Mr. Chair, what do we expect from the Liberals? The reality is, arm's length means eventually out of reach. The reality is that the money was meant for victims. I do not think one of the lawyers at Crawford ever had hepatitis C. I never met them on a personal level, but why did the government give the money to a group called Crawford? Why could it not have given that money directly to the victims? The reality is that the government wanted nothing to do with it. It sounded good politically. It would give the money to an arm's length agency.
Pierre Trudeau said once, arm's length means eventually out of reach. That is exactly what happened. The government lost control of it. We asked many times. Bruce DeVenne of my area of Lower Sackville asked the government many times from 1998 to 2000. Even today he has asked questions and for information from Crawford. Crawford is out of reach for access to information. Just months ago he asked the Minister of Health a question. That minister said to him in a letter, “Go ask Crawford”.
Why would the taxpayers of Canada accept the fact that the money would go to Crawford? Crawford has no responsibility to answer to anybody except itself. This is the part that gets stuck in my craw. It burns me up. It is simply not right. It is not fair. It is simply wrong.
The money from the taxpayers of Canada should have gone directly from the government to the victims, not to a third party and then to a certain box of victims. Those are the facts. That is the reality of today. How many people have died with hep C and have never been able to go to the government or to us and argue their point?
This is a tradition of the Liberal Party and Government of Canada, to delay, delay. The government gave it to an arm's length agency and passed it on to somebody else who dealt with it. When we ask government members questions, they no longer have responsibility because it was passed on to a separate agency. What a cop out.
I invited Liberals to come with me to Lower Sackville, Nova Scotia, and speak to Neil van Deusen and Mr. Bruce DeVenne who have hepatitis C. I asked them to speak to them and explain to them in the comfort of their own living rooms why the government did what it did.
I can assure the House, not one Liberal has yet taken me up on that invitation. However, I invite them now. With the U.S. election, how many are listening? I invite them now to come with me to the victims I have in my riding and explain the Liberal government's position. If they were willing to do that, I would be honoured to pay the flight down there because it would be very interesting to hear what they would have to say to the victims in my riding.
That is a travesty of justice. It is a sin that the Liberals can stand up in the House and say “Well, what is done is done and we are now moving to the future”. Any member in the House who says that, especially members from Nova Scotia, should know better. My colleague from Digby knows better. He knows darned well that what the government did was wrong. Now it is trying to slough it off with any words or move the argument to other professions. That is simply wrong.
In conclusion, that money should have gone directly to the victims, not to a third party of lawyers. It does not demean lawyers. But no lawyer that I know of that works for Crawford got infected with hepatitis C. Yet they are making a mint off the funds from the taxpayer.
If a person is infected with hepatitis C and somebody else makes money from his or her pain, is that right? I would say no; it is wrong. It was wrong then and it is wrong now.