Procedure and House Affairs Committee on Oct. 17th, 2023

[Michael Cooper, Conservative, St. Albert—Edmonton, AB]

Madam Chair, under Justin Trudeau's watch, a former soldier of the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS was shamefully recognized and honoured in Parliament during the state visit and address by the President of Ukraine.

This should never have happened. It is a stain on the reputation of the institution of Parliament. It caused enormous hurt and offence to the Jewish community across Canada and around the world and dishonoured the more than six million Jews who were murdered at the hands of the Nazis during World War II. Likewise, it caused hurt and offence to Ukrainians, Poles and Slovakians and embarrassed all Canadians.

It is an insult to the veterans and members of the Canadian Armed Forces, one million of whom fought valiantly to defend freedom and defeat the evils of Hitler and his murderous genocidal Nazi ideology, including more than 45,000 Canadians who laid down their lives to secure freedom and to defeat Hitler and the Nazis.

This shameful recognition is a massive propaganda win for Russia as Ukraine fights to defend its freedom and sovereignty in the face of Russia's illegal invasion. It has brought irreparable damage to Canada's international reputation and is perhaps Justin Trudeau's biggest international embarrassment in a long list of international embarrassments. This is a Prime Minister who was already regarded by our allies as simply not up to the job on the international stage.

Under this Prime Minister's watch, a series of inexcusable errors resulted in this disgraceful occurrence, and Canadians are left wondering how in the world this happened. How in the world did this happen? There is one person and one person only who bears the ultimate responsibility, and that person is Justin Trudeau.

It was Justin Trudeau's responsibility to invite President Zelenskyy to address Parliament. It was Justin Trudeau's responsibility to see that President Zelenskyy's visit was a success. It was Justin Trudeau's personal departments, the Privy Council Office and the Office of Protocol of Canada, which ultimately report to Justin Trudeau, that are responsible for arranging and vetting all guests and the programming of state visits of this kind.

This international embarrassment can be summed up in one sentence: Justin Trudeau failed, and in so doing, he brought significant hurt and humiliation.... In the face of that hurt and humiliation, caused as a result of Justin Trudeau's scandalous incompetence, what did he do? He hid in his cottage for five days and threw the now former Speaker under the bus. To this day, he has failed to take any responsibility and refuses to personally apologize for this colossal debacle.

Canadians deserve answers. They deserve to know how this happened under Justin Trudeau's watch. The responsibility to see that Canadians get these answers falls on this committee. That's why this motion calls for hearings to call witnesses from all of the departments and agencies that can shed light on this series of errors under Justin Trudeau's watch that led to this international embarrassment.

The motion also orders the production of emails, memos and documents from the relevant departments and agencies, as well as the Speaker's office and the Prime Minister's Office, concerning this debacle.

This motion ensures that Canadians can get the answers they deserve and that Justin Trudeau is held accountable for this stain on the institution of Parliament and this disgraceful international embarrassment, the biggest ever under his watch, which is, I repeat, saying something.

I surely would expect this motion will receive the unanimous support of this committee as we endeavour to get answers.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bardish Chagger]

Thank you, Mr. Cooper.

Mr. Duncan.

[Eric Duncan, Conservative, Stormont—Dundas—South Glengarry, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

As Mr. Cooper alluded to with the motion before us, there are some amendments required to that, considering it was put on notice before the break week.

I would like to move that the motion be amended by adding a section (c)—

[The Chair, Liberal, Bardish Chagger]

Do we have this?

[Eric Duncan, Conservative, Stormont—Dundas—South Glengarry, ON]

I was going to give it verbally.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bardish Chagger]

I know you want to give it verbally, but I think we know that we have two official languages, and members like to see what they're discussing.

Something that's very clear is that, when we try to work with all members so the whole membership can at least have a say, it's important for them to know what's being discussed. There is no one party that owns this committee or government or Parliament.

Can you please share the wording so that we can make sure it's translated and circulated around? I will be pausing until it is shared.

Have you sent it to the clerk?

[Eric Duncan, Conservative, Stormont—Dundas—South Glengarry, ON]

It is in the process right now.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bardish Chagger]

Thank you.

We will wait. Once it's circulated, we will hand the floor back to you, Mr. Duncan.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bardish Chagger]

The amendment has been circulated.

Mr. Duncan, the floor is yours again.

[Eric Duncan, Conservative, Stormont—Dundas—South Glengarry, ON]

I'm just waiting for it to come into my inbox to make sure that it corresponds exactly to what I have, Madam Chair.

I'd like to move that the motion be amended by adding, “(c) That the Committee seek additional resources to meet for two extra hours each week until the above witness list is exhausted” and by replacing, in paragraph (a), “October 9, 16, 23 and 30, 2023:” with “October 16, 23, 30, 2023, and November 6, 2023:”.

I believe that should match, Madam Chair, what has been circulated in both official languages to our emails.

Madam Chair, we need to move forward, and we need to study this issue to get some answers about what happened in this embarrassing international disgrace, which happened in our Parliament only a matter of a few weeks ago. I think there are many Canadians wondering with bewilderment how this could have happened.

There are a lot of answers that our committee needs to get on this issue, particularly because, as Mr. Cooper alluded to very well, the Prime Minister is responsible. He was the one who invited President Zelenskyy to come to Ottawa to address Parliament. I would say that, with these visits, every single minute is coordinated. It stops at the Prime Minister with the resources he has in the Prime Minister’s Office and the operations and the accountability that he is responsible for. We need to get some answers to the document production and through the list of witnesses that we have before us.

Madam Chair, there was that delay and that need for suspension, because, as we mentioned, this was not our desired outcome today, but the reason we are moving this forward now is for this to be discussed in public and debated and to provide a timeline for our committee and a road map to get to the bottom of this.

I will note the bit of irony where, as Mr. Cooper alluded, we could not get support from the NDP and Ms. Blaney to bring this forward in a public setting to resolve this. It was actually her NDP counterpart on government operations, Mr. Johns, who, only a matter of a couple of weeks ago, put into the record in public at the government operations committee, the desire.... We got a letter from Mr. McCauley in his role as chair of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates requesting that this become a priority for our committee to undertake.

In public, members of the NDP have stated what they wanted for PROC. Mr. Johns said, “we want this to be their top priority. We know they're undertaking a lot of really difficult studies. It is a challenging job. They have as much as this committee.” He was referring to the government operations committee. He continued, “We have eight studies going on here as well. I want to make sure that we get this to PROC and that we write in the letter that this is an absolute priority of this committee and that we ask PROC to take this on and they study this urgently.”

Here we are now trying to do just that and being blocked, I think, from coming to a resolution and getting these meetings, these witnesses and these documents under way.

Madam Chair, I am happy to put forward the amendment to the main motion that Mr. Cooper has introduced. I think it is imperative, as suggested by Mr. Johns of the NDP only a couple of weeks ago, that we get this under way, that we pass this motion and that we start to get answers about the actions or lack thereof of the Prime Minister and the government and how this international disgrace and embarrassment was allowed to happen in our House of Commons.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bardish Chagger]

Go ahead, Mrs. Romanado.

[Sherry Romanado, Liberal, Longueuil—Charles-LeMoyne, QC]

Thank you very much, Madam Chair.

I know that we had agreed to discuss this on Thursday. Therefore, I move to adjourn.

(Motion agreed to: yeas 7; nays 4)

[The Chair, Liberal, Bardish Chagger]

The meeting is adjourned. I will see you on Thursday.