youth. Moreover, the Legion, both as an institution and in its programs, promotes and embodies many moral principles: integrity, compassion, respect for one another, faith in and loyalty to the nation and its ideals such as unity and multiculturalism, respect for the law and our parliamentary democratic principles. Through its support of several youth programs, the Legion plays a major role in reinforcing and actively promoting the basic moral values of our Canadian society.

I was delighted to participate last Sunday in a ceremony where the city of Port Moody awarded to Legion branch 119 the freedom of the city. It was there that I publicly announced my involvement with a terrific initiative called Project Remember.

A big component of this motion involves how future generations can learn about the sacrifices and bravery of our veterans. Project Remember is focused on that very thing in a highly unique way, and I ask the indulgence of all present for just a few minutes as I explain it to you.

With the objective of bridging the generational gap of understanding and appreciation surrounding Remembrance Day and our war veterans, Project Remember was initiated as an educational and fundraising initiative on behalf of the B.C.-Yukon command of the Royal Canadian Legion foundation. As referenced above, the foundation supports youth and seniors projects in addition to buying hospital equipment.

The mission of the Remember Society is to promote the sale of a CD called Remember, a CD specifically created to celebrate 2005 as the Year of the Veteran and first released in April 2005 in Vancouver during a Veterans Affairs ceremony. This unique CD includes contemporary reworkings of classic war-era songs from 1939 to 1946 as well as thought-provoking original wartime spoken broadcasts, courtesy of the CBC.

With the goals of "commemorate, educate and perpetuate," the CD is focused on our youth as an audience and involves a spectacular array of Canada's finest talent. The lineup does include Vancouver's own jazz treasure, Juno-nominated Denzel Sinclair. Never before has music been so effectively used not only to entertain but also to cross the generational divide created by the passage of time, rekindling interest, study and appreciation for those special Canadians who served in World War II.

Thanks to great effort and considerable donations by many businesses and volunteers in B.C., the CD is to be sold both by mail order and on line through the projectremember.ca website. Net proceeds will be submitted to the Royal Canadian Legion foundation B.C.-Yukon command. The response to this short-tenured project has been simply overwhelming, and we are feeling most optimistic about achieving a successful outcome.

In concluding my remarks and in asking for support for this motion, let me conclude by citing a song from the Remember CD that seems to tie all this together. One of the songs on that CD is called Pittance of Time. It was written out of anger and disgust by renowned east coast musician Terry Kelly. His experience took place in 1999 when he was in a Shoppers Drug Mart in Dartmouth, when he saw a father with a young child refusing to acknowledge the two minutes of silence. His anger, which you hear through the song, is absolutely palpable.

Two minutes. Two minutes out of your day once a year — a pittance of time indeed. Let us observe those two minutes with reverence and teach our children and our youth why we should. Let us wear poppies and attend Remembrance Day ceremonies. Let us never forget, and let us all be mindful of those still serving who would give us cause and pause to remember.

J. Horgan: I want to thank the member for Port Moody–Westwood for bringing forward this motion and for his comments in the House this morning.

I want to take a few moments to speak about some personal reflections on the weeks ahead and the significance of Canada's contribution worldwide since 1914.

We think of names like Passchendaele, Vimy Ridge and the Somme, and we think of heroic efforts of Canadian men who were sent overseas from farms in Saskatchewan, from farms in Ontario and from fishing communities here in British Columbia with no idea whatsoever what they were getting into. The horror of the first war, we thought, was sufficient to ensure that it would never happen again, but it did. In 1939 Canadians were called again, and Canadians went with

pride, honour and courage to defend the rights of others in farmers' fields far from our own.

The commitment that Canadians have given over time to peace, to justice and to democracy is well known, and it is a heritage which I carry proudly as a Canadian. I am doing everything I can to educate my children and others that I come across in that regard.

In 2001, I took my family to Europe. We visited the beaches of Normandy and then finally Dieppe, and I'd like to speak briefly about Dieppe. The member from Westwood, who spoke so eloquently just a moment ago, touched on many historic moments in Canadian military history, but he left that one out. I know he knows it well, but I'll just, for the House, speak briefly about that event and the profound impact that Dieppe has had on me, my children and my family.

