PUBLICATION:  The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon)

DATE:  2002.04.29

EDITION:  Final

SECTION:  Local

PAGE:  A4

BYLINE:  Norma Greenaway

SOURCE:  Southam Newspapers

DATELINE:  OTTAWA

ILLUSTRATION: Photo: (Garry) Breitkreuz

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Sask. MP says Grits' avoiding abortion debate: Breitkreuz says motion has little hope in parliament

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OTTAWA -- Saskatchewan MP Garry Breitkreuz's voice trembles with thinly concealed rage as he denounces the tactics employed by the Chretien Liberals to kill parliamentary debate on abortion and other subjects they prefer to ignore.

Breitkreuz is bracing to have his latest effort to ignite debate on the question of when human life begins shut down on orders from the Prime Minister's Office when the issue is put to the Commons next month.

"It's a very frustrating issue for me because I don't want to resort to touching the mace," says <Breitkreuz>, openly struggling to be his normal mild-mannered self.  "I think the government should have to listen to the views of Canadians. We should not have to go to the theatrics stage."

Breitkreuz was referring with obvious empathy to the angry theatrics to which Canadian Alliance colleague Keith Martin resorted to last week after the Liberals used a clever amendment to effectively kill his private member's bill decriminalizing marijuana.

Martin grabbed the ceremonial mace of the House of Commons, a symbol of the Speaker's authority and the independence of Parliament, in what he later admitted was a "coldly, premeditated act of civil disobedience" aimed at drawing attention to the "dictatorial" way the Prime Minister's Office treats government and opposition MPs.  This may come to a head at a meeting this week seeking new ways to ensure the efforts of backbenchers be heard through private member's bills and motions.

Breitkreuz is putting forward a motion that the government allow the Commons standing committee on justice and human rights to review the current definition of "human being" in the Criminal Code and recommend whether it should be amended.  The definition now says "a child becomes a human being within the meaning of this act when it has completely proceeded, in a living state, from the body of its mother."

Breitkreuz has urged Canadians to advise their MPs over the next few weeks whether they favour the current definition or other options, such as declaring an unborn child a human being at the point of conception, or when the baby's brain waves can be detected, or when the baby starts to move within the womb.

The motion to refer the issue to committee is tentatively slated for debate on May 22. Breitkreuz, who has previously pushed for legislation declaring that human life begins at conception, says he purposely "tempered" his motion to encourage an open-ended debate.

He said a survey he commissioned in his riding of Yorkton-Melville found only 11 per cent of those interviewed supported the current Criminal Code definition. Almost 60 per cent favoured saying that life begins at conception, he said.  Breitkreuz says he interprets the results as a sign the "vast majority" of Canadians across the country would support revisiting the issue.

Breitkreuz says his frustration is fuelled by the knowledge that his motion has strong support from more than half of the 58-member Alliance caucus, many Liberals and a handful of Tories.  Liberal MPs, he says, have told him that Chretien has made clear he doesn't want to polarize Parliament by dwelling on such charged issues, a position that outrages Breitkreuz.  "For goodness sake," he said. "It's our job as legislators to deal with some of these tough questions. To shy away from these things because there might be two points of view is absurd."

Still, Breitkreuz admits he holds out almost no hope his motion will be approved.  It will take only one Liberal MP to deny the unanimous consent needed to put the motion to a vote, and possibly send it on to committee for study, he said.  "There is something seriously wrong with this institution when one office has that much power."

Backbench Liberal and opposition MPs have long complained about what they see as their lack of clout. But the volume seems to be increasing against the backdrop of statistics that show none of the 235 private member's bills introduced by backbenchers during the current Parliament has made it through the Commons. The Canadian Alliance also says that only about half a dozen of the 481 private member's motions that have been introduced have been adopted.