Mr. Speaker, my question is for the acting Prime Minister.
The Parker inquiry defined conflict of interest as “a situation in which a minister of the Crown has knowledge of a private economic interest that is sufficient to influence the exercise of his or her public duties and responsibilities”.
The ethics counsellor told CBC Disclosure :
We were never trying to pretend that [the member for LaSalle—Émard] did not know the nature of his interest. He of course knew.
That means that the then minister of finance clearly broke the guidelines established by the Parker commission and applied to Sinclair Stevens.
Mr. Stevens resigned. The Liberal minister did not. How can the government possibly justify--