Mr. Speaker, I am outraged at the way the Minister of Justice is dealing with the Ted Thompson issue.
This is a case of a senior official from the federal justice department interfering with the judicial process. An assistant deputy attorney general, Ted Thompson, tried to influence the Chief Justice of the federal court to speed up the proceedings of a case involving the federal Department of Justice. This is why I am outraged.
Even more disturbing is the fact that Mr. Thompson threatened to make a reference to the Supreme Court if proceedings were not accelerated. Threats were made. Given such a blatant case of undue interference on the part of one of his senior officials, we expected the Minister of Justice to take quick, energetic and decisive action. However, the minister is doing just the opposite.
First, he sets up a non public inquiry which must report at the earliest opportunity, but with no specific date set. Given the seriousness of the incident, the public has a right to quickly know all the circumstances surrounding this matter. It is unacceptable that such a serious incident be investigated behind closed doors.
The minister must pledge to release the full report of the inquiry that will be conducted by Mr. Justice Dubin, a report that will
undoubtedly condemn the action taken in this case. Let us hope that the Minister of Justice will have the decency to make the results of this report public when the House is sitting, and not at some quiet moment, as the government has unfortunately taken to doing recently.
Furthermore, it is difficult to see how the minister can fail to address in his statement the threat made by his assistant deputy minister to take a reference to the Supreme Court. It is completely unacceptable that the Department of Justice of Canada can hold this authority as a threat over courts of first instance.
The minister has a responsibility to reassure the public about the integrity of his department and to state clearly that the threat to exercise authority to take a reference to the Supreme Court is completely intolerable, and instead of trying to cover for his official, he should have expressed his disapproval and dismissed him immediately.
Of course, Mr. Thompson has decided to take leave of his position while awaiting the results of the investigation. However, the minister cannot shirk his responsibilities by hiding behind his investigation. Furthermore, he himself admits in the statement he has just made that he is answerable for the actions of his department and its officials.
In addition, before the court, lawyers from his own department admitted that Mr. Thompson had approached the chief justice. So what more is the minister waiting for? On the very face of it, it is clear that the deputy attorney general has committed a serious error that the minister must indicate his disapproval of through an immediate dismissal. This he refuses to do, instead singing the praises of Mr. Thompson in his statement.
Another fundamental point is completely absent from the justice minister's statement. Two Federal Court judges, one of them the chief justice, have demonstrated a flagrant lack of impartiality and integrity in their task as guardians of justice. In fact, instead of showing Mr. Thompson the door, the judges complied with these requests, thus violating their duty to remain neutral and impartial. The presiding judge, Mr. Justice Jerome, even had to remove himself from the case as a result of this incident.
I would remind the minister that, as he himself pointed out in his statement, responsibility for ensuring the independence of the judiciary rests with him. The two judges in this case, Chief Justice Isaac and Associate Chief Justice Jerome, have obviously not fulfilled their duty of integrity. What is the minister waiting for to refer these two cases to the Canadian Judicial Council?
In conclusion, the Bloc Quebecois is outraged by the insignificant and not very convincing actions taken by the justice minister in response to such a serious case of undue interference in the judicial system. The minister is clearly shirking his responsibilities as watchdog of the integrity of the judicial system. We are asking the minister to launch a public inquiry, to take immediate action against Mr. Thompson, and, in particular, to file complaints about the actions of the judges in this matter.