House of Commons Hansard #18 of the 39th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament's site.) The word of the day was provinces.
Stockwell Day ConservativeMinister of Public Safety
Mr. Speaker, it seems that my colleague is putting the cart before the horse. We have initiated a process for a very open inquiry. That is exactly what we will have and what Canadians want. We will hear what Professor Johnston has to say.
Pauline Picard Bloc Drummond, QC
Mr. Speaker, the commission mandated to shed light on the Mulroney-Schreiber financial dealings has to have a free hand. Too many individuals with personal ties to Brian Mulroney have been appointed to key positions by the current Prime Minister. The current RCMP commissioner was the special assistant to Brian Mulroney's Deputy Prime Minister. The current Minister of Justice was a member of Parliament and a parliamentary secretary under Brian Mulroney.
Does the Prime Minister realize that the public's confidence can only be restored through a public inquiry with a mandate broad enough to cover the activities of the sitting government?
Stockwell Day ConservativeMinister of Public Safety
Mr. Speaker, based on my friend's approach, perhaps she would have a problem with one of her own colleagues from the Bloc Québécois having at one time been a member of Mr. Mulroney's caucus. Does she have a problem with that?
Pauline Picard Bloc Drummond, QC
Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Labour is another example showing the need for the mandate given to the commission to be broad enough to cover the members of this government. In fact, the minister was the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of National Defence in the fall of 1993. The timing of this appointment coincides with a period of time during which Brian Mulroney was apparently mandated by Mr. Schreiber to lobby for an armoured vehicle plant.
Does the Prime Minister understand that the mandate has to be broad enough to allow the commission to question the current Minister of Labour?
Stockwell Day ConservativeMinister of Public Safety
Mr. Speaker, Professor Johnston has set the mandate. I can assure my hon. colleague that there will be an open and transparent process for answering questions.
Pat Martin NDP Winnipeg Centre, MB
Mr. Speaker, if Karlheinz Schreiber is deported on December 1, we might as well cancel the whole public inquiry. It will be a complete waste of time and money. Maybe that is what the government wants.
Except then, the stink of corruption will continue to foul the hallways of Parliament and Canadians will always think that Ottawa is infested with corporate lobbyists buying off Canadian prime ministers with brown paper bags full of money and kickback schemes.
For the sake of the integrity of the public's confidence in their democratic institutions, will the Minister of Justice stay the deportation and keep Schreiber in Canada?
Stockwell Day ConservativeMinister of Public Safety
Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Justice does not comment on specific cases related to extradition, but I can say and give the member the assurance that this is going to be a full public inquiry.
The principals who are involved, including the individual, or one of the individuals, who asked that this full public inquiry unfold, being Mr. Schreiber, all key individuals, all relevant individuals, will be subject to the rules that will be laid out by Professor Johnston.
Those rules include the power to subpoena and the power to compel people to be witnesses.
Pat Martin NDP Winnipeg Centre, MB
Mr. Speaker, Schreiber might be the poster boy for everything that is wrong with corporate lobbyists, but in today's Ottawa one cannot swing a cat without hitting a well-connected Conservative corporate lobbyist. They say that the difference between lobbying and influence peddling is about five years in prison.
We do not need a public inquiry to know that corporate lobbyists are bastardizing democracy in Ottawa today, the same way they did with brown envelopes with Karlheinz Schreiber.
Will the government agree today to implement the federal lobbyist registration changes in the Federal Accountability Act, so we can put an end to this infestation of--
Pierre Poilievre ConservativeParliamentary Secretary to the President of the Treasury Board
Mr. Speaker, that member knows very well that we brought in the toughest anti-corruption law in Canadian history with the Federal Accountability Act. Among other things, that accountability act forbids public office holders, ministers, parliamentary secretaries and their staff from engaging in lobbying for five years.
That is now in place because we have kept our promise to crack down on the revolving door of lobbyists and ministers' offices that was so prolific under the previous Liberal governments.
We have kept our promise. We have kept the faith. We are getting the job done.
Robert Thibault Liberal West Nova, NS
Mr. Speaker, on November 2 the government House leader said, “It was a previous Liberal government that launched a political vendetta against one of their enemies--”.
Here is the problem. In the agreement reached in 1997 with the Government of Canada, Mulroney explicitly stated, “--the RCMP, on its own, initiated the Airbus investigation...the Minister of Justice was not involved in the decision--”. In other words, no vendetta, no political motivation.
Why did the minister flagrantly disregard what Mr. Mulroney himself put in writing and signed?
Stockwell Day ConservativeMinister of Public Safety
Mr. Speaker, we well understand the politics of what is happening here. The opposition members asked for, and they were among a number of people who asked for a full public inquiry.
When the Prime Minister who was the one who initiated this immediately upon receiving the affidavit about the allegations, the opposition members were desperate because they had lost one of the few causes that they had.
