He investigates the Prime Minister. He does not report to parliament. If I were to ask you, Mr. Speaker, to make me accountable, then I ought to be accountable to people who are watching. Instead, if I asked you to make me accountable and then we have a quiet coffee some place for you to tell me if you think I am accountable or not, what will it look look or what will it smell like? The whole thing is pretty suspicious.
I am sure this poor ethics counsellor is trying his darndest to make sure everything is legitimate. However he does not have to answer to anybody. He just has to have coffee with the Prime Minister and say here is how it looks, Joe, John, Harry or whoever.
On March 16, a couple of weeks later, a letter from the Prime Minister's lawyer to Mr. Wilson stated that the document removing him as director was filed with the incorporations branch of Industry Canada on March 14, 1994. Why would he say on June 1, 1999, that he quit the company before he was Prime Minister? Also he said it on June 8, 1999:
Before I became PM I sold those shares and I gave the problem or the receivable to my trustee...She is in charge of managing it.
It does not look good. On November 15, 1994, a minute sheet was signed by the ethics counsellor. Of course the contents were severed when we got the information. It is entitled “Ownership Interest of Grand-Mère Golf Club”. This implies that the issue was not yet resolved. Otherwise, why would they have a document about it? It could be that the resignation was recorded in the private minutes of 161341 Canada Inc. before he became Prime Minister and the routine official documents were filed after the fact, but the exchange of letters and calls from Mr. Wilson's office obviously suggest otherwise.
I beg anyone in the House or outside to say that this is perhaps irrelevant. I do not think so. This is so relevant that it hurts. We see the business practices of the Prime Minister. We see a person who said before the election that if anything crossed his desk or any cabinet minister's desk which had to do with his riding, he was being a good little MP. Perhaps it is not so good. We are so far in debt and yet we see this kind of political manipulation and interference.
There are two important issues. First, the Prime Minister's word is what is relevant to the whole debate today. How good is his word? There appear to be contradictions between what he said and what he did. There is proof through access to information that is exactly what happened. That is a case we have uncovered. Lord knows how many more there are.
Here are some more unanswered questions which never get answered in question period but need to be raised. It would be great if they ever did get answered. Did the Prime Minister declare that he was a former director of 161341 Canada Inc. when he was in reality a current director?
It is obvious he was a director from the election in October 1993 to March 1994 when somebody caught up to him and said that he was still a director. Why did he declare that he was a former director when at that time he was a present director? If he was a director during those four months, was he in a position of conflict of interest at any time? Those were huge questions because the Prime Minister's attitude was “Cross my desk and I will look after you. Just let me know if you need help and I will look after you”.
When the Prime Minister was appointed to office, what did he declare in his December 8, 1993 personal information statement about his directorship? We have proof that he was still a director. Howard Wilson would tell us that if we could ever find him. He only has quiet coffees with the Prime Minister but we would love it if he would come here and report to parliament, which is, I think, what his job ought to be.
What exactly was in his statement of December 8? The contents were severed from the request. We ended up with a couple of pages that were mostly whited out and five or six pages missing.