Madam Speaker, I suggest to Canadians that over the last two years questions have been raised about whether the Prime Minister failed to exercise his unique and tremendous position of power in a fair and impartial way because he had something to gain or lose personally from certain actions that he took in ensuring that the public's money was allocated to friends and businesses in his riding.
There are also a troubling and appalling number of instances where the Prime Minister's statements in the House on the matter proved not to square with the facts as they came out later. Canadians have a direct stake in the outcome of this matter First, truth telling is the glue that holds a civilized society together. Second, only ethics and honesty can serve to protect the relationship between the governors and the governed.
I suggest that this has been a very important convention in our parliamentary tradition. It is fair to say that our parliamentary traditions hold that to mislead or make a false statement to the House is about the most serious sin a minister could commit. To do so would be a complete rejection of parliamentary values. How can a government be held responsible if it will not be honest in statements to the House?
It has been considered a fundamental principle in the parliamentary system that the government would always be honest in the House of Commons. This has always been considered essential and absolutely fundamental.
There is an example of this during the Pearson administration. Prime minister Pearson took a very serious view of an occasion where he inadvertently and innocently misled the House. This was documented in Gordon Robertson's book Memoirs of a Very Civil Servant which recounts the facts surrounding the Rivard case.
Mr. Pearson was asked in the House of Commons as to when he was advised of the situation. He made a response, but in effect it was incorrect. He had been advised of the situation by his justice minister two weeks earlier. His mind was busy with other things and he had forgotten the conversation.
No one knew that he had been advised earlier than what he told the House. Nobody knew except him and his minister. Yet the prime minister took this so seriously and was so concerned that he had misinformed the House, even though it was innocent, that he set up the Dorion commission to inquire into the affair. When all the facts came out the commission cleared the prime minister of any wrongdoing in this matter.
This was a situation where misleading the House had been innocent. It had been inadvertent, unintentional, and no one knew about it. It was not a matter of public record. Prime minister Pearson took his ethical responsibilities so seriously that he set up a public commission to look into his own innocent and inadvertent statement in the House. Members should contrast that with what we have today.
The Prime Minister has repeatedly on record in the House of Commons made statements that clearly do not square with the facts that have come out later. We are asking for the kind of commission that Pearson set up under far less serious circumstances.
What does the Liberal government do? Does it uphold parliamentary conventions? Does it uphold the ethical standards of the Pearson administration? No, it has sunk so low that the truth will be hidden. It is important that Canadians get the truth because without truth there is no safety, no accountability and no democracy.