I rise on a question of privilege, Mr. Speaker. Thank you very much for giving me this opportunity.
In our parliamentary system we have ministerial responsibility. Ministers of the Crown are directly responsible to the public and to this House for all actions taken by their political staff or departmental officials.
The present Minister of Justice was the minister responsible when the investigation was being carried out by the Department of Justice into the settlement Mr. Mulroney received in 1997, a settlement that came at a time when no one in government knew about the $300,000 cash payment he had received from Karlheinz Schreiber. The present Minister of Justice was also the minister when this departmental investigation was brought to an abrupt and unexplained halt.
On November 14, on a CBC program, I stated that the Minister of Justice stopped the investigation when in fact the question of who stopped the investigation or why remains unanswered. Canadians would like to know who did.
To the extent that the distinction between personally stopping the investigation and being the minister responsible while the investigation was stopped troubles the minister or has caused him any embarrassment or discomfort in any way, I wish to make clear my apologies to him.
On behalf of Canadians, we will vigorously pursue the issue of who stopped that investigation, so I ask the minister again, who stopped the investigation and why?