Debates of April 14th, 2005

Sponsorship Program

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[The Speaker]

Order, please. The hon. member for Medicine Hat now has the floor.

[Monte Solberg, Conservative, Medicine Hat, AB]

Mr. Speaker, I did not hear any denunciation in that. Obviously those members are still not prepared to withdraw.

The public works minister suggests full disclosure is in order and I absolutely agree. Will the public works minister acknowledge that Deloitte & Touche has given over $400,000 to the Liberal Party? They are the same people who did the Liberal audit.

Given Deloitte's dodgy investigation of the Liberal books, will the government direct the Liberal Party to put dirty sponsorship money in a trust so that it cannot be used again in an election campaign?

[Scott Brison, Liberal, Minister of Public Works and Government Services]

Mr. Speaker, now those members are attacking Deloitte & Touche and they are attacking PricewaterhouseCoopers. Is this not interesting, their contempt for these in fact international organizations that have credibility not just in Canada but around the world. That is how desperate they are getting. They are willing to impugn the reputations of internationally respected accounting firms like Deloitte & Touche and PricewaterhouseCoopers. That is shocking.

The fact is that the Liberal Party and this government are doing the right thing, when over there they just want to get to the polls. We want to get to the truth because that is what Canadians deserve.

[Monte Solberg, Conservative, Medicine Hat, AB]

Mr. Speaker, let me be very clear then. It is really the Liberal Party that has no credibility.

The fact is that Deloitte & Touche has given that party $400,000 in donations since 1993. The minister a few minutes ago talked about a very small donation that was given to the Canadian Alliance and suggested that somehow coloured the question that my friend asked a minute ago.

I would like to ask this of the minister across the way. Does the fact that Deloitte has given $400,000 to the Liberal Party colour the review of the Liberal books? I would suggest, using the minister's logic, it must.

[Scott Brison, Liberal, Minister of Public Works and Government Services]

Mr. Speaker, those members believe Jean Brault. I trust Deloitte & Touche. They believe Jean Brault. I trust Justice Gomery. They believe Jean Brault. I believe in the Prime Minister of Canada, who is getting to the bottom of this issue.

Canadians know that they can trust this Prime Minister and they can trust John Gomery to get to the bottom of this issue, but they cannot trust the people over there because those people are only interested in partisan self-interest. We are putting country before party over here.

Textile Industry

[Pierre Paquette, Bloc, Joliette, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the clothing and textile industries are in crisis in large part because of the lifting of quotas on clothing from China. Industry stakeholders, the unions in particular, are calling on the Canadian government to implement protective measures, as the United States is about to do to protect its textile industry.

Can the Minister of International Trade explain the government's stubborn refusal to take measures to protect the industry even though the WTO rules allow it to do so?

[Jim Peterson, Liberal, Minister of International Trade]

Mr. Speaker, as the hon. member knows, this year there was a very slight increase in clothing and textile imports. We are, however, consulting the industry. We are monitoring the numbers closely and we are talking with our international partners.

[Pierre Paquette, Bloc, Joliette, QC]

Mr. Speaker, clearly, the minister does not read the papers. The United States and the European Union are getting ready to take action to protect their industries against clothing imports from China. If the federal government plans to remain this passive when faced with the threats to our industry, we might as well shut the plants down right away.

Could the government tell us why it is refusing to act immediately? This is an emergency.

[Jim Peterson, Liberal, Minister of International Trade]

Mr. Speaker, if the hon. member takes a look at the figures, he will notice an increase in textile and clothing imports of less than 6% this year. We are continuing to monitor the figures very closely. We will be working hand in hand with our international partners.

Sponsorship Program

[Peter Van Loan, Conservative, York—Simcoe, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Public Works is fond of casting doubts on the evidence at the Gomery commission, calling it mere allegation.

An elementary lesson: it is not allegation, it is evidence. It is sworn evidence given under oath. The giving of false evidence is a serious offence. It is called perjury. To imply that those witnesses are perjuring themselves is to comment seriously not only on the evidence but in a very negative way.

