Ken Dryden

[Ethics, March 31st, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, again, no answer from the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister had more than two weeks before the break to explain. He has had more than two weeks until now, still no answer.

This is as serious as it gets because if the Cadman family is right, and why would it lie, if the Prime Minister's own words say what they seem to say, that he knew about a million dollar insurance policy, this is about buying a vote to bring down a government.

Again, I ask the Prime Minister to explain.

[Ethics, March 31st, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, more than two weeks have now passed since we were in session. In those two weeks the Prime Minister had the chance to explain to Canadians what he meant by his words, his own words on the Zytaruk tape, but he chose not to.

Since the tape became known more than a month ago, there has been plenty of time for the Prime Minister and his army of spinners to come up with an answer to Mr. Zytaruk's question about a million dollar insurance policy, the Prime Minister's own words, “I don't know the details. I know that there were discussions”.

My question is for the Prime Minister: Tell us what those words mean.

[Ethics, March 13th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, we are all looking to the Prime Minister to explain himself, to explain his own words, but he has chosen not to.

This is critical because if the Cadman family is right, this is about buying a vote to bring down the government. This is as serious as it gets.

I will give the Prime Minister another opportunity to explain. Two weeks ago he challenged me to say it outside this House and I did. Today I ask him, I challenge him, to explain it inside this House.

[Ethics, March 13th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, through all the Prime Minister's kind and deserved words about Mr. Cadman and his family, there is a problem.

The Prime Minister says there was no offer of a life insurance policy. However, if there was no offer then the Prime Minister is saying Mr. Cadman was lying because Mr. Cadman told his family there was an offer, or that his wife and family are lying because they said he told them there was.

No nice spin will hide it. The Prime Minister is saying they are lying.

My question is for the Prime Minister. Why is he saying that the Cadmans are lying?

[Ethics, March 12th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, there is a great irony here. Why is the Prime Minister, so famous for silencing rights groups under the court challenges program, for silencing advocacy groups by cutting off their funding, for trying to silence political rivals with lawsuits, for silencing his caucus, for silencing his cabinet, for trying to silence any and all voices different from his own so that only his voice matters, why, Mr. Speaker, is the Prime Minister silencing himself?

[Ethics, March 12th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, to a question about a life insurance policy, the Prime Minister's own words were, “I don't know the details. I know that there were discussions”.

So he knew of the life insurance policy and of discussions about it involving Mr. Cadman and legitimate representatives of the Conservative Party and he did not stop those discussions, even though, if the Cadman family is telling the truth, what was being offered was unethical, illegal, criminal, was about buying a vote to bring down a government.

The Prime Minister has a lot of explaining to do and he knows that we know he has no answers. His own words—

[Ethics, March 11th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, the parliamentary secretary is a thinking person. He knows that he has to try to answer every day. He must have asked himself these very same questions.

It is not just what the Cadman family said. They described the scene; what Mr. Cadman's reaction to the offer had been; how he was angry and offended; how the family was shocked; how Mrs. Cadman considered it a bribe. All their stories are consistent. There was no misunderstanding or mishearing.

Why would Mr. Cadman lie to his wife and family? Why would they lie to us?

[Ethics, March 11th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, that is not an answer. The parliamentary secretary--

[Ethics, March 11th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, why would Mr. Cadman tell his wife that he received an offer of a $1 million life insurance policy if it was not true? Why would he lie to her? Why would Mr. Cadman tell his daughter and son-in-law the same thing and each of them at a different time? It cannot be explained away as just a bad moment for a very sick man, or a misunderstanding, or a mishearing. Why would he lie to them? Why, Mr. Speaker?

[Ethics, March 10th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, as time passes, it is clear that the answers the Prime Minister and parliamentary secretary are giving are to questions that have not been asked and no matter how hard they spin, all anyone can hear are the answers they have not given.

They are about the Prime Minister. They are about the Zytaruk tapes. They are about his own words: “I don't know the details. I know that there were discussions”.

Tell us what those words mean.