 Member's Statement The Member for Paris San Muscoca Thank you Mr. Speaker. I rise in this house today to congratulate the 844 Norseman Royal Canadian Air Cadet Squadron. Based in Huntsville, by riding at Paris San Muscoca, the cadets were selected as the top squadron in Ontario for 2014. This prestigious honour was based on a number of criteria, including attendance, number of cadets in the squadron, completion of training and levels of success. Along with the 50 exceptional individuals, I would also like to commend Commanding Officer Adam Smith, Deputy Commanding Officer Mel Wardrigan, Training Officer, Second Lieutenant Brenda Chikoski, Assistant Supply Officer Officer Cadet Brad Gondas, as well as the civilian staff and the volunteers whose hard work and dedication all contributed to this accomplishment. Since being formed in 1976, the cadets have served to allow youth from Huntsville in the surrounding area the opportunity to develop leadership, responsibility, discipline and confidence. This is the first time that the 844 Norseman Squadron have received such recognition. It is truly a great achievement for these young men and women. I look forward to the results of nationwide voting and wish you the best of luck to be potentially be awarded the top squadron in Canada. Thank you very much Mr. Speaker. Thank you. Member's Statement, a Member for Windsor and Tecumseh. Mr. Speaker, many of us are still feeling the glow from the tremendous outpouring of support at our local Remembrance Day celebrations. Today, I'd like to tell you about a special person in my riding of Windsor-Tecumseh. Dan Bouzid is the son of a veteran. For the past 13 years, Dan has hosted an annual Veterans Appreciation Day banquet. Veterans eat free. More than 700 people attend and enjoy great food at Windsor's Serbian Center and Museum. As President of the Windsor Historical Society, Dan and his team of volunteers led by Second World War naval veteran Larry Costello have been recording the personal stories of our local veterans through the Veterans Memorial Project. Veterans record their military experiences, real life tales from the trenches around the high seas or in the air. Speaker, this project is called Take a Glimpse into the Eyes of History, and the goal is to provide a DVD copy for every high school history class in Canada. It's an ambitious undertaking. For these and other deeds, Dan Bouzid was recently awarded a Commendation for Exemplary Service to Veterans. It was presented by the Minister of Veterans Affairs, Julian Fantino. Speaker, to Dan Bouzid, his family, and all of the volunteers at the Windsor Historical Society, I say a job well done. Thank you very much, and a salute from the Ontario Legislature. Thank you very much. Member of Statement, the Member for Halton. It's a pleasure to rise today to tell you about a very special program I recently dropped into in Halton. Food for Kids is an incredible organization dedicated to feeding hungry kids. This program started with an idea to develop a weekend food program for at-risk children in the Halton and Hamilton areas. Research showed that there were dozens of children in Halton and Hamilton who were going without adequate food over the weekend. And so an idea was born to help those little ones. It's simple. It all starts with a plastic bag and boxes of food to fill those bags. Here's how it works. Every Thursday afternoon, staff and volunteers gather at the Food for Kids offices, and in the back room are boxes filled with fresh fruit, healthy snacks, and juice boxes. On the evening I was there, each of us picked up a bag, filled it with one item of food from each of the boxes, and then sealed the bag and dropped it off into a bin. We did this over and over again for several hours. In very little time, we had managed to stuff over 140 bags with an assortment of fresh fruit and vegetables along with a mixture of the healthy snacks. Once filled, the packages are distributed to local schools every Friday morning for needy kids. The unmarked bags are then placed directly into students' backpacks. They are the only ones to know that they are receiving assistance. Mr. Speaker, as a mother of two, I can't explain how good it felt to be helping these children. These kids need support, and I'm pleased to say that organizations like Food for Kids are getting them help. Today, the organization successfully provides assistance to hundreds of youngsters aged 5 to 14 in the Halton, Hamilton, and Niagara regions. Thank you very much. Thank you. Member Statement. Member for Stormont, Dundas, Southlake, Gary. Thank you, Speaker. November 20th is Universal Children's Day, which marks the adoption of the UN Declaration on the Rights of the Child in 1959, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1989. In Ontario, we can pride ourselves with many achievements to fulfill our obligations under the Convention. Our children have access to a name, citizenship, free health and education, protection from abuse, exploitation, labour, and constriction. But much more can be done. Under the Convention, governments must support parents, especially when both are in the workforce. The recent changes to the daycare provisioning will make parents' jobs even harder, as the proposed bill will result in loss of over 140,000 daycare spaces. The Convention grants children the right to care to be fostered and to be adopted, yet many in Ontario fall through the cracks. Children with a disability in Ontario wait a long list to have their special care suited to their needs. For families escaping the poverty cycle is still a great challenge, and the social assistance system needs to do more for poor children. It is incumbent upon the current government to see that these rights become more than a place in a waiting list, dedicated stable funding to service providers, and a real focus on local cost-effective solutions will help make children's rights truly universal. Thank you, Speaker. Thank you, the member for Niagara Falls. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm speaking today on a topic that is extremely important to our democracy. Any person living in the province has the right to have a fair legal representation, to have a trial to be represented and to make their case. Yet today, we see how expensive legal defense can be. Some people feel like going to a lawyer is not an option. In my writing of Niagara Falls, Niagara and a lake, and Fort Erie, a lot of people have lost their jobs. I speak with these people every day. They're not bad people, they're smart, they're dedicated, they're hardworking, and through no fault of their own, they're out of work. Legal aid has been providing the people of this province the chance to be represented when they fall fallen on hard times. Yet, as the need for these services grow, the support for legal aid has not. I'm proud to announce that my office in Niagara Falls, which again is servicing Fort Erie and Niagara and a lake, will be partnering with Legal Aid Ontario to offer those services to the constituents of Niagara Falls, Fort Erie, and Niagara and a lake at my office. I hope this helps people access rights they're entitled to, that they're entitled to. And I hope one day soon we can come up with a true jobs plan to put people back to work so they never need to use legal aid again. Thank you very much. Thank you, Member Statement and Member for Ottawa South. Mr. Speaker, I'm very honoured to stand up and celebrate the Lebanese Independence Day. I had the honour of joining Premier Kathleen Nguyen and many of my colleagues at the official flag raising ceremony today at Queen's Park, where we celebrated that proud occasion in 1943. The establishment of the modern state of Lebanon was a profound moment for its people, the fulfilment of a hard fought dream to be a sovereign nation. Ontario is proud to be home to a dynamic Lebanese Canadian community, a community that has contributed immensely to our social, cultural and economic life and strengthened our ties with Lebanon. My riding of Ottawa South is home to thousands of Lebanese Canadian families that enrich our community through many aspects of their culture. A perfect example of this is the Ottawa Lebanese Festival that's hosted by St. Elias Cathedral each summer in my riding. The festival welcomes families from all over Ontario and Ottawa to Ottawa South to celebrate the rich traditions and delicious cuisine that the Lebanese people share with their province. The enrich our communities and I really thank them for their contribution. The Lebanese people all across Ontario on this special occasion and thank them for their contributions to our great province. Merci. Thank you. Thank you. Member's statement. Member for Uron Bruce. Thank you very much Mr. Speaker. I rise today to recognise Exeter resident and veteran Murray Green for his dedicated service during the Second World War. This past August Mr. Green was awarded the rank of night of the French National Order of the Legion of Honour. This award is the highest decoration provided by France and was awarded to Mr. Green for his role in helping the liberation of France during the Second World War. Last Tuesday evening on Remembered's Day I had the honour of recognising Mr. Green for his award and his community at the Canadian Legion in Exeter Branch 167. Mr. Green first enlisted in the Army in Ontario during September 1942. He then joined the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry in England where he made his way over to France. A corporal in the Army, Mr. Green bravely fought alongside his compatriots in the trenches, often enduring nightly shelling. He did not return home to Canada until after the war was over. This should remind us of how very important it is that we continue to remember and recognise the bravery, excellence and determination of Canada's veterans such as Mr. Murray Green, as well as today's soldiers who continue to dedicate their lives for our freedoms and our security. It is their selfless commitment that has afforded us the peace, freedom and prosperity we enjoy today. Thank you very much, Speaker. Thank you. Member Statement, the Member for Mississauga-Brempton-South. Mr. Speaker, recently I had an opportunity to attend Sisters in Spirit Visual held in my community to raise awareness about missing and murdered Aboriginal women in Canada. As per reports, there are at least 1,181 missing and murdered Aboriginal women and girls in Canada. The numbers are staggering. Too many families have lost daughters, sisters, mothers and grandmothers. The rate of violence against Aboriginal women is troubling, particularly in a society and a country which claim to be civil and the best in the world. No woman should have to live with fear of violence and worrying that they may be the next victim. Mr. Speaker, violence against women, particularly against Aboriginal women, is not just an Ontario issue. It is a national issue that affects Canadians of all backgrounds from coast to coast. I call upon the federal government to hold an open-ended public inquiry so that we can find out the root cause of this heinous crime and have a permanent solution. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you. Member's statement, the member for Kingston on the islands. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. November is Lung Health Awareness Month, and I would like to bring your attention to the prominence of lung disease in our province. Most people are either in one of two camps, one you can breathe without thinking about it, and the other, every single breath is a struggle. Think about it, every single breath. More than 2.4 million people in Ontario that's one in five live with chronic lung disease such as asthma, lung cancer, or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD. Lung cancer kills more than breast, ovarian, colon, and prostate cancer combined. Yesterday I had the pleasure, along with MPP Thompson from here on Bruce, to receive a spirometry test at Women's College Hospital, a simple breathing test that calculates the amount of air that can be blown out of the lungs and the rate at which it can be expelled. This test can identify the disease in the early stages when treatments are far more effective. The same test will be available for all members here on Tuesday night, November 25th, thanks to the Ontario Lung Health Association. The association is also organizing walk-ins, spirometry clinics, and partnerships with healthcare facilities and centres across the province. Don't miss it. It's extremely important, and as many of you know, the greatest cause of lung cancer is smoking. Be proactive with your lung health. Thank you. Thank you very much.