Mr. Speaker, I am pleased that my turn has come to speak to Bill C-43. For those who just arrived and those who, maybe, have just tuned in, I would like to say that Bill C-43 is a bill which the government has tabled to regulate lobbyists on Parliament Hill.
Lobbyists are individuals or associations who represent private interests. There are all kinds of lobbyists. Some represent legitimate associations, such as the Canadian Association of Firefighters, farmers, etc. But there are also more worrisome lobbyists who try to influence the government for the benefit of private interests. Sometimes, these interests do not serve the general public interest, and often represent unjust causes.
This is what the Canadian public is concerned about. We have known for a very long time, maybe a decade or more, that the general public wants lobbying activities to be regulated to make them more transparent, to bring out in the open what exactly it is that lobbyists do. The public is concerned because it knows that the work of lobbyists often leads to abuses of authority. We saw this very recently in a series of troubling cases.
For example, there is the case of the Pearson airport contract. It was mentioned during debate. This was a contract prepared by Conservative and Liberal lobbyists which amounted to hundreds of millions of dollars. We still do not have all the facts on this matter. However, the Conservative Senate decided, today, to appoint a commission of inquiry into this use of lobbying.
There was also a second case, one which clearly shows how lobbying can vary considerably, the case of bovine somatotropin or BST. This substance is a hormone produced by Monsanto, a pharmaceutical company which wants to introduce BST in Canada to increase milk production. Well, the Monsanto lobbyists managed to influence Health Canada, they even bribed Health Canada officials, so much so that, even though the industry disagrees and the population disagrees, Canada will soon have milk produced through the use of BST. This is the result of a disturbing kind of lobbying.
There was also the case of the Minister of Canadian Heritage who tried to exert influence on an agency under his responsibility. He interceded directly on behalf of one of his constituents.
Really, Bill C-43 on lobbying raises questions of fairness, justice and transparency. It has been said over and over again, we want a bill that would really regulate lobbying because we know there were cases of abuse of power and that colossal sums of money can be taken out of the system for the benefit of some special interests.
This is what Canadians are concerned about. As you know, we have a weakened bill here. At first, what was proposed with Bill C-43 was legislation that had teeth, that members of the opposition could have approved.
The government could have presented a bill offering more transparency in such cases. What happened is that lobbyists themselves intervened in the development of this bill to water it down and weaken it to the point that the bill we are dealing with today is no better than the previous act. It is indeed all smoke and mirrors. As far as control and openness with regard to lobbyists is concerned the situation has not really changed, as evidenced by the government's refusal to put into Bill C-43 the provisions we recommended with regard to the ethics counsellor.
Currently, there is an ethics counsellor appointed by the Prime Minister and that he can consult if he wants. But as we know very well, in the instances I just mentioned, despite abuse of power and disturbing cases of lobbying, the Prime Minister did not consult his ethics counsellor. We know it because he admitted it himself.
So, we now have an ethics counsellor, but the House of Commons cannot turn to him, because the Prime Minister has him in his pocket, so to speak.
We would like to see in the bill a clause providing that the ethics counsellor be appointed by the House and report directly to the House. In that way, the ethics counsellor would be independent enough to intervene in the issues and settle them and would be empowered to investigate even if it means bringing proceedings against lobbyists or people abusing their power.
I think that in this case, the essential condition for a strong piece of legislation that has teeth and that will be respected, is to have an ethics counsellor appointed by the House and reporting directly to the House, and operating sufficiently at arm's length, like the auditor general, to settle issues.
We make that request because there are issues we would like the ethics counsellor to be able to decide. An example would be the whole question of conflicts of interest which has been under discussion for several weeks concerning direct-to-home television broadcasting. This is a case of lobbying that is particularly interesting and even quite disturbing.
You are familiar with that case, but, for the sake of those who are not, let me outline the particulars of the incident we have been dealing with for a couple of weeks. A wholly Canadian company called Expressvu Inc. managed to get the direct television broadcasting contract. Direct broadcasting means programs are transmitted directly by satellite and not through cable companies. Expressvu complied with the rules of the CRTC and its bid got CRTC approval. The whole process had begun several months earlier.
Just when the decision was about to be made in favour of Expressvu, a new company called Power DirecTv came into the picture at the last minute and managed to have the CRTC decision overturned so as to get at least part of that market. We all know that Power DirecTv belongs to the son-in-law of the Prime Minister of Canada.
That is what I call patronage. It is hard to imagine that, in such a case, a private company could act so quickly to set up a network of influences in order to have a CRTC decision overturned by the federal cabinet. That takes some doing. It takes some clout to get the consensus needed in the federal cabinet to overturn a proper decision by the CRTC. This is the first and only time in the history of the CRTC that such a thing has happened. It is really incredible. All this just to further the interests of a fully private corporation chaired by the Prime Minister's son-in-law.
