Mr. Speaker, on Thursday last, the Liberal member for Laval West took offence at the attitude of the Bloc Quebecois to the appointment of Liberal judge Michel Bastarache, saying that sovereignists, and I quote, “never hesitate to reward their separatist friends”.
The Liberal member would do well to look at her own situation. From 1993, the new member, who was the defeated Liberal candidate in Laval East, enjoyed the pleasures of Liberal cronyism until the elections of 1997.
In June 1995, she went to Haiti as an election observer at taxpayers' expense. In January 1996 she was appointed to the International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development, again at taxpayers' expense. In June 1996, she was appointed commissioner of the Immigration and Refugee Board at an annual salary of $86,400.
Rather than feigning indignation, the member for Laval West should be blushing for having enjoyed the pleasures of cronyism.