Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
It's obviously a very sensitive issue, because the truth hurts.
The reality here is that in my own riding there were all kinds of transactions that went on that I think we ought to hear about. I think it would be very interesting, for example, to convene Mr. Alan Riddell as part of this study. Mr. Riddell participated in a $50,000 payoff to step aside in my own riding to allow another candidate to run--a payoff that was denied by the Prime Minister, denied by the Conservative Party of Canada, until a Superior Court of Justice in Ontario ordered the government's party, the Conservative Party, to honour the payment, which now we discover may or may not be in breach of the Canada Elections Act and financing laws themselves. This is such a serious issue, which is linked to this motion, Mr. Chair, that the Prime Minister himself has been repeatedly convened to testify and is hiding behind parliamentary privilege and immunity. Just as recently as three weeks ago, when he already had one judgment against his party, he's now desperately trying to defend a second action that speaks to libel and other issues by a former candidate of the Conservative Party of Canada.
I think Mr. Riddell has a lot to tell us about in-and-out schemes--a $50,000 receipt of moneys, a sum that is in excess of the actual amount of money he could have spent in any nomination campaign, which may or may not be in breach of Canada's election financing laws.
What did Mr. Cutler know about this? What did Mr. Harper, the Prime Minister, know about this? Did he authorize such a payment to Mr. Riddell? Did he knowingly authorize it, knowing it might be potentially illegal? When was it authorized? What about the $41,000 that flowed in from the central party? We're not sure what happened to it. How much of that went to central advertising? How much came back in the form of subsidies by the Canadian taxpayer to subsidize the Conservative Party of Canada?
Please correct me. Have I misspoken? Have I misstated any facts? The chief justice of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice was forced to rule against the party after serious stonewalling by the president of the party, who refused to come and testify--not once, not twice, but four times--until under threat of subpoena the president of the party showed up under protest, Mr. Chair, to have to deny that a $50,000 payoff occurred, a secret deal, the payoff. Unfortunately for the Conservative Party of Canada, this involved a candidate who happens to be a very solid citizen and a very, very accomplished civil litigator. Perhaps the Conservative Party of Canada might want to rule out the participation of civil litigators as candidates in the future. I don't know.
I think those questions deserve to be examined. I think Mr. Cutler would have something to tell us about this. He's a very decent man. I'm sure he has some insight as to what took place here. What $41,000 did he receive? How did it flow out? What advertising costs were assumed? I don't know. My constituents would like to know. I'm sure Mr. Riddell has something to help us understand in this respect. He has very intricate knowledge of--