Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I'd like to reassure my colleague. Obviously, it is not only the idea of being automatically banished that is at stake here, but if these allegations are proven to be correct and criminal charges are initiated, it may be that an individual would be liable to jail.
The Conservative Party, in order to defend its public office holders and others has alleged that the RCMP warrant was intended to collect information which could be used in a civil action between the Conservative Party and Elections Canada. Well, we all know that that is false. Documents which were seized during this seizure are absolutely not meant for one or several civil trials. The RCMP does not operate that way. In fact, it is more of a quasi-criminal investigation under the Canada Elections Act.
Mr. Tilson's subamendment, which would apply to the amendment introduced during our last meeting by Mr. Van Kesteren, implies that all parties were involved in this funding scheme which led a national party to exceed the national spending limit permitted by Elections Canada. That is patently false. Not all parties were involved in this scheme.
Mr. Chairman, you have more experience than most of us—I am not trying to say that you are old, but you have a great deal of election experience—and you know very well that after each election, Elections Canada audits the books of all the candidates and all the parties involved in the election. Following the January 2006 election, the Conservative Party was singled out by Elections Canada which found that certain Conservative Party candidates, including public office holders, had made false statements and were involved in the scheme. Elections Canada was referring to Conservative Party candidates only, and not to candidates from other parties. The truth must be told and we cannot accept having anyone say that all parties were involved in this way.
Finally, the Conservative Party alleged that the investigations and searches carried out by the RCMP were an Elections Canada vendetta against it. I would point out that that is really stretching the truth. I do not see why Elections Canada, which has always enjoyed a stellar international and national reputation, would have chosen to exact revenge on the Conservative Party, especially given the fact that the new head of Elections Canada, Mr. Marc Mayrand, was appointed by the Conservative Party, and that Elections Canada carried out the investigation and called on the RCMP to execute the search warrants.
For all of these reasons, I want to make it very clear that I have no intention of voting in favour of Mr. Tilson's subamendment, which would apply to Mr. Van Kesteren's amendment, because that would essentially muddy the waters and dilute the audit which the committee seeks to carry out on public office holders.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.