Mr. Speaker, in one interview after another, the Prime Minister is claiming he knew nothing about the sponsorship scandal, at least not prior to May 2002. Yet his own Minister of Public Works and Government Services contradicted him yesterday by telling the House that, as early as the end of 2001, it was clear to everyone that the problems with the sponsorship program were far more serious than just some little administrative hitches.
How can the Prime Minister state without turning a hair that he knew nothing at all, when his own minister says that the fraudulent nature of the sponsorship scandal was common knowledge as far back as 2001?