The announcement is a sign of cheap politics without substance, says Newton North-Delta Member of Parliament Sukh Dhaliwal.

“The announcement is a sign of utter disrespect for the Indo Canadians and in particular, the families of the Komagata Maru passengers” said Dhaliwal. “If Stephen Harper thinks that this funding is an adequate replacement to official recognition within the House of Commons, he is truly out of touch with the Indo Canadian community.”

The timing of the announcement is also suspect, coming on the heels of the resignation of former Conservative candidate for the riding of Bramalea-Gore-Malton, Parvinder Singh. Mr. Singh tendered his resignation as a candidate this past week after stating that “the Conservative Party of Canada has no respect for the Sikhs” and that “turbans and Punjabis have no place in this party.”

A Liberal Private Members Motion that passed unanimously in the House of Commons on May 15, 2008 formally requested an official apology from the government. Yet nearly two years later, there has been absolutely no action in this regard.

Dhaliwal continues to question why descendents of the racist Chinese head tax were offered such an apology as well as compensation, and yet the Komagata Maru incident has been met with relative silence from the Conservative government.

“This is just another example of how Stephen Harper treats various communities, regions and cultural backgrounds differently in the name of politics” added Dhaliwal. “The time has come for the Prime Minister to take action and help the nation to move on from this terrible moment in Canada’s history with an official apology in the House of Commons.”

The Komagata Maru steamship sailed from Hong Kong to Vancouver carrying 376 passengers from Punjab, India. The passengers were not allowed to land in Canada and the ship was forced to return in an attempt to discriminate against immigration from India.

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For more information, please contact:
dhaliwal@sukhdhaliwal.ca
604-598-2202

For those who may still be unclear about what prorogation means, it is essentially the executive decision to shut down all the business of parliament, including the legislative agenda and the work of committees, to start with a clean slate.

Parliamentary tradition dictates that it is a decision made with a strong consensus from all parties that the parliamentary agenda has, for the most part, run its course.

At least, that is how it used to work, by and large. Until Stephen Harper. He has decided - based on the cynical calculations derived from a poll before Christmas - that you would not care about how or when he would prorogue. After all, you live in the real world, and he clearly thinks you don’t expect the work of government to be accountable to you.

In the real world you don’t show up to work two months late and say that you have been “recalibrating” your agenda for the next year.

In the real world you don’t explain to your boss that it is important that you take time off to celebrate the Olympics while everybody else has to show up to work. And for those who do get the time off to see an Olympic event, in the real world you have to pay - and dearly - for a ticket.

In the real world you don’t just cancel all the projects you have been working on and all the meetings you have scheduled and explain to your boss it was just too difficult to work with your colleagues. Especially when there is absolutely no evidence of this. And you certainly can’t go to the boss and say you’re going to hand pick say, five new senior managers on the strength of this baseless argument.

What has emerged from this cynical decision to prorogue is yet another glimpse at the real Stephen Harper, a man who, curiously enough, has never really had to work in your world, who has been an academic, head mouthpiece for a special interest group and professional politician for all of his working life.

In other words, he has never really had to be accountable to anyone but those who make up the political class in the Conservative Party of Ottawa - woops - of Canada.

Well perhaps now that may change. We all deserve better.

PS For those on Facebook, please join over 110,000 of your fellow citizens in the group “Canadians Against Proroging Parliament” to show your support for getting Parliament back to work.

The numbers on prorogation

Number of government bills killed: 37
Share of government bills killed: more than half
Number of crime bills killed: 11
Months without accountability to Parliament: 3
Order paper questions from MP to Ministers killed: hundreds
Total days prorogued: 63
Total days prorogued in the 4 years Stephen Harper has been Prime Minister: 148
Total days prorogued during the 10 years Jean Chretien was Prime Minister: 145
Parliaments that continued passing sitting right up to or during Olympic Games: Italy (Turin 2006), US (Salt Lake City 2002), Australia (Sydney, 2000), Japan (Nagano 1998), US (Atlanta 1996), Canada (Calgary 1988)

In his own words: Stephen Harper on prorogation

Then:
“When a government starts trying to cancel dissent or avoid dissent is frankly when it’s rapidly losing its moral authority to govern.” (Stephen Harper, Canadian Press, April 18, 2005)

Now:
“A decision to prorogue when the government has the confidence of the house is a routine constitutional matter.” (Stephen Harper, CBC’s The National, January 5, 2010)

“The Harper government has failed to deliver promised jobs in a timely manner, as Canada tries to recover from the economic crisis,” said Dr. Hedy Fry, Chair of the Official Opposition’s BC Caucus and Member of Parliament for Vancouver Centre.

