Watch the video on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6YcadWHQQs

Hon. Hedy Fry (Vancouver Centre, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the member for Sarnia—Lambton for this excellent private member's bill, which Liberals will be supporting on this side of the House.

This is a long time coming. It has taken Canada almost a decade after the 2000 health warning issued by Health Canada with regard to cosmetic contact lenses and regulations have not been established. What the hon. member is doing is very important. She is attempting to move cosmetic contact lenses into class II of the Medical Devices Regulations, which means they would be treated the same way as corrective contact lenses.

Hon. Hedy Fry (Vancouver Centre, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, I have a question to ask of the Hon. Member.

She spoke a lot about her own feelings or emotions and those of her family and friends. I would like to present some facts.

The Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians had this to say:

"...it is clear to Canada's emergency physicians that the gun registry has, in fact, worked and the number of deaths from inappropriate firearms use has dropped dramatically...

Hon. Hedy Fry (Vancouver Centre, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, I want to speak in favour of this particular piece of legislation but I would like to make some further comments about it.

The Liberal Party supports any efforts to increase awareness of illness, to increase research, to provide more information to Canadians, and to deal with screening issues. That is a given. We all agree with that. But we should be doing this in many more areas. The federal government could be taking the lead in a huge number of areas of health promotion and disease prevention. It could ensure that 60% of preventable diseases are preventable. There is a real broader issue to look at other than just this one particular issue but I suppose it is a start.