Before I do that, though, I should say that my spouse is Dutch. Her family came to Canada after the Second World War, and that gives me a particular perspective on these questions and about the commitment that Canadians made to people abroad and how they responded to it. It's always with delight that I engage in discussions about Canadian military history. I have a master's degree in history, and military history was one of my passions.

When you're dealing with a family of Dutch people and you want to talk about Canada's contribution, nothing but love and praise and respect comes from that. On our trip to Europe we visited many of my spouse's relatives, and our Canadian flag — our red maple leaf, although not the ensign in 1945 — was certainly acknowledged worldwide as a symbol of peace, respect and honour. It's with great pride that I wear the Canadian flag when I travel abroad.

I'd like to go back to Dieppe for a moment. In August of 1942 British forces planned to send an expeditionary force to Europe to get a foothold and to break the Nazi hold on northern France, and they selected Dieppe for reasons unknown to many. The beach there is rock. It's very steep, and there were well-fortified cliffs and embankments not a hundred metres from the shore.

I'd read about Dieppe, and I'd read about the tragedy that was Dieppe — 5,000 Canadians lost on that one day. Those that managed to survive were imprisoned for the rest of the war. Reading about it, looking at photographs of the beach and even some newsreel movies of the time doesn't give you the sense of how absolutely unlikely it was that there would be any success on that day. As I stood on the beach…. It's a gravel beach, and the incline is almost 90 degrees. How the British thought that this was going to be a success is beyond any historian's view at any rate. But it was Canadians that hit that beach in 1942, and they died in the thousands.

We visited the Commonwealth Cemetery when we were in Dieppe, and there were the crosses row on row. That had a profound impact on me. But the biggest impact was when we went to the city square. In a tower there in an old, old fortress — it must be a centuries-old building — was a sign that said "Canadian commemoration this way." It was in English. We're in France, so it was the only English sign that we could come across. We followed it, and there was a man. He was in his 70s, and every year from 1942 to the present he has put on a commemoration to Canadians for the contribution they made on that day to him and to the people of France.

He does it out of his own pockets. He had a file folder this thick of letters and testimonials from Canadians who had visited him over the years. I asked him why he did it. He said that as long as he drew breath, he wanted his countrymen to know the contribution Canadians had made to the livelihood and vibrancy of the people of France.

Dieppe 1942. I shall never forget, and nor should those of us in this room and those of us out of this room watching today.

The Year of the Veteran — November 5 to November 11. One of the proudest moments I will have as a member of this Legislature is going to the Veterans Memorial Park in Langford on November 11 to lay a wreath in remembrance of the people who have served so valiantly and courageously in two wars, in peacekeeping missions and in Korea 1950 to 1953.

In my community and the community of the member for Esquimalt-Metchosin, we've gone a little bit further than that. There was a highway project. The Minister of Transportation would know it. We called it the Millstream connector when it was being built in the western approaches to Victoria.

The district of Langford, in concert with the city of Colwood, renamed Millstream road Veterans Memorial Parkway. Now, forever, when people enter the city of Langford, the city of Colwood and head to the Western Communities of Victoria, they will have to take Veterans Memorial Parkway. What could be a more fitting tribute to the people who laid down their lives for us so we could be in this chamber speaking about truth, justice and democracy than to rename buildings or pieces of infrastructure, so that we're always reminded not just in our classrooms but outside of our classrooms and in our daily lives.

I went to the Sooke Fall Fair this September, and the theme was "On the home front." Again, as a historian, there were some spectacular artifacts that people in Sooke, a small fishing community on the west coast of the Island, had held and kept for just this sort of occasion. Sixty years later they had artifacts that they had treasured and used during the 1940s.

I had the occasion to talk to Frank Planes, who was a T'Sou-ke Nation member. He's a hereditary chief, and he was in what they called the gumboot navy. Frank was not conscripted…. That's not the word. He was approached and asked to sign up in the 1940s, and he did so. The purpose for that was that nobody knew the coast of the Island like first nations fishermen. He became what they called a gumboot navy recruit, and it was his job to make sure that the Canadian navy knew every corner, every crevice, to ensure there weren't U-

boats up and down the coast. To hear Frank, now heading towards his 80s, talk about his time as a young man in the gumboot navy was truly inspirational.

