Canadian Heritage Committee on Feb. 25th, 2009

[Pablo Rodriguez, Liberal, Honoré-Mercier, QC]

I understand. I myself have problems with the general idea and I do not think it was a good idea. Whether you are for or against, when you have political responsibilities or are involved on the ground, you have to assume those responsibilities and try to reason with those around you. That is what I am trying to say.

Are the threats currently being investigated by the police? Is an investigation being conducted?

[André Juneau]

Yes, the threats are being analyzed. That is what I have been told.

[Pablo Rodriguez, Liberal, Honoré-Mercier, QC]

That's it.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Schellenberger]

A very short answer.

[André Juneau]

They are being analyzed.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Schellenberger]

Thank you.

Madame Lavallée.

[Carole Lavallée, Bloc, Saint-Bruno—Saint-Hubert, QC]

Thank you very much.

Thanks to the Gomery Commission, we learned that you were able to obtain over $1 million in sponsorship funding for various projects. A letter that you sent in 1999 to Alfonso Gagliano shows that you requested those amounts for political purposes, i.e., to promote Canadian unity. You also put in a request for funding from Jean Chrétien's secret Canadian unity fund, and received some $5 million for the National Battlefields Commission.

The documents tabled with the Gomery Commission also show that the Canada Information Office, an organization...

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Schellenberger]

Excuse me, Madame Lavallée.

A point of order, Mr. Bruinooge.

[Rod Bruinooge, Conservative, Winnipeg South, MB]

I really don't see the relevance of this line of questioning. The Bloc member herself called for Mr. Juneau to come here and talk about the Plains of Abraham re-enactment. Her line of questioning has absolutely nothing to do with her actual suggestion for him to come, so perhaps you could ask her to clarify.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Schellenberger]

I think Mr. Bruinooge has a point. Mr. Juneau is here to answer questions on the cancellation of the Battle of the Plains of Abraham's 250th anniversary.

Please keep them a little more to the point.

[Carole Lavallée, Bloc, Saint-Bruno—Saint-Hubert, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Indeed, I will continue with my relevant line of questioning because I think that the re-enactment and all the activities that you planned for the 250^th anniversary of the Battle of the Plains of Abraham were intended to promote Canadian unity, as a sequel to the sponsorship scandal.

Mr. Juneau, I sincerely think that what we are seeing today is the after-effect of the sponsorship scandal. You said that you cancelled the re-enactment for security reasons, but I think those are false pretences. Furthermore, the Bloc has completely distanced itself from all those security issues, in the past, present and future, and it will continue to do so.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Schellenberger]

Excuse me, Madame Lavallée. We brought this gentleman here to answer questions on the cancellation of the--

[Carole Lavallée, Bloc, Saint-Bruno—Saint-Hubert, QC]

I am getting to the point.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Schellenberger]

Let's not get off topic; let's not point fingers that way.

I'd like to know why this was cancelled to start with and maybe why it didn't go forward.

Please stick a little closer to the questions I think should be asked.

[Carole Lavallée, Bloc, Saint-Bruno—Saint-Hubert, QC]

That is relevant, Mr. Chair, because Mr. Juneau himself said that he cancelled the event for security reasons. I am saying that those are false pretences because he had already announced in the Globe and Mail, for example, that he would reconsider the event if it was taken to be a provocation.

Mr. Juneau, do you not find that you lacked judgment on a number of occasions? You lacked judgment in taking part in the sponsorship scandal. You lacked judgment by organizing this event. Did you not also lack judgment by organizing a festive activity that would lead to divisiveness, when you were asked to organize a solemn and dignified event? You lacked judgment concerning Quebeckers' sensitivity. You cancelled the event under false pretences. You allowed yourself to be blinded by your partisan and federal interests.

For all of those reasons, do you not find that the Bloc is justified in asking for your resignation?

[André Juneau]

No, and allow me to explain why. To start, I do not need to resign. I will repeat what I said earlier: given the nature of my position, they can dismiss me, and I would have no qualms about retiring. The conclusions that you have reached contain a number of falsehoods. You presume that the event was festive, whereas re-enactments around the world are never festive.

[Carole Lavallée, Bloc, Saint-Bruno—Saint-Hubert, QC]

I apologize for interrupting, but a masked ball is a festive event.

[André Juneau]

We gave a very good explanation for the masked ball, and I can repeat it for you. I will come back to the issue of the masked ball.

The sponsorship scandal and the sponsorship program are two different things altogether. The National Battlefields Commission was more of a victim than a recipient of the sponsorship program. In fact, at one point, the program hit us on the head like a two-by-four. All of a sudden, we learned that a study had been done in Quebec showing that the Plains of Abraham were considered as the federal government's visibility site in that province.

I asked the minister at the time, Mr. Gagliano, what that meant. He told me that the site would be used for various events. It is from that point on that the program began funding various events that were not—I repeat—under the commission's responsibility. It was—

[Carole Lavallée, Bloc, Saint-Bruno—Saint-Hubert, QC]

I apologize for interrupting, but I only have five minutes.

You said that it was through you that Mr. Gagliano promoted Canadian unity. That is what you are saying.

[André Juneau]

Yes, but we did not decide which programs would be carried out. For example, I read about hot air balloons and the commission in the newspapers. There were hot air balloons on the plains, but that was not the work of the commission.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Schellenberger]

A point of order, Mr. Rodriguez?

[Pablo Rodriguez, Liberal, Honoré-Mercier, QC]

Mr. Chair, I would like to make a point of order. We are debating the sponsorship affair. The Liberal Party paid the price for those sponsorships. What is past is past. The Conservatives won the election.

The Bloc Québécois was not being truthful when we discussed whether or not we should invite Mr. Juneau. The Bloc Québécois assured us that the meeting would be on the Plains of Abraham, so I asked my colleague to keep to the matter at hand, please.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Schellenberger]

Go ahead, please. You have less than a minute left.

[Carole Lavallée, Bloc, Saint-Bruno—Saint-Hubert, QC]

Please continue, Mr. Juneau, you were on a roll.

Would you like me to ask you other questions?

[André Juneau]

No, no—