I posed the following questions in the House of Commons on Thursday, Feb. 9th: Mr. Speaker, The tragedies in Newfoundland and Labrador as the result of inadequate search and rescue continue to mount. The latest victim is 14-year-old Burton Winters of Makkovik, Labrador. The Defence Department revealed Wednesday its Goose Bay-based Griffon helicopters were out of service. Déjà vu, Mr. Speaker. In 2009, when the Cougar helicopter went down off Newfoundland, the Gander-based Cormorants were in Nova Scotia and also unavailable. How many more tragedies before search and rescue problems are finally addressed? Peter MacKay, Minister of National Defence : Mr. Speaker, as I have said a number of times, our thoughts and prayers are with the family of young Burton Winters. Certainly his family, friends, his entire community of Makkovik and officials were in Newfoundland yesterday providing detailed analysis of the circumstances around this tragedy. A full investigation has now been completed and ...

I posed the following question today (Feb. 7 th ) in the House of Commons. Mr. Speaker, more questions are being raised about the efforts to find the 14-year-old boy from Makkovik, Labrador, who died last week after getting lost on his snowmobile. Burton Winters died while waiting for search and rescue that never came. A private helicopter joined in the search the day after the teen disappeared. A Canadian Forces search and rescue aircraft was not sent out for a full two days. Mr. Speaker, the family of Burton Winters has a simple question: What took the military so long to get off the ground. And when will we know the whole story? Peter MacKay, Minister of National Defence: Mr. Speaker, first, let me say that we are deeply saddened by the tragic death of Burton Winters and our condolences go out to the young man's family, certainly his friends, and his entire community. With respect to when we will have more answers, I have asked the Chief of Defence Staff, and I met with him th...

I gave the following speech in the House of Commons on Wednesday, Feb. 1, on Conservative Bill C-25 — an act relating to Pooled Registered Pension Plans. The Harper government introduced time allocation on the bill, limiting debate to two days. Mr. Speaker, The image that haunts me from the May 2011 federal election, from campaigning in my riding of St. John's South-Mount Pearl in the great province of Newfoundland and Labrador, is that of the seniors I met at their doors, in the middle of the afternoon, in their winter coats. They wore their winter coats inside their homes, decent homes in the suburbs of St. John's and Mount Pearl, because they could not afford to turn up the heat. The No. 1 issue in my riding is seniors, people living on fixed incomes, people trying to make ends meet. According to the Conference Board of Canada, 1.6 million seniors across the country live in poverty, and it is slowly and steadily getting worse. The cost of everything is going up...

I gave the following statement today (Feb. 1st) in the House of Commons. Statements are a maximum of one minute in length. While I was delivering the statement, Conservative MP Gerald Keddy (South Shore-St. Margaret’s, Nova Scotia) barked like a seal. The political equivalent of a trained seal. Mr. Speaker, The market for Canadian seal products has never been as desperate as it is today, as desperate as it is under this Conservative government. The province of Newfoundland and Labrador is even considering asking sealers to stockpile seal products this year … for lack of market. Under this Conservative government the European Union has imposed a ban on Canadian seal products. So have the Russians. Russia was the primary market for Canadian seal products, purchasing up to 95 per cent. For a government that’s supposed to be so focused on trade and the economy … For a government that’s supposed to be such a champion of the Canadian seal harvest … The news of the Russian ban only came to li...

“As a sealer, as a fisherman standing before you today, I say to you that I am the endangered species. I am endangered but I still fight back. I will survive. I will not let animal rights become more important than human rights. I will not let people give souls to animals while they rob me of my human dignity and right to earn a livelihood.” - Small, 1985, as quoted in Volume 2 of the 1986 Report of the Royal Commission into Seals and Sealing in Canada . Stay tuned to this site – more to follow.

I spoke with a couple of sources within Service Canada Thursday regarding Conservative cuts to the Employment Insurance system. They asked me to relate the following inside story. Sources within Service Canada say there were two cases across Canada this week in which police had to be called in because Employment Insurance claimants had threatened to kill themselves. The sources said the claimants were distressed because of the particular decision on their EI claims, and the length of time it took for the decisions to be handed down. The same source also revealed Canada-wide statistics on the speed of decisions for EI claims. Service Canada has set a goal whereby 85 per cent of EI claims are to be seen by a Service Canada agent within 21 days of being filed, so that a payment can be made within 28 days. But that goal is nowhere near being reached. In fact, for the week ending Jan. 21 st , only 33.7 per cent of EI claims had been seen by an agent within 21 days — the "worst...

From animal-rights groups to the Harper Conservatives, my recent comments to John Furlong of the CBC's Fisheries Broadcast regarding the seal hunt have been spun into an unrecognizable, twisted mash. I released the following statement to the media on Tuesday, Jan. 24th. I will not back down from any issue: Cleary St. John’s – NDP MP Ryan Cleary (St. John’s South-Mount Pearl) released the following statement to clarify misleading comments in the media concerning his position on the Newfoundland and Labrador commercial seal hunt. “On Sunday I was asked in an e-mail by John Furlong, host of the CBC’s Fisheries Broadcast, to clarify the NDP position on the seal hunt. He asked whether the NDP is changing its position on the hunt or proposing there be a buyout of licences, ‘Someone is telling me that the NDP might also (along with yours truly!) be sensing that the writing may be on the wall,’ Furlong wrote. Furlong interviewed me and I made it clear that the NDP stand has not changed. Th...