So as we look at the Year of the Veteran, I want to commend the member for Port Moody–Westwood for bringing forward this motion. I support it unreservedly and wholeheartedly, and I ask all other members to join in honouring our veterans on November 11 and every day after that. Lest we never forget.

L. Krog: It is a privilege to rise in the House and speak to this motion, and I, too, wish to extend my thanks to the member for Port Moody–Westwood for bringing it forward. I also want to thank the members of this House for giving it the unanimous consent necessary to bring it forward, in order that we might have an opportunity to speak to it this morning.

In my remarks earlier this morning, I alluded to the fact that young men believe they're invincible. In two great wars and the Korean War, and as a nation in peacekeeping in many parts of this globe, we have to some extent as a society exploited that incredible courage and willingness to take risks. What this motion does today is pay tribute to those young men in particular, and young women on occasion, who on behalf of this country have placed themselves at great risk, who have defended freedom, who have defended our nation, who have defended their fellow citizens and done it with courage, without reservation and without hesitation.

Where I grew up, the Barnums lived up the road — Wallace and his brother Walter. I was at a funeral recently with Walter. Walt Barnum is well into his 90s now, served in Italy. There were three brothers: Wallace survived; Walter survived; another brother didn't. He was killed in action in Italy.

One of the most respected businessmen in Parksville, not far from where I was raised in Coombs, was old Jim Kingsley. He had an artificial leg, a veteran of the first war — Vimy Ridge. My father-in-law's late uncle Rupert — two of his friends killed beside him as they ascended in the assault on Vimy Ridge.

We cannot forget the sacrifice that we asked of those generations of young Canadians. This summer I completed reading Peter Newman's book Here Be Dragons, which is largely in some respects — I commend to the members — a bit of good political gossip. There is one very moving passage in that book, and I don't think anyone can read it without reflecting on the courage and the sacrifice made by Canadians in the fight against fascism. Peter Newman's family were Jewish. He and his parents managed to flee. His grandparents did not. They ended up in the concentration camp at Theresienstadt.

He visited there, and he had an opportunity to do a tour. He came across an open pit, grassed in now with the passage of time, and he inquired of the guard: "What was the purpose of the pit?" The tour guide explained to him that in that pit, the Nazis would place young men with clubs, and they were ordered to kill each other, to beat one another to death till the last survived, and his life would be spared. Surrounding the pit was a series of bleachers. The guide explained to Peter Newman that the wives of the German officers would sit there doing their knitting, watching that spectacle below.

So I want to say, particularly to the representatives of the Legion here this morning, that when you reflect on your life, if you don't already fill yourself with the immense pride that you deserve to be filled with for what your generation fought in defeating fascism, then let that ugly story that I have just recited be a reminder to you of what it is that your generation gave to my generation — that we might stand here in this House, in the comfort of a prosperous society, free and able to speak our minds on every occasion without reservation, not fearing that our ethnicity or our religion might somehow be a bar to our very survival in our society.

I want to pay particular tribute to those veterans who still, regardless of age, commit themselves to community work in our communities through the auspices of the Royal Canadian Legion branches, and who come out on a cold November day every year and honour those who are not with us now.

I say to the members of this House: we are fortunate that they sacrificed so much for us. I think I reflect the views of everyone in this House when I say that no thanks will ever be sufficient for what the veterans of this country and those who did not survive the war did. We are fortunate to live in our society today because of them.

Hon. C. Richmond: I just wish to make a few remarks on this motion, and I thank the member for Port Moody–Westwood for bringing the motion forward.

In Kamloops every year, as I'm sure in most communities around the province and this country, we have a Remembrance Day ceremony on November 11. It's one that I look forward to every year just because we should pay thanks to these veterans, and we should not let people forget about the horrors of war. I've been fortunate to be a member of the Kamloops Rube Band, which is our community band, for many, many years. It's an occasion that we look forward to, to do our little bit to remember the veterans every year.

