Mr. Speaker, the motion brought forward by the Bloc Quebecois simply asks that the Liberal Party deposit the money into a trust account. It is not complicated and it makes a lot of sense.
When one realizes that a sum of money belongs to someone else, based on what people have said under oath, the least one can do is to part with that money, to put it aside for some time and then decide what to do with it once the work of the Gomery commission is completed. However, that money must first be deposited into a trust account because some people said under oath that it does not belong to the Liberal Party. This is why I have a hard time figuring out why the Minister of Transport keeps saying the contrary at the top of his lungs.
I would like to remind members that the Liberal Party ran three campaigns with tainted money. Let us not forget that it was the member for Outremont who first used that term. We must prevent that party to run a fourth campaign with that tainted money.
The current Prime Minister, the member for LaSalle—Émard, did nothing until he was pushed to the wall by the opposition, the media and the ire of the public. If the current Prime Minister is still refusing to give back that dirty money, the House must force him to do so.
The Prime Minister does not have to wait for the end of the Gomery commission. For example, Bernard Landry, the president of the Parti Québécois, has a very strict code of ethics, that is, one that is healthy and normal. So as soon as allegations were made at the Gomery commission that money had been paid to the Parti Québécois, he immediately put it in a trust. He is awaiting the next phase, that is, the end of the Gomery commission. That is the way things usually work. That is how people act when they have a good code of ethics.
It is true that these are allegations, but remember, they are very serious, documented and made under oath. Let us not forget that.
How can anyone oppose the motion by the Bloc Québécois? I had a lot of trouble finding reasons, but I found three of them. Naturally, I will now elaborate on them.
Spontaneously, the first reason that came to me is that the Liberals are in denial. They deny the facts, do not see reality and are not aware of what is going on. Yet, as I said just now, the allegations at the Gomery commission are documented, serious and made under oath.
I have drawn up a little list so that, together, we can remember all of this. First, let's talk about the sources of the money. There is the money officially paid to the Liberal Party by the companies of Jean Brault and Groupaction: $166,000. There are the salaries and “other payments” made to Alain Renaud, who was working for the Liberal Party: $1 million. There are the payments to PluriDesign “for the cause”: $530,000, broken down into $430,000 and $100,000 according to Jean Brault's estimates. Phoney invoices from Commando: $70,000, including $50,000 for certain organizers and $20,000 for eastern Quebec. There are payments of various invoices: $44,000, including a Liberal Party video by Nathalie Tremblay, $24,000; Verchères golf club, $14,100; and Georges Farrah's canvassing at the Summit of the Americas, $6,000. And there is more.
There is the assistance sought by Mr. Corbeil after the 2000 election: $60,000. The hiring of “Liberal friends”: $230,000. Who are these Liberal friends? They are Daniel-Yves Durand: $500 a week for two months; Serge Gosselin: $80,000; John Welch: $97,000; Marie-Lyne Chrétien: 8 months at Groupaction; Wiseman: $20,000 or $25,000. There is also the payment by Richard Boudrault: $40,000 for three election workers, and a loan from Richard Boudrault for the 1997 election. There are cash payments in 1997: $50,000. There are cash payments to put off the call for tenders on the “firearms registry” account: $50,000. There is a phoney invoice issued by Gaby Chrétien for Liberal Party funding: $4,000. The total comes to $2.2 million.
As you can see, these facts are so specific that one cannot just shrug them off and say they are not serious allegations. I remind you that they are very serious, and documented, and made under oath. So it is not very likely that the Liberals are going to deny the facts.
The second reason why one might perhaps not vote in favour of the motion is that one might deny that there was a system. For there was indeed a system in that party.
One would have to be very naive to think that no system existed for organizing all this misappropriation of funds from the Liberal government. According to my colleague from Nepean—Carleton, it was theft.
We have learned from the commission that there was indeed a system. According to sworn testimony—I remind you—the system consisted of networks, in the plural, or cliques, still in the plural, where some very highly placed public officials, owners and employees of greedy communications agencies, and senior Liberal Party officials met, but most of all and most importantly, as the crowning touch, with political direction. The obvious pretext was to plaster Quebec with red flags and use flagpoles to drive Canadian unity down the throats of Quebeckers—a failing proposition, obviously. In fact, 54 members of the Bloc Québécois are here in the House and they are the living proof that it failed.
The results of the next election campaign will show again that they achieved the opposite effect, and I do not dare yet to predict the results of another referendum.
I want to tell you a bit about the system that was discussed at the Gomery commission. First there was Jacques Corriveau, the main Liberal Party financier and bagman, who took 10% of the agency commissions collected by Groupaction on sponsorship contracts awarded to Polygone. Through this scheme alone, Jacques Corriveau was able to collect half a million dollars for the Liberal Party of Canada.
Jean Brault was highly sought after financially by the Liberal Party of Canada between 1995 and 2002. He and his companies provided more than $2.2 million, either in cash or through the payment of fictitious professional fees, the payment of phony invoices, the settlement of bills incurred by the Liberal Party, such as for golf tournaments, restaurants, videos, etc., the payment of contributions to funding activities, and Groupaction hiring various people who never worked there. This dirty money is only a start. Further testimony will make it possible to add to it.
While the member for Outremont blames these acts on a parallel group or clique, as he just said, in order to minimize the situation, the witnesses at the Gomery commission tell us that the highest levels of the Liberal Party were involved.
The office of Prime Minister Jean Chrétien, Jean Pelletier, Jean Carle approved the budgets and projects. Every year, the Department of Finance replenished the Canadian unity fund, which was financing the Sponsorship Program. The Treasury Board and its president, the member for Westmount—Ville-Marie and its vice-president, the current Prime Minister, closed their eyes to certain dubious practices. The bagmen and agencies doing partisan work for the Liberal Party filled their pockets.
The system worked extremely well. Funds were merrily taken from the Department of Public Works to fill the Liberal Party's coffers, while greasing the palms of agency friends. The latter tried, by the way, to reproduce in Quebec the model that they had learned on the federal level, but it did not work. The Liberals must put the dirty money into a trust fund.