It is really incredible. It takes some clout to do that. That is some kind of lobbying. One might even say that the Liberal government is lobbying for Power Corporation. It is a known fact that Power Corporation has certain ties in Canada. Its network of influences was active throughout the federal government and even put pressure on the very top, the cabinet, in order to have the CRTC decision overturned, a first in the history of the CRTC, all in the interest of a private company which wields a great deal of clout.
In fact, as I said before, one wonders whether the Liberal government was perhaps lobbying for Power Corporation, because the process to promote Power DirecTv included appointing a panel of three former deputy ministers, all friends of Power Corporation and of Mr. Goldenberg, an adviser to the Prime Minister. We know that Michael Pitfield, the senator and former Clerk of the Privy Council, is also a vice-president of Power Corporation. Many of those involved are very, very close to the Prime Minister. They are almost part of a family. In fact, they are family.
So all this raises a number of questions. How did they manage to reverse a decision so quickly, to influence cabinet? Meanwhile, and this is what I find so amazing, they managed to give the impression that the Prime Minister himself was not involved in this decision. That takes some doing.
They managed to give that impression, despite the fact that he was surrounded by friends, neighbours, a son-in-law, former colleagues, and so forth, and they managed to reverse the CRTC's decision. They brazenly claimed that the Prime Minister himself was not involved in this decision, but that is inconceivable. We understand how this could happen when we
realize that Mr. Desmarais, the head of Power Corporation, is a very powerful man in this country. So powerful that he is able to use cabinet to further his own interests and, on top of that, he manages to control the media. That is what he did. He controlled the media. He controlled public opinion in Canada. That is quite a feat.
Normally, if Mr. Desmarais had not been the kind of man he is, if this had been a normal case, once this conspiracy, this massive lobbying on the part of the government in favour of Power Corporation was revealed, the headlines of newspapers across the country would have screamed "Nepotism, Nepotism". The Prime Minister is giving preferential treatment to his son-in-law's company. That is obvious.
The long and the short of it is that, Mr. Desmarais owns the newspaper La Presse in Montreal. He is very close to Conrad Black, who controls nearly all newspapers in Quebec. They both have a major interest in Southam News across Canada, which controls L'Actualité and Maclean's . Now that is power.
This man and his organization, Power Corporation, this is more than a lobby, this goes beyond lobbying. It is a superlobby. Not only did it reverse a CRTC decision, but it also swayed Cabinet in favour of one of Power Corporation's subsidiaries and used the press to influence public opinion.
Why has this case been dropped? After, all it is extremely disquieting. In my opinion, this is reminiscent of the family compact era, which in the 19th century was so damaging for the interests of the state. A few families who controlled money, power and trade were intimately linked with the politicians in power. It caused, as we know, rebellions in both Upper and Lower Canada.
I do not mean to say by this that the issue will spark a rebellion because, obviously, we have come a long way since then. We are a very democratic country, but in essence, we have remained a family compact. It is the family compact revisited. This incident with Power DirecTv is a case in point that the family compact is coming back.
And now, I come back to this doubt, to this suspicion that Power Corporation manipulated public opinion in order to distance the Prime Minister from a decision which has turned out so favourably for a company held by his son-in-law. Who in this country could doubt that the Prime Minister was unaware of this ploy? Legitimately and reasonably we have to assume he was involved even though in the House he has said he did not comment in Cabinet on this matter.
However, that Saturday night, at the home of Paul Desmarais, his daughter's father-in-law, he could have easily discussed it. Do you not agree with me, Mr. Speaker? He could easily have talked it over with his senior adviser, Mr. Goldenberg. Just as he could have spoken to Michael Pitfield or his buddies, there are so many of them. Can we for a moment think that the Prime Minister was not familiar with this matter? Impossible.
I contend that it is definitely a question of honour for the Prime Minister to obtain a decision in favour of Power DirecTv. It is a question of honour, of power and of fine politicking. This is politics at its highest and finest level. We know that all politicians want power. Supreme power is having the ability to do whatever one wants and to be totally above suspicion.
It is a matter of degree of corruption, in fact, because this is a case of corruption. We must not fool ourselves. It is a sign of extraordinary power when you can reach such a level of corruption and be totally above suspicion. For the Prime Minister it is a question of honour. The Prime Minister cannot not know about this matter. He was surely aware of everything that was happening.
He used all his power so that it would pass, because he could not say to his daughter: "My dear, your husband cannot have a favourable decision. We cannot overturn the decision of the CRTC". He could not say such a thing to his daughter or to his son-in-law. The honourable thing would have been for him to say: "My son-in-law, you will have it. Not only will you have it, but no one will suspect that I tipped the balance in your favour". And this is what he did.
How could he live with himself as Prime Minister, honourable and powerful as he is, if he had failed to grant this favour to his son-in-law? I close by saying that this is lobbying at its finest. This one more reason, one of many, why we need clear and very strong legislation and why we should certainly improve Bill C-43.