I've got to tell you that up until the last couple of years, we always had a couple or three veterans from the First World War. I think they have now disappeared, and you can certainly see the age of the veterans every year from World War II creeping up and up and up. Yet I really commend most of them for making the effort every year to do the parade down to the cenotaph. It's always a pleasure to march out in front of them in the band and to see the veterans still turn out. It's also gratifying to see a great number of school children come to the ceremony every year. Last year, for example, I think we had over 500 school children, and I commend the people, teachers and parents who bring them out to see the ceremony every year.

A few years ago in the band, we had the privilege of going to Holland and participating in the 35th anni-

versary of the liberation of that country. It's really something. I can tell you, as the other members have spoken this morning, that it doesn't really hit home to you until you go over there and see where and how this all happened. The outpouring of love and gratitude from the Dutch people was literally overwhelming.

We stayed in a World War II air force barracks in Nijmegen, the Limos barracks, and got a good feel for what it was like. Marching in the parade that day in front of our Canadian veterans was an experience I will never forget, as the people of Holland ran out, literally, into the middle of the parade and pressed flowers into their hands. The gratitude was unbelievable.

The experience I think that touched me the most was going to a large cemetery outside of Nijmegen called Groesbeek. Just witnessing firsthand 5,000 crosses in that cemetery — all young Canadian men…. You can't come out of an experience like that and not be changed by it. So I don't mean to be depressing or morbid, but I urge everyone, if you get a chance, to go over there and look at some of these places that other members have mentioned. Go and visit some of the cemeteries, and then it really strikes home to you.

I just want to say in all sincerity that we owe these veterans all the gratitude that we can muster, and we should never, ever let people forget what happened on that foreign soil. Once again, I thank the member for Port Moody–Westwood for bringing this forward, and I shall certainly be supporting this motion wholeheartedly.

J. Nuraney: I, too, would like to stand in support of this motion honouring those who fought for our country and liberated others from tyranny. It is vital that we keep these memories alive and teach our younger generation the importance of what these brave men and women achieved. The sacrifices they made must not be forgotten and, in a way, should serve as a warning about the horrors of war. To most young people, war is something you see on television or in a movie. It is often glamorized. The hero wins; the enemy loses. In reality, nobody really wins from war. There is nothing glamorous in death and human misery.

We have several well-decorated veterans in my riding of Burnaby-Willingdon. One in particular who stands out is George McLean. He's a proud Canadian who talks often about his experiences during the war. As a matter of fact, he has undertaken to speak to the children in our schools to make them aware of the horrors of war and the sacrifices made.

Wars result in needless deaths and destruction. Whole countries and even continents are thrown into chaos. Over a million Canadians left their homes to serve overseas in both World Wars and in Korea. Many did not come home and are buried with their band of brothers in Commonwealth war cemeteries across Europe and Asia. Many did not know what to expect. The horrors they encountered are beyond words, but what they accomplished is beyond measure.

Canadians, as my colleague mentioned, played a key role in the liberation of Holland. The Dutch have not forgotten the sacrifices our veterans made for them, and each year, Holland gives Canada over 100,000 tulip bulbs as a simple gift of thanks. These bulbs bloom throughout Ottawa each spring, their simplistic beauty representing the deep friendship between our two countries. Our soldiers and veterans have made their mark on the world. Vimy, Dieppe, Monte Cassino, Korea and Cyprus are just a few places where the word "Canada" is synonymous with courage and bravery.

I was pleased to see our government honour veterans through the special licence plate for motor vehicles. When I see someone whose car has one of these plates, I think for a moment about where they may have served in our military. I also say a silent thanks for their dedication to our country.

One phrase heard frequently on Remembrance Day is: "Lest we forget." It is a plea to not forget past sacrifices. We need to ensure that the future generation heeds this call. I urge all to support this motion, and I encourage everyone to take the time on November 11 to participate in the Remembrance Day ceremony at the local war memorial. It is not much to ask to take a few minutes to thank and reflect about those who have sacrificed so much for our country.

Deputy Speaker: Hon. members, unanimous consent of the House is required to proceed with Motion 55 without disturbing the priorities of motions preceding it on the paper. Is leave granted?

J. McIntyre: In recognition of National Science and Technology Week, I'd like to move Motion 55 standing in my name on the order paper. To start, I'd like to read it into the record.

