Procedure and House Affairs Committee on Dec. 16th, 2010

[Thomas Mulcair, NDP, Outremont, QC]

Yes.

[Kelly Block, Conservative, Saskatoon—Rosetown—Biggar, SK]

Okay. It was Debbie Jodoin.

[Thomas Mulcair, NDP, Outremont, QC]

Who does that person work for?

[Kelly Block, Conservative, Saskatoon—Rosetown—Biggar, SK]

She works for MP Rob Clarke.

[Thomas Mulcair, NDP, Outremont, QC]

Okay.

Let's talk a little bit about MP Rob Clarke and the type of screening you would have done of Mr. Ullyatt.

I'm going to read from one of several newspaper reports concerning the campaign of 2008: “A resident of La Ronge says he witnessed a uniformed RCMP officer delivering campaign signs in Northern Saskatchewan for Conservative candidate Rob Clarke, a direct violation of the police force’s policy.”

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

You are going a huge distance away from a secret document leaked from the finance committee--

[Thomas Mulcair, NDP, Outremont, QC]

Actually, I'm not, and I'll tell you why, Mr. Chair, even though it's on my time. This is about how a person was hired, whether that was done as a prudent administrator--

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

So far, you're in northern Saskatchewan. Can you try to bring it back to Ottawa a little more quickly, please?

[Thomas Mulcair, NDP, Outremont, QC]

Well, if you read a little further down the story—and people will be able to draw their own inferences from your interruptions as well—Russell Ullyatt—

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

Excuse me, sir, I am the chair of the committee and it is my job to keep it in order and on topic.

[Thomas Mulcair, NDP, Outremont, QC]

Well, it is in order, and you know that as well as I do. You just don't want me to ask the question.

The story went on to say:

Russell Ullyatt, Mr. Clarke's campaign manager, said they have more than 500 volunteers and “we don't have control over what they do”.

So his campaign manager was Mr. Ullyatt.

In the story, it also said that Mr. Ullyatt's only comment was, “If the story is true, it's very unfortunate.” He doesn't say it's illegal because it's the use of government property for personal or political partisan reasons. He doesn't say it goes against the RCMP rules. He simply shrugs it off as unfortunate.

It took about three seconds to find this when we Googled him online. Did you do any checking of his background to find out what his behaviour was, how his moral compass was set on issues such as this?

[Kelly Block, Conservative, Saskatoon—Rosetown—Biggar, SK]

Mr. Chair, I certainly didn't Google Russell Ullyatt. I had references. I had his CV in front of me. I followed normal practices for hiring an individual.

[Thomas Mulcair, NDP, Outremont, QC]

You said to us before that he was hired full time. Did you know about his companies, and did you allow him to work his private business as well? Was that part of your employment agreement with him?

[Kelly Block, Conservative, Saskatoon—Rosetown—Biggar, SK]

I did not know that Mr. Ullyatt owned companies when I hired him.

[Thomas Mulcair, NDP, Outremont, QC]

I mentioned before that the two of us have our offices on the same floor in the same building. I have had occasion to note that in front of your office, other than the traditional flags—which make it easy to pick out in the hallway which one is your office, because you have your provincial flag as well as that of Canada—there has sometimes been a very large Pitney Bowes machine in the hallway and some large documents on skids.

[Greg Rickford, Conservative, Kenora, ON]

I have a point of order.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

Mr. Mulcair's time is up.

I'll take your point of order, but I think I was about to get there anyway.

[Greg Rickford, Conservative, Kenora, ON]

If his time is up, that's fine.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

Thank you.

[Marcel Proulx, Liberal, Hull—Aylmer, QC]

Mr. Chair, you wanted to stop one of the MP's questioning on that line, but what if this Pitney Bowes machine and all these skids of paper were used to print these confidential reports and--

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

Well, Mr. Proulx, that's a good reach. I suppose the trees on the front lawn could have been used for that, too. Right now we're talking about--

[Marcel Proulx, Liberal, Hull—Aylmer, QC]

Maybe. Did he have a chainsaw in the office?

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

--the ruling from the Speaker on the breach of privilege.

[Marcel Proulx, Liberal, Hull—Aylmer, QC]

What if he was printing these reports and spreading them out, sir?

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

That's not a point of order.