Yes, Mr. Chair.
We knew that the Liberals would not want to open up their books for any kind of scrutiny, and we know why; we don't need to go into it at any length. But through our research over the last several weeks, we've actually determined that there are probably some reasons why the Bloc, perhaps even the NDP, would not want any examination of their electoral financing either. That research has been confirmed today through an attempt to cover their tracks on the part of both the NDP and the Bloc.
We can safely determine that the NDP and the Bloc have now been anointed the high priests of hypocrisy on the matter of accountability, because they are the ones who continue to preach high-minded practices of integrity--that they are as pure as the driven snow--but at the same time they want to cover up their electoral financing practices.
Again, no one is the least bit surprised that the Liberals would want to cover up their conduct. Their conduct has been the subject of criminal prosecution in courts of law, as well as a public inquiry that found them implicated in an elaborate kickback scheme. All of that would give us cause to question how they finance their campaigns, with respect to the transfers they've done.
But we thought that perhaps the Bloc and the NDP would have been in favour of some degree of openness. Once again, some of the research we've done suggested that they might not want that kind of scrutiny, but today we've confirmed the reasons.
And let me say one other thing. Mr. Guimond used the occasion to threaten you, Mr. Chair, that if we continued our drive to open up the books of the Bloc Québécois he would become very embittered and make your life very difficult. Those are the words that he threatened you with before this committee. So thou doth protest too much, mes amis au Bloc. It behooves the public now to turn their attention to the motives of all three opposition parties in concealing their electoral financing practices.
But let us put the opposition parties on notice ourselves. We do not intend to give up our drive to find out what's really going on in the electoral financing of their parties. Despite the fact that they are going to vote for a cover-up today, we will continue to move forward to make public any information we can find that's currently within our reach. We will continue to make the case—and we hope that observers on the sidelines will join us—that all parties should come forward.
I conclude by pointing out that the amendment I propose takes absolutely nothing away; it only offers more. We here are perfectly willing to have a thorough examination of our books. We are perfectly willing to invite the Chief Electoral Officer to come here and offer his opinion on how we have conducted our campaigns. We are perfectly willing to have our past candidates come before this committee and offer testimony. All of that is possible under the motion I've put forward. It also suggests that if any information should come forward in the next several weeks suggesting that there's need for scrutiny in other parties, they can simply do the same thing.