The growth and the success of the life sciences industry in this province is a story that all British Columbians can be incredibly proud of. Last April, Gillian Shaw reported in the Vancouver Sun that B.C.'s high-tech sector, including biotech, accounts for $3.5 billion of the province's GDP. The article went on to say that B.C.'s fast-growing biotech cluster boasts two of Canada's four profitable biotechs. That's QLT and Angiotech, and that's quite an achievement.

In fact, B.C.'s biotech community of more than 90 private sector firms is the seventh largest in North America and is the fastest-growing in Canada. We have a highly skilled workforce, low operating costs for technology businesses and business tax rates that are among the most competitive in North America. So there's no doubt that B.C. is now being recognized as a biotech leader in North America.

We have world-class universities, teaching hospitals and research institutions that are developing therapies to treat diverse diseases — infectious diseases, cancer, HIV/AIDS. We are excelling in the fields of neuroscience, bio-informatics and genomics, as well as photodynamic therapy, amongst other areas. I just read today that 70 percent of B.C.'s firms are spinoffs of university research.

We have some key anchor companies with significant successes and experienced industry professionals — companies such as Angiotech, QLT, Xenon, Aspreva, Stressgen, Inflazyme, and the list goes on. I'm proud to say we have government policy that supports research infrastructure — for example, the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research, Genome B.C., Leading Edge Endowment Fund and the B.C. Innovation Council, to name several.

By spring of this year B.C. had committed over $350 million to life sciences since 2001, and this, of course, is in addition to the funding for post-secondary institutions. You might be interested to know that approximately 3,200 degrees of the 16,000 granted are in the sciences.

Over the past few years industry has been asking government to assist in advancing their industry's successes by creating a milieu for continuing growth. When David Hall, CFO of Angiotech Pharmaceuticals and chairman of B.C. Biotech, appeared before the Select Standing Committee on Finance and Government Services a year ago, in October 2004, he made recommendations on how the industry could move forward. Let me quote:

I couldn't have said it better myself. Government has responded. In June of this year at the BIO 2005 convention in Philadelphia, the Premier announced that the B.C. government is developing important tax changes to make the province an even more attractive centre for biotechnology innovation. He announced that significant new tax incentives will encourage companies that invest in the development of intellectual property in the form of patents to remain and expand their capital investment in B.C. as they move their ideas to market.

Government has acted. I'm very proud to say that in our recent budget update in September, the Minister of Finance brought in two measures that will enhance British Columbia's economic competitiveness and support job creation: one, general corporate tax reduction of 1½ percentage points to 12 percent to keep competitive with nearby jurisdictions; and two, the provision of tax incentive for the commercialization of life science patents to build on our growing stature as a centre for biotechnology and research and development. So no doubt these steps will assist.

However, there is a long — and I do repeat: long — road ahead to ensure that we keep the benefits of our research ideas and innovations here at home. There's no question that we're still at the tipping point — and it's a fragile tipping point — where capital and labour can disappear from B.C. in the wink of an eye if we're not careful and not diligent. I believe at least we're on the right path by supporting the life science industry in this province.

In closing, here's an example of how one small U.S. biotech has now decided to move to Vancouver. This article on Urigen, which is moving into its new quarters at Simon Fraser University's incubator space in downtown Vancouver on November 1, was in the Vancouver Sun on October 4. I think it beautifully illustrates that we're already seeing positive results by creating a nurturing environment. Let me quote the article.

The article goes on to report that: "Vancouver's advantages were such that Urigen turned down a venture capital offer in the U.S., said their company director Jeffrey Bacha." Bacha went on to also say: "I knew we could do a lot with the company by moving it to Vancouver and taking advantage of the positive environment here for young and growing biotech companies."

In the same article, B.C.'s business climate and the Premier's efforts are both praised. I'll read just the last bit here.

On this note, I sincerely hope that members of this House will recognize the great efforts, the hard work and the advancements of those working in the life sciences and related industries by supporting this motion. We need to leverage and protect this significant investment and ensure that we build on our successes.

M. Karagianis: Thank you very much to the member for West Vancouver–Garibaldi for highlighting this issue in this motion.

