Mr. Speaker, the problem is here. We are debating what is going on here. What my colleague is trying to do is fairly obvious. He does not want to debate this. They are saying, “Don't talk about what is going on here. We will turn the focus elsewhere”.
What they are suggesting is without foundation. Prove it with a survey. That is our challenge to this government: face the music, let the public know what has gone on. But they are doing everything they can to avoid this. They are creating diversions. They are saying, “We are here in Ottawa, but we want to talk about what is going on in Alberta, in Quebec, but not what is going on here”.
They want us to swallow this. “We have made mistakes”, says the government. What were they? “None in particular, but many in general”, they tell us. Name me one in particular. They are unable. One after another, they justify them.
Above all, they do not want any inquiries, because that would reveal, for example, whether the cheque to Ms. Deslauriers was really made out on March 18, whether the priest cashed it, or whether it was another cheque which he cashed on Thursday but which, according to his affidavit, he did not in fact cash.
Some interesting things could come out of this. We could see who is benefiting from what, but that is not what they want. So, rather than worrying about what is going on somewhere else—my colleague was not elected somewhere else; he was elected here—he should look after his own affairs before worrying about the affairs of others.
If there is no smear campaign, it is perhaps because it is hard to distinguish the offending colour and the odours wafting over from the other side. Let the government prove it. Let the government prove that there is nothing unsavoury about all this. Let the government prove it; I challenge it to do so. It cannot.
I call on the government to prove it, but it does not want to. When people do not want to clean up their act, or prove that they are clean, the only conclusion is that what is going on there is neither very savoury nor very clean. What is not very clean we call filth.