Now they are trying individually to conduct the full public inquiry. I do not know if they are lobbying for a job on that particular issue or what it is.
However, that full public inquiry is going to go ahead. It is going to be transparent. It is going to be open. I am sorry it is disappointing the opposition, but that is the way the public wants it to be.
Robert Thibault Liberal West Nova, NS
Mr. Speaker, the former prime minister is now saying that he is happy there will be an inquiry, because it will prove that he was the victim of a vendetta. In making these accusations, Mr. Mulroney himself seems to violate the conditions of his friendly $2 million settlement.
Could the leader of the House tell us whether he apologized to his old friend Brian for having tricked him and for putting him in even greater risk of losing his millions?
Stockwell Day ConservativeMinister of Public Safety
Mr. Speaker, my colleague is quite familiar with risks. We understand that he received a letter about his comments on this subject. We will have an open and transparent process to address the concerns and questions.
Pablo Rodriguez Liberal Honoré-Mercier, QC
Mr. Speaker, in February 1998, Brian Mulroney went to a Zurich hotel to try to cover up his transactions with Karlheinz Schreiber. He asked Mr. Schreiber to sign a statement exonerating him, but Mr. Schreiber flatly refused to do so.
The Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities' current chief of staff, Paul Terrien, was with Messrs. Mulroney and Schreiber at that hotel.
Who was he working for, Schreiber or Mulroney? Mulroney or Schreiber?
Will the Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities distance himself from this affair and demand that his current chief of staff step down until the truth is known?
Stockwell Day ConservativeMinister of Public Safety
Mr. Speaker, it is important for people who have information not to reveal it until the appropriate time as part of the open and transparent inquiry. I understand that apparently they have a lot of information. They must reveal that information.
Pablo Rodriguez Liberal Honoré-Mercier, QC
Mr. Speaker, that goes for the government too. The Prime Minister himself directed his government to cut all ties to Brian Mulroney.
Would it not also make sense for that directive to apply to current senior government officials who were involved in this skulduggery?
Does the Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities realize that by keeping Paul Terrien on as his chief of staff, he is making himself an accomplice to an attempt to sweep the whole affair under the carpet?
Stockwell Day ConservativeMinister of Public Safety
Mr. Speaker, there are Liberals in this House today who were also involved with Mr. Mulroney.
The member for Kings—Hants was a Mulroney youth leader. Is that unacceptable? I do not think so. I think that he is an honourable member who can deal with this situation.
The Speaker Liberal Peter Milliken
Order, please. There is too much noise. The member cannot speak. You do not all need to talk at the same time.
The member for Hochelaga.
Réal Ménard Bloc Hochelaga, QC
Mr. Speaker, we learned this morning that the government was already aware of the situation concerning the torture of prisoners in Afghanistan before the first articles were even published last spring.
How can the government continue to transfer prisoners to Afghan prisons, after its own admission that there have been at least seven allegations of torture? That is irresponsible.
Laurie Hawn ConservativeParliamentary Secretary to the Minister of National Defence
Mr. Speaker, as a matter of fact, the government took action immediately when substantiated or apparently substantiated allegations were brought forward. We are working with our partners in Afghanistan. The Afghan authorities have initiated an investigation. We are helping them with that as required.
This whole development project in Afghanistan is a work in progress. We do take it very seriously. We are working on that very hard and we will work with the Afghan authorities to find the appropriate answers.
Réal Ménard Bloc Hochelaga, QC
Mr. Speaker, the government has been denying the cases of torture since the beginning and the Minister of Foreign Affairs tried to reassure us yesterday by saying that he had entrusted his Afghan counterpart with the task of investigating and reporting on this matter.
Does the government understand that investigations are not what is needed, but rather, an immediate stop to all prisoner transfers?
Laurie Hawn ConservativeParliamentary Secretary to the Minister of National Defence
Mr. Speaker, in case my colleague is hard of listening, we are working with the Afghan authorities. There does have to be an investigation. The Afghan authorities are undertaking that. We will give them whatever assistance they require.
Again, it is a work in progress. We do not tolerate any kind of abuse of prisoners, but we must remember that these people are accused of having the blood of Canadian soldiers on their hands and in fact the blood of Afghan women and children. We will get to the bottom of the situation. My colleague can be assured of that.
Marcel Lussier Bloc Brossard—La Prairie, QC
Mr. Speaker, France is warning countries that do not respect the Kyoto protocol that their exports will be taxed. Since Canada has abandoned Kyoto, a plan of action is essential for protecting our industries from such a blow, but the government is not doing anything about it. The French president is quite serious about this. Soon he will hold the next European Union presidency and he will campaign in favour of this tax.
Does the government realize that by not respecting the Kyoto protocol and not presenting a plan, Quebec's exports could be taxed by the European Union?