I think it's very interesting that in today's Vancouver Sun, in fact, the editorial is dedicated to this very topic: "Universities the Best Places for Investment in Biotech Research." In fact, this article outlines very clearly that this is a huge and significant new sector that has developed and needs to be nurtured and encouraged here in the province of British Columbia.

The writer starts off by saying: "No one disputes the importance of expanding scientific knowledge and using it to cure and prevent disease, feed people and protect the planet. Yet the financial hurdles that biotechnology companies must overcome make it extraordinarily difficult for them to deliver the goods."

Interestingly enough, the article actually goes on to highlight the fact that despite the significant relevance of life sciences, of the biotech industry, of all of the expanding technology of the future around this, these companies struggle to find investment. Commonly, this is not the most attractive of investment environments for investors or RSP investors, and part of that reason is because there have been significant investment losses historically over the past years.

The article here really focuses in on the fact that government, to make these companies viable and to help and assist them with their investments into new biotechnology of the future, has to step forward and be a significant participant in this, because the independent investors of the world find this the least attractive environment to invest in. I think it's something that we should all remember and think about.

The editorial here goes on to talk about the fact that it's important that B.C.'s tax regime is competitive with the rest of the world and that the cost of doing business is low and that universities are endowed with sufficient research money to ensure that biotechnology will, as promised, make our lives better. So a very interesting and timely article there today.

One of the things that comes to mind in looking at and researching biotech and life sciences is, in fact, that this is considered to be the next-generation technology. I really like that term — the next-generation technology — because, in fact, it's all about what's ahead of us.

Biotech companies in British Columbia are looking for a number of things. We've already acknowledged here in this article in the Sun that it's not necessarily a rich environment for investors, but biotech companies are looking for a number of other things. The awards and rewards for them are more quality of life and contributing to the long-term health and wellness of future communities.

In focusing in a little bit on what's required to incubate these kinds of businesses and to invest in this environment here, I want to focus on the next generation. The next-generation technology actually speaks to the next generation in all ways, and that, therefore, puts the responsibility on us to look at the continuum of education and the continuum of environment that we create here in British Columbia for these life sciences. In fact, education is the key to excellence in the future for these next-generation technologies, and so I think it's really essential for us to think about that. I think it's also probably very appropriate that today we are talking again about education and what an important role it plays here in this province.

Certainly, in viewing the kind of investments that we can make beyond the monetary into biotechnology and into this future technology…. A lot of that comes around education, making sure that we start off in kindergarten, right through the continuum of education, thinking about the next generation — what the next generation is going to do to make a living, what they will do to contribute to the environment and to the world we live in. So I think we need to think, right from the seed, of the excellence of our education system in supporting the future of technology here.

We need to look through our secondary school and post-secondary school and make sure that, in fact, in the future we are encouraging more students to access more education in order to make that the investment in the next-generation technologies. We have talked a lot here in this House about skilled trades and the shortage of skilled trades. We will continue to talk about that in the days and weeks and months and years to come, because in fact the shortage of skilled trades is not even just about the construction industry. The shortage of skilled trades in many ways feeds into the next-generation technologies. All of those things are inherent in the motion that is being put forward today, which talks about research and development, about innovation, about invention. All of those things are in our care right now and the way we approach education — the way we fund it, the way we support it, the kind of resources that we make sure are there from K through the whole life of learning.

In fact, these industries offer opportunities that go well beyond anything we expected to be available in secondary and post-secondary education. Certainly, in our lifetimes those of us here in the House are seeing some of these technologies advancing in areas that we never would have conceived of or dreamed of while we were pursuing our post-secondary educations.

I think it is really important that part of the support system be all of the things that I have discussed around making sure those resources are there through K-to-12

and, secondly, looking at finding ways of making tuition affordable, making sure that more students have more opportunities to develop their own skills, their own interests, their own desires in this.

I'm happy to support this motion and hope that it does give us the impetus to move forward and create that next generation in the richest environment we possibly can.

Noting the time and the termination of my remarks, I would move that we adjourn this debate.

Hansard Services publishes transcripts both in print and on the Internet. Chamber debates are broadcast on television and webcast on the Internet.