Mr. Bill Tupper (Nepean-Carleton):

Mr. Speaker, the National Arts Centre is one of Canada's great national and cultural institutions with an outstanding international reputation. A search committee seeking a new Director General at the National Arts Centre recently announced that the nomination for the Director General post would be the bilingual career diplomat, Mr. Ian Clarke, to be assisted by the skilled and accomplished former Stratford Festival Chief, Mr. Robin Phillips, as Artistic Director, and assisted by a francophone Business Manager.

That triumvirate would have served as an elegant choice to manage the National Arts Centre. I am dismayed to learn that the Governing Board of the National Arts Centre did not accept these recommendations.

Clearly it is important that the new directorship reflect Canada's heritage. At the same time it is important that a cultural institution such as that which reaches out to all Canadians be run by a management chosen on the basis of merit.

Mr. Jim Manly (Cowichan-Malahat-The Islands):

Mr. Speaker, the gap between rich and poor never seems greater or more unjust than at this time of year when we celebrate peace on earth, good will among all people. People of good will can always find ways of reaching across that gap and helping decrease it.

My parents always remembered with thanks the gift of food they received from an unknown family in Ontario one Saskatchewan Christmas during the drought of the 1930s.

This Christmas again, the lives of five million to eight million people in Ethiopia are under threat because of drought and starvation. Once again, with imagination, generosity, and good will, the people of Canada, working with others from around the world, can help to avert a major tragedy.

December 18, 1987

On behalf of those Canadians who believe in peace and good will as more than simply platitudes, I ask the Government of Canada once again to provide the facilities, personnel and leadership to co-ordinate our efforts to help the people of Ethiopia.

Mr. Guy St-Julien (Abitibi):

Mr. Speaker, Barraute's Precibois Company in Abitibi has been exempted from the 15 per cent tax on softwood lumber exports to the United States since December 30, 1986.

The exemption is not a mistake but the outcome of an American 100-page questionnaire to which company president Clement Julien responded: never did his firm receive grants from Quebec for stumpage rights or for his plant.

Precibois has 40 workers on the payroll, produces 30 million board metres, two thirds of which are exported to the United States.

The latest rumour in Ottawa is that, as of January 1, 1988, this Barraute firm will have to pay a 15-per-cent levy on its exports.

Mr. Speaker, the Province of Quebec is now party to the negotiations, so why penalize this Barraute company in Abitibi which had already won its case?

Mrs. Sheila Finestone (Mount Royal):

Mr. Speaker, who in her wildest dreams would think that a Bill on Canadian copyright could plunge us into a world of mystery and intrigue? Who would dream that the mother of this Bill, the Minister of Communications (Miss MacDonald), would resort to whispered behind-the-curtain warnings to an innocent Member of Parliament who is only trying to do her work?

It has happened to me. The Minister of Communications spoke to me behind the curtain the other day and said that my amendments to Bill C-60 were holding up this vital Bill and that the cultural community would know of my crime. Has the Minister forgotten her vital links? I have not. They are key to the Bill.

I was surprised but not easily intimidated, for this Bill was nine of ninth on the government shopping list. I stuck to my

guns, so to speak, but sure enough several telephone calls to my office from members of the cultural community confirmed that indeed I was being accused of obstructing the progress of the Bill. Since when has putting forth amendments to a Bill been considered unjustified intrigue, particularly a Bill that was so flawed?

Has this Minister given up on the democratic system? Has she forgotten that copyright is about fair balance between the rights of creators and the rights of users, or has she gone entirely into the world of James Bond? I have not. The heavy correspondence to my office from the cultural community assures me that I have helped the Minister to put the Bill on the right track. The timing problems are hers and the Government's, not mine.

Mr. Dave Nickerson (Western Arctic):

Mr. Speaker, everyone knows that it is not really the rat pack opposite that forms the real Opposition. Rather, it is our good friends, the newspaper columnists. From the uninspired mumblings of Jeffrey Simpson to the venom-dipped pen of Claire Hoy, they do a great job of filling up the space between advertisements.

This freedom of the Press means submission to the maulings of the great fuzzifier and occasional plagiarist, Alan Fotheringham. Charlie Lynch might be pardoned for telling the odd lie, but Peter Worthington can never be forgiven for speaking the truth. The most intelligent columnist might well be Ronald Anderson, but no one has ever stayed awake past the first two paragraphs to find out.

God bless them all.

Mr. Speaker:

I suppose "Merry Christmas" comes in different ways.

Oh, oh!

Mr. Speaker:

The Hon. Member for Churchill.

Mr. Murphy:

That's certainly an act I would not try to follow, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Rod Murphy (Churchill):

We have heard the Prime Minister (Mr. Mulroney) and his Minister of Justice (Mr. December 18, 1987

Hnatyshyn) claim in this House and to the Canadian people that the Government is able to implement the Prime Minister's trade deal without the consent of the provinces. I am sorry the Government of Canada does not share the same level of determination for implementation of other treaties and conventions. The Government has repeatedly declined to ratify conventions of the International Labour Organization, the UN body responsible for working people.

The record of the Government is terrible. We have ratified 26 of the 162 conventions of the ILO, or only 16 per cent. Once again we are able to see just where Conservative Government priorities lie. The Government refuses to improve working conditions for ordinary Canadians, claiming it cannot sign treaties that interfere with areas of provincial jurisdiction.

The Government of Canada has not signed an ILO convention since 1964. We have not signed the convention on apartheid, presumably because it deals with wines which are under provincial jurisdiction. We have not signed the convention on the working environment, the convention on accident prevention, on occupational health and safety, old age security and survivor benefits, minimum wages, paid holidays, collective bargaining, medicare, health benefits, or injury benefits, all because they come under provincial jurisdiction or are shared with the provinces.

Why does the Government want to sign the trade deal, which certainly affects provincial jurisdiction, but will not do anything for the working people of Canada, not since 1964?