Will the Prime Minister order his Minister of Public Works to stop accusing witnesses of perjury or to at the very least stop commenting on the evidence in a fashion that bullies Gomery--

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[The Speaker]

Order, please. The hon. Minister of Public Works and Government Services has the floor to respond to this question.

[Scott Brison, Liberal, Minister of Public Works and Government Services]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member should talk to his colleague, the member for Calgary Southeast, who yesterday basically accused and in fact used the word perjure when he accused the Prime Minister of, in front of Gomery--

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[Scott Brison, Liberal, Kings—Hants, NS]

The fact is that the Leader of the Conservative Party has accused witnesses of lying before Gomery. The deputy leader has accused some witnesses' testimony of being a sham. They do not have much caucus unity or they at least do not have very good question period coordination, because that hon. member is completely out to lunch and completely--

[The Speaker]

The hon. member for York--Simcoe.

[Peter Van Loan, Conservative, York—Simcoe, ON]

Mr. Speaker, that minister of the Crown seems to think that he is able to comment without any restraint on the evidence at the commission and I think that is contrary to what he directs at everyone else.

We now know that Richard Boudreault, who was a Groupaction employee, was clandestinely paid to work for the Liberal Party. He was put on the payroll of another firm, which then billed Groupaction with bogus invoices for fictitious services.

This was obviously a very sophisticated, carefully structured, systematic operation to use the taxpayers' money to finance the Liberal Party. How many people were paid using sponsorship funds to work for the Liberal Party?

[Scott Brison, Liberal, Minister of Public Works and Government Services]

Mr. Speaker, I will make an agreement with the hon. member. Members opposite will not comment on daily testimony and we will not comment on daily testimony. I think that we are keeping our part of that agreement, because we respect the independence of a judicial inquiry. We recognize the difference between allegations and facts. We trust Justice Gomery to do his work, as do Canadians.

Somalia

[Borys Wrzesnewskyj, Liberal, Etobicoke Centre, ON]

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Over the last decade, warlordism in Somalia has created a country that is a tragic example of a failed state. The recent election of a transitional government and the parliament's confirmation of the president's appointment of a prime minister and cabinet have at last provided the Somali people much hope for peace and stability.

When will the minister state that he is prepared to formally acknowledge the transitional government and appoint a special envoy to help this country at this historically critical juncture?

[Pierre Pettigrew, Liberal, Minister of Foreign Affairs]

Mr. Speaker, since 1991 Canada has taken a most proactive role in Somalia, contributing almost $50 million on the ground, primarily through CIDA.

We understand that a majority of Somalis and the bordering states recognize the transitional government as the legitimate voice of Somalia. In this context, we will continue to work with the transitional government and the bordering states to help establish peace and stability in Somalia. We will look at all options that could facilitate this transition.

Justice

[Gord Brown, Conservative, Leeds—Grenville, ON]

Mr. Speaker, after another knife killing in Kingston, Ontario, Deputy Police Chief Dan Murphy expressed concern about the growing number of people carrying knives to use as weapons. Statistics Canada says that from 1999 to 2003 guns killed 833 people while knives killed 787.

People who kill with knives face no minimum sentence. Will the justice minister tell us when his government is going to take knife crime seriously and impose mandatory minimum sentences?

[Irwin Cotler, Liberal, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada]

Mr. Speaker, we take all crime seriously, but when it comes to mandatory minimums, we are not going to go ahead and introduce something that all the evidence shows is neither effective nor a deterrent. We want to combat crime, but not with ineffective deterrents.

[Gary Goodyear, Conservative, Cambridge, ON]

Mr. Speaker, despite the bafflegab from that side of the House, criminals are considered more important and are put in front of the safety of our children. A convicted pedophile was recently transferred from the United States to my riding of Cambridge after the brutal raping of two young boys. The police were not even informed. This left a violent offender to prey again, and he did.

My constituents are bloody well fed up with the lip service from that side of the House. We demand to know why the police were not informed.

[Anne McLellan, Liberal, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness]

In fact, Mr. Speaker, if it involves the Correctional Service of Canada, that information should have been provided to the local police. It is the local police that will make the decision as to whether that information is provided to the community. Since I am not aware of the specific situation, I will be happy to follow it up and get back to the hon. member.