Mr. Speaker, I said there were some very recent cases that have proved beyond a doubt that in Canada lobbying can be excessive, dangerous and costly and can have an impact that is rather disturbing to Canadians who, for some time, have been demanding a bill that would regulate the activities of lobbyists on Parliament Hill.
In fact, in its red book, this government promised, as we all know and as many have said repeatedly, to introduce a bill with teeth. Of course we realize that, when the bill was being examined, lobbyists themselves managed to get certain proposals eliminated from the bill, to the extent that the bill before the House today has no real impact on the power of lobbyists. There has been no real increase in transparency. That is what we want and what the people want. Canadians want assurances that lobbyists will not operate in a way that constitutes abuse of power or undue favouritism.
The Bloc Quebecois was the party that suggested a series of amendments, that made recommendations for the purpose of improving this bill. Motion No. 22 proposes that we should have an ethics counsellor who is not appointed by the Prime Minister, as is the case now, but elected by the House of Commons. We suggest that the ethics counsellor should be independent and only accountable to the House of Commons. This is one of the suggestions for improving Bill C-43 and giving it some credibility. It was also suggested that this bill be enforceable by the courts, that there be disclosure of fees and meetings with senior officials and ministers. These are all measures to strengthen Bill C-43, to encourage transparency in this area which is, as I said, quite troublesome in Canada.
There was the Pearson scandal. There was the case of the Minister of Canadian Heritage interfering in a matter handled by the CRTC, an agency for which he is responsible. These are all cases which make the public suspicious. In addition, there was the BST case, where representatives of the Monsanto company offered Health Canada officials $2 million to approve BST.
But, in my opinion, these are just drops in the bucket, despite the fact that they are already very serious incidents involving large sums of money. But the most flagrant abuse of power was when the federal cabinet decided last week to intervene in a decision which the CRTC made, according to its own standards in the usual fashion, in order to favour a company owned by Power Corp. We know that Power Corp. has a considerable influence over cabinet. We know that Paul Desmarais, chairman of Power Corp., has close family ties with the Prime Minister of Canada. To me, the fact that Paul Desmarais' son André is married to the Prime Minister's daughter is indication enough that there is such potential for abuse of power that cabinet could even intervene in the CRTC's decisions.
If one adds to that the fact that the Minister of Finance used to work for Power Corporation, that he was vice-president of Power Corporation, it is obvious that this company has exerted a powerful influence on cabinet. These are cases of abuse. It is reported that André Desmarais, Paul Desmarais's son, was the main organizer of the Prime Minister's trip to Asia last year-a trip which was therefore organized by representatives of Power Corporation, who were so influential that it is during that trip that the Prime Minister changed his policy toward China. Just imagine, lobbyists like Power Corporation can have such an influence that they can make the Canadian government change its foreign policy.
Unfortunately, I see that my time has expired. Thank you.