Hon. Mike Radcliffe (Minister of Consumer and Corporate Affairs): Madam Speaker, do I have the leave of the Assembly for a nonpolitical statement?
Madam Speaker: Does the honourable member for River Heights have leave for a nonpolitical statement? [agreed]
Mr. Radcliffe: Madam Speaker, I am pleased to tell you and my colleagues this afternoon that I had the honour and the distinction on the weekend to attend the 21st annual National Media Human Rights Awards presentation hosted by B'nai Brith of Canada. There were members of our judiciary who were there. Our honourable Minister of Justice (Mr. Toews) was present, and I was joined as well by colleagues from across the House.
The B'nai Brith society was honouring the media, which play an influential role in shaping our public opinion. The Media Human Rights Awards were established to give encouragement to and positive recognition for outstanding responsible and effective work in the area of human rights by members of the Canadian media. These awards have fostered an awareness within the media industry of human rights based on our multicultural idea depending on our sharing of our diverse backgrounds here in Canada.
The League for Human Rights, which was the initiator of this award founded through B'nai Brith, is a national volunteer agency dedicated to combatting prejudice, bigotry and racism. We heard earlier in this Chamber today in Question Period reference to what our government was doing, and I am pleased to advise that we are participating with the citizens of Manitoba and the wonderful acts that they are doing to combat racism and bigotry in our province. I thank you, Madam Speaker, for this opportunity.
Mr. Tim Sale (Crescentwood): May I have leave to make a nonpolitical statement, Madam Speaker?
Madam Speaker: Does the honourable member for Crescentwood have leave? [agreed]
Mr. Sale: I, too, want to pay tribute to the B'nai Brith association and the Anti-Defamation League for their, I believe, actually the 22nd this year--21st, is it?
An Honourable Member: Twenty-second.
Mr. Sale: Twenty-second, I thought it was the 22nd. I am often accused by members opposite of having my facts wrong, but in this case I think I was correct.
The league has recognized in particular a number of media. I was very, very pleased to see that the work of the Brandon Sun, for example, was recognized for a 19-part series which that newspaper did on the serious problems in the reform of mental health services undertaken by this government. They won an honourable mention for that series. There were many other very good efforts on the part of the press across Canada to expose both individual and systemic racism as it exists in our country and to provide the public with ways of understanding the depth of the discrimination, the human rights issues and the hate that exists in our provinces and in our country today in spite of the very best efforts of organizations that have tried to counter that.
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Madam Speaker, I also want to pay tribute to an outstanding Manitoban, Helmut Harry Loewen who received the very first midwest region award for his tireless work in exposing hate literature and exposing groups like the Northern Hammerskins. He also drew our attention to the fact that a trial will shortly commence in this province of four men who are accused of second-degree murder in the beating death of a person in 1991 who was alleged to have been gay. Mr. Loewen pointed out to the assembled group last night that hate was, in the view of the police, a factor in this crime. He called on all of us to have a vigorous defence of those minorities that are still affected by hate in one form or another.
So I want to add my voice to the member opposite in commending the B'nai Brith organization in their outstanding and tireless work on behalf of us all.
Mr. Jack Penner (Emerson): Madam Speaker, I wonder whether I might have leave to make a nonpolitical statement.
Some Honourable Members: Leave.
Madam Speaker: The honourable member for Emerson indeed has leave.
Mr. Penner: It gives me a great deal of pleasure to rise today to recognize the efforts of the Altona Chamber of Commerce. My wife, Dora, and I had the pleasure of attending their annual banquet this past Saturday and they spoke very highly of the tremendous economic turnaround that the province of Manitoba had made, at this banquet.
They also paid tribute and recognition to one of their own, and they named the former mayor of the Town of Altona, Mr. Art Dyck, Citizen of the Year. I believe it could not have happened to a nicer person, a more hard-working, more dedicated person, and the honour bestowed on him on Saturday night certainly was well deserved.
Mr. Dyck, in his many years of public service, was the mayor of the town for many years. He was also the president of the MAUM organization, the urban organization of municipalities in the province of Manitoba for a number of years. He was the chairman of the Rhineland School Division Board of Trustees for many years. He served on his church council and many, many organizations on a volunteer basis. He and his wife, Mary, have served not only the community in a very, very dedicated manner, but he and his wife, Mary, have both served the community, the municipality, the Town of Altona and the province of Manitoba, and, indeed I say, the country of Canada to the highest order.
The honour bestowed on Mr. Art Dyck and his wife, Mary, on Saturday was of the highest order by his peers, and he deserves every bit of that recognition. My wife, Dora, and I certainly, and hopefully all members of this Legislature, will recognize his efforts and join in congratulating him and his wife, Mary, in being recognized as citizens of the year in the Town of Altona.
Hon. Bonnie Mitchelson (Minister of Family Services): Might I have leave to make a nonpolitical statement?
Madam Speaker: Does the honourable minister have leave? [agreed]
Mrs. Mitchelson: It truly is a proud day for me today to stand in this Legislature and give special congratulations to the Gateway Flyers, the Bantam A2 city champions.
I want to indicate that those in our community, the parents, the supporters and those that are involved in Gateway Community Club take much pride in recognizing this team of young boys, 14- and 15-year-olds, who started off the beginning of the year having not played together as a team. It was the first year for the 14-year-olds to be involved in a mixed-age group of hockey playing. They had come through several years of playing with the same boys on the same team and had to find a way of developing and learning to play together with boys that were a year older than they were and families, coaches that they had not been involved with before.
I want to say, from a very trying beginning when they had to come together as a team and get to know each other well, they continued to develop and to grow and to learn. Not only did the boys on the team become good friends, they truly did indeed come together to play as a team. It showed in the results that we experienced over the weekend where our boys indeed did prove that they had the ability to win the city championship, and they took it in the first three games out of the best of five games.
I would like to congratulate the team players, the coaches, the manager, the parents and all of those that were involved in helping them to reach this milestone in their hockey career.
If I could just read the names of the individual boys that played truly as a team, they are Tyler Beckering, Chris Cox, Michael Dare, Curtis Franklin, Kerry Holberg, David Johnston, Ryan Jones, Nathan Kerr, Frank Koch-Schulte, Kevin Kotyk, Trevor Mahoney, Tyler Mangano, Scott Mitchelson, Thomas Pavlik, Elliot Roch, Lee Schick, Troy Seman and Christopher Wasylin. And the coaches were Rick Holberg, Larry Vincent and Herb Cox.
I know that the boys displayed a great effort. I want to congratulate East Elmwood, the team that came second to the Gateway Flyers. They showed true sportsmanship and were worthy competitors in the playoffs. I just want to commend all for the sportsmanship and for the co-operation and the team play and the effort that was put into winning the city championships for the A2 Bantam hockey season. Thank you, Madam Speaker.