Information & Ethics Committee on Dec. 17th, 2024

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

I'm sorry, Mr. Cooper—

[Michael Cooper, Conservative, St. Albert—Edmonton, AB]

It's the bells.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

I'm sorry, Mr. Cooper; I'm obligated at this point, when the bells are ringing, to seek unanimous consent of the committee.

Is it a quorum call? They're not flashing anymore. It looks like a quorum call.

Go ahead. Continue, Mr. Cooper.

[Michael Cooper, Conservative, St. Albert—Edmonton, AB]

Mr. Chair, that brings me to the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister accepted tickets or, according to his version of events, bought tickets to the Taylor Swift concert in Toronto. Tickets for that concert reportedly cost in the thousands of dollars. At minimum, they were $1,500, and some tickets went for thousands more.

The Prime Minister would have Canadians believe that he purchased those tickets out of his own pocket. If that is the case, why is it that the Prime Minister and his office have refused to answer basic questions around the Prime Minister's attendance at the concert? The Prime Minister and his office have refused to disclose how much he paid for the tickets, when they were purchased and how many tickets he purchased. If the Prime Minister, in fact, had purchased the tickets, wouldn't he be eager to say, “I bought the tickets on such-and-such a day and I paid such-and-such an amount. Here are the receipts, and there's nothing to see here. I simply went and attended a concert out of my own pocket”? Mr. Chair, that would be what anyone would do if, in fact, they had paid for the concert.

The fact that the Prime Minister has been anything but transparent raises serious questions, and I would note that the record of the Prime Minister raises even more questions because, as I noted, this is a Prime Minister who is a serial lawbreaker. He is a Prime Minister who has violated the Conflict of Interest Act multiple times and has been investigated multiple times. It's not only that; the Prime Minister is a proven liar. He is an absolute liar.

[Iqra Khalid, Liberal, Mississauga—Erin Mills, ON]

I have a point of order, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

I'm going to ask Mr. Cooper to be a little more judicious in his language.

On the point of order, go ahead.

[Iqra Khalid, Liberal, Mississauga—Erin Mills, ON]

That was exactly my point, Chair. That's very unparliamentary language. It would be really upsetting for that member if I called him a liar.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

But you're not going to do that, are you, Ms. Khalid?

[Iqra Khalid, Liberal, Mississauga—Erin Mills, ON]

I respect the rules of this House and this place.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

Go ahead, Mr. Cooper.

[Michael Cooper, Conservative, St. Albert—Edmonton, AB]

It's too bad that we have such an ethically challenged Prime Minister. We live in the greatest country in the world with the worst Prime Minister this country has ever seen.

[Iqra Khalid, Liberal, Mississauga—Erin Mills, ON]

Again, I have a point of order, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

Go ahead on your point of order.

[Iqra Khalid, Liberal, Mississauga—Erin Mills, ON]

I don't see what that has to do with this motion. I think casting judgment on how good or bad somebody is doesn't really help us in getting through the orders of the day today. It is absurd. I could call that member the—

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

I understand—

[Iqra Khalid, Liberal, Mississauga—Erin Mills, ON]

—worst person in the world. I'm not going to do that. I will keep my thoughts to myself. I think, again, that it's very unparliamentary—

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

I understand your point of order.

Mr. Cooper, you have the floor.

[Iqra Khalid, Liberal, Mississauga—Erin Mills, ON]

—language for that member to be going down this path.

[Michael Cooper, Conservative, St. Albert—Edmonton, AB]

I just—

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

Just hang on a second, okay? Let's keep the train on the rails here.

Mr. Cooper, you have the floor. Go ahead.

[Michael Cooper, Conservative, St. Albert—Edmonton, AB]

I will note, Mr. Chair, that the Prime Minister has necessitated this motion, or at least the part of the motion as it pertains to him, because all he has to do is show us the receipts to demonstrate that there's nothing to see here, but he hasn't done that, so what we have is smoke, and where there's smoke, there's fire.

As I noted, added to that are the Prime Minister's multiple ethical breaches, his law-breaking, his lying, so taken together, we need to get—

[Darren Fisher, Liberal, Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, NS]

On a point of order, Mr. Chair, you've already already asked him to stop with the lying.

[Michael Barrett, Conservative, Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON]

He's not lying. He's talking about Justin Trudeau lying.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

Mr. Fisher, I got your point of order.

Go ahead, Mr. Cooper.

[Michael Cooper, Conservative, St. Albert—Edmonton, AB]

Taken together, this motion needs to be passed. We need to see the records. We need to see if the Prime Minister is once again breaking the law, violating the Conflict of Interest Act, lying and gaslighting Canadians.

With respect to Minister Sajjan, now that he's been caught, we need to understand exactly what transpired and led him into a position where he broke the Conflict of Interest Act.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.