Thank you, Chair.
Mr. Chair, the Liberal coalition partners are acting in a hypocritical and unreasonable fashion here. There are many examples where issues concerning the activities of ministerial staff in Liberal ministers' offices were studied by parliamentary committees in the past. At that time ministers exercised their duties and responsibilities to Parliament by appearing before parliamentary committees and answering questions on the matter at hand.
For example, when Judy Sgrowas Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, her chief of staff, Mr. Ihor Wons, was reported to have engaged in meetings in Toronto at a strip club known as the House of Lancaster, and was apparently negotiating with the proprietor of that business in regard to visa applications. The matter was investigated by this committee and the ethics commissioner and it was found that a Romanian-born stripper who worked on Ms. Sgro's campaign received a special immigration visa.
The ethics commissioner found that it was Mrs. Sgro's ministerial staff who broke the rules and violated the ethics code; however, it was Mrs. Sgro who was responsible to and answered for the matter in Parliament, correctly fulfilling her duties under the Westminster doctrine of ministerial accountability. This was accepted then, and is exactly the same principle that the government is adhering to in terms of ministerial accountability.
Mr. Chair, I was at a meeting when we had Mr. Togneri as a staff witness, and I experienced exactly what went on in that committee meeting. I watched the Liberal member across the floor attack him, embarrass him, and then I watched the chair continue for another seven minutes with the same attack. It's just unexplainable. I was abhorred at what was going on in this committee.
This is the responsible way for the committee to act. The minister is responsible for what happens in his department, just as I, as a member of Parliament, am responsible for my staff. If I sign off on something, I take responsibility for that. Therefore, there is no way you should be calling my staff members to a committee, nor should you be calling the minister's staff to committee. We have the minister here to speak and we are not listening to him. Let's let him speak.