Ujjal Dosanjh, Member of Parliament for Vancouver South agreed, saying: “BC has been treated as an afterthought. Fewer jobs have been delivered here than anywhere else in the country”.

Studies by media, academics and the Opposition have shown the Conservatives have treated two types of communities differently in BC, like the rest of the country: those represented by Conservatives and everyone else. In old-fashioned political style, those areas have been promised more funds and had their projects approved earlier, despite often having lower unemployment rates.

“It was pressure from the Opposition which forced this late funding announcement,” said Dr. Keith Martin, Member of Parliament for Esquimalt-Juan de Fuca. “Unfortunately it will be some time before the work does begin and the jobs are created.”

Previously undisclosed government data shows that, as of September, only three percent of projects promised to B.C. to fight the recession were creating jobs with infrastructure projects. The average national number at that time was 15 percent - itself only one-fifth of what the Conservatives have been claiming.

“As if 15 percent weren’t bad enough, B.C. is getting even less,” said Joyce Murray, Member of Parliament for Vancouver Quadra. “This Conservative Government is not serving British Columbians.”

In order to rise up out of the current state of economic decline, it is essential that these jobs are created. “The Harper Government has been slow to the mark and poorly focused. With the fewest number of projects under way, BC is suffering under this government,” concluded Sukh Dhaliwal, Member of Parliament for Newton-North Delta.

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Office of the Hon. Hedy Fry, P.C.M.P., 604-762-4386
Office of Hon. Ujjal Dosanjh, P.C., M.P., 613-947-3957
Office of Sukh Dhaliwal, 604-506-0735
Office of Dr. Keith Martin, P.C., M.P., 613-996-2625
Office of Joyce Murray, 613-992-2430

On December 3, 1984, the Union Carbide chemical plant released poisonous gas over the city of Bhopal, causing the worst industrial accident the world has ever seen.

The people still suffer from the after effects of this disaster. The poisonous fumes contaminated Bhopal’s soil and groundwater leading to cancer and birth defects.

Today we not only remember the victims but also urge for more aid to the residents who must live with the lingering effects of this tragedy.

Burns Bog is the largest domed peat bog on the west coast of North America. It is globally unique on the basis of its chemistry, form, flora and large size. It is a precious natural resource that helps reduce the impact of climate change by absorbing greenhouse gases, filtering large amounts of rain and providing habitat for rare and endangered species.

The UNESCO World Heritage List recognizes that some places of outstanding universal value are the responsibility of the international community and serves as a catalyst to raising awareness for heritage preservation. World Heritage sites can be publically listed as sites in danger.

In the last federal election, the Liberal Party promised to nominate Burns Bog as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The NDP and Conservatives were silent about the future of the Bog. The Conservatives have refused to identify it as a candidate for Canada’s next submission of the Tentative List to UNESCO. The current list was updated in 2004 with an intended lifespan of a decade.

“Since 2006, we have been waiting for some leadership from this government on the status of Burns Bog,” Dhaliwal added. “As Michael Ignatieff said in his speech on the environment at Laval last week, we need a government that looks forward, not backward. A Liberal government would establish the bog as a Heritage Site to protect our community’s future.”

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For more information, please contact
604-506-0735
DhaliS1B@parl.gc.ca

I commend the efforts of all my constituents who give so much of themselves to make the celebrations of this day such a success - this year and every year.

I urge all Members of the House here today to join me in wishing all Canadians a very Happy Eid-al-Adha.

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For more information, please contact
604-506-0735
DhaliS1B@parl.gc.ca

Dhaliwal listed just a few of the Auditor General’s findings to support his claims. They include:

• A failure of Citizenship and Immigration to follow up on genuineness of job offers for lower skilled temporary workers, with limited oversight of working conditions, accommodations or cases of abuse;

• A severe reduction in the number of occupations that would qualify for the foreign workers’ program with the clear intention of reducing applicants, with long term effects for all of the current streams of applications, and

• A backlog of more than a half million would-be immigrants, with an average processing time of 63 months.

“What we are talking about when we discuss temporary foreign workers are caregivers, skilled trades people, a broad spectrum of bright talented people from many developing economies around the world”, Dhaliwal added. These are precisely the people that could assure that Canada has a place at the table among the key global trading partners in the years ahead. This Conservative government is not only failing them; it’s failing all of us.”

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Office of Sukh Dhaliwal
613-992-7985