Mr. Speaker, I rise today in order, I hope, to get a clearer answer to the questions I asked about the scheming for a government appointment.
The House of Commons could do without the jeers of the hon. members opposite. It could also do without the smugness that surrounds the Conservative government.
Canadians have a right to clear, unequivocal answers from their elected representatives. They are responsible to the House and the people of Canada for answering clearly and accurately for their actions.
We all remember the O'Brien affair. I will summarize what happened.
In the last mayoralty race in Ottawa, candidate Larry O'Brien allegedly approached his rival Terry Kilrea. Why? To dangle before him the possibility of getting him a job on the National Parole Board and paying some of his election expenses in return for Mr. Kilrea’s withdrawal from the race. The two men exchanged emails about this.
The Ottawa Citizen has followed this saga and helped identify the main participants in it. Apart from the two principals, the following names have surfaced: Ms. Heather Tessier, who is Mr. O'Brien’s niece, a former executive assistant for Mayor O'Brien, and, according to the Ottawa Sun, a former executive assistant to the hon. member for Nepean—Carleton and Parliamentary Secretary to the President of the Treasury Board.
The Minister of the Environment apparently met Mayor O'Brien at Hy's Steakhouse.
Mr. Dimitri Pantazopoulos has long been close to the Conservatives and is the president of Praxicus Public Strategies. He is said to have approached Mr. Kilrea in this matter. According to The Ottawa Citizen, he mentioned a possible job but said it would have to wait until after the election.
Mr. John Reynolds was the co-chair of the Conservative Party’s 2006 election campaign. He supposedly spoke with Mr. O'Brien about this but claims he never pursued the matter.
Mr. John Light is the political assistant of the hon. member for Nepean—Carleton and the Parliamentary Secretary to the President of the Treasury Board. He supposedly said that Mr. O'Brien’s campaign team was secretly working to persuade Mr. Kilrea to drop out of the race.
Mr. Doug Finley is the chief organizer of the Conservative Party of Canada. He is said to have been responsible for drawing up some kind of an offer.
Mr. Kilrea signed an affidavit explaining his version of events, and he even agreed to undergo a polygraph test, the results of which were positive. The Ontario Provincial Police investigated the matter, and Mr. O'Brien was charged.
During a question period last October, the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons denied having offered an appointment or anything else. However, in an affidavit, Detective Sergeant Mason of the Ontario Provincial Police said that Mayor O'Brien had asked Terry Kilrea to drop out of the mayoral race if O'Brien could make an appointment happen. According to Mr. Kilrea, he received a call a few hours later from Mr. O'Brien, who told him that John Reynolds had put his name on a list. Parliamentary assistant John Light told police that Doug Finley was in charge of preparing an offer.
In November, the Liberal Party asked the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to look into the actions of the Minister of the Environment and other members of the Conservative Party.
This affair throws the government's lack of transparency into sharp relief. The Minister of the Environment knew that an offer had been made, but he did not do anything to stop it. The minister has his head in the sand and is pretending to see nothing, know nothing and hear nothing.
Mr. Speaker, if I may, I would like to repeat my question: How can the Minister of the Environmentclaim that his hands are clean when he did not inform the authorities as soon as he came into possession of this information?