Mr. Speaker, my riding of Saint-Bruno—Saint-Hubert consists of two magnificent communities located right next to each other on Montreal's south shore. I would like to take this opportunity to say that and to salute the people in my riding.
I would like to go back to what I said on March 15, and by that, I mean “revisit”, not “start over”. I want to go back to the point I was discussing. As everyone knows, I have been given 10 short minutes to follow up on a speech I started on March 15. Today is April 10, so it has been nearly a month. I should therefore situate my listeners.
First of all, as everyone knows, we are talking about the Mulroney-Schreiber affair. On March 15, I started sketching a broad outline of the Bloc Québécois' supplementary opinion, which we added to the report of the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics. Of course, we approve of the main part of the report, but we also prepared a supplementary opinion. Although I went into great detail last time, I would like to revisit two or three of the points in the supplementary opinion so that the people listening and watching will understand where we are going with this.
First, I asked why Brian Mulroney made the mistake of accepting cash and why he then publicly apologized. Was it because he needed the money? He said no. Was it out of greed? That is a question he should be asked during a public inquiry. Of course, Mr. Mulroney tried to prove that he did nothing illegal, instead of trying to correct the negative perception of what he did.
We have to understand—and that is one of the main reasons the Bloc Québécois wants there to be a public inquiry with as broad a mandate as possible—that the transaction that was discovered at the last minute, 15 years after the fait accompli, was truly questionable. A former prime minister, who was in fact still a member of the House of Commons, received one hundred $1,000 bills in a hotel room without a written contract, without a receipt, without having to report it to anyone. He took that money and instead of depositing it in a bank, as any normal person would do in a legal transaction when there was nothing to hide, he put it into a safe. Did he do that once? No, he did it twice, even three times.
Mr. Schreiber gave him that money for so-called lobbying work, the terms of which are absolutely unclear. As far as that lobbying work is concerned, neither Mr. Mulroney's nor Mr. Schreiber's version is credible. Neither version makes any sense nor was corroborated by other witnesses to prove that Mr. Mulroney was seen promoting Thyssen's armoured vehicles to Chinese representatives. No one has confirmed that. No witness anywhere in the world has been found to testify to Mr. Mulroney's lobbying work. No one was found to corroborate Mr. Schreiber's version either, in other words, that he asked Mr. Mulroney to lobby Canada and Quebec to set up a Thyssen plant in Nova Scotia or Quebec.
When the public learns that a former prime minister, who had been the most influential politician for eight years, received $225,000 or $300,000—even the actual amount of money is not clear—from a powerful lobbyist, a businessman who obtained contracts of at least $2 billion from that prime minister's government and collected for himself or his friends some $225 million, it comes as no surprise that the public thinks that money was paid for services rendered, as a thank you and perhaps for future considerations.
That is what I said on March 15, 2008. I talked a little bit about the mysterious contract. As I said earlier, no one is sure about the exact amounts and, regarding the mandate, neither version is credible.
If that transaction were a bribe, Brian Mulroney and Karlheinz Schreiber would not have acted any differently. That is why a public commission of inquiry is needed. It is needed to shed some light on the entire situation, to clean up this mess, to be sure there is nothing to this. For many years now, books have been published and articles printed in newspapers on this. No less than four books have been written about it in English Canada. They have never been translated into French. Perhaps that explains why Quebeckers do not know as much about this affair. These four books written in English in Canada were published, distributed and enthusiastically reviewed, yet no one has been able to shed any more light.
So, once and for all, let us shed some light on this. Let us go through everything from A to Z. A public inquiry, with a commissioner, should hear witnesses and shed some light, once and for all.
Since March 15, all we have seen is the report from the Conservative Prime Minister's special adviser. He appointed a special adviser, as though he could no longer make his own decisions. This special adviser suggested a limited mandate, even though the majority of the members of the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics recommended a broad mandate for the inquiry.
Oddly enough, the Conservative Prime Minister always said that the government should heed the democratic decisions of this House and that the opinion of the House was paramount. He said that when he was in opposition. Yet now that he has a choice between the opinion of a special adviser he appointed and a committee of the House, he is choosing the opinion of the special adviser. It seems clear that the Conservative Prime Minister should be more inclined to heed the recommendation of the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics.
The special adviser, David Johnston, is recommending confidential interviews. This is not what the committee or the public wants. If we really want to shed light on this affair once and for all, then we should do nothing behind the scenes, nothing in secret. Let us be clear and transparent. It is true that this Conservative government pretended to be transparent at the very start of its mandate. Since then, we have discovered more and more layers and opacity in its actions.
This time, because a committee of the House has made a recommendation, the government should be very attentive and responsive to our recommendations and set up a commission of inquiry with the broadest mandate possible, but it should do so quickly and not conduct confidential interviews. It should make the inquiry completely public. That is what the public wants.
The Prime Minister's special adviser acknowledges that the hands of the future commissioner must not be tied. That is obvious.
As I am being signalled that I have only two minutes left, I will be brief. There is another important point. The Prime Minister gave a statement on January 11 of this year, and not January 11 two or three years ago. This statement, as we speak, can be found on his Internet site under “Statements”. He said he would appoint a commissioner once the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics finished its hearings. He did not speak of the work of the committee but of its hearings. Conservative members of this house have tricked those listening to us by saying that he said when their work was completed. That is not true. The Prime Minister said once the hearings were finished.
The committee finished its hearings on February 25, with the last witness Elmer MacKay. The report was tabled in the House on April 2. Therefore, on February 26, he should have appointed his commissioner and set up the public inquiry because we finished on February 25. It is now April 10. The hearings of the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics have been completed. We tabled our report in this House on April 2. That was eight days ago and there is no commissioner or commission of public inquiry on the horizon. That is unacceptable.
This government boasts too much about keeping its promises and following through. Well I can say that this commission of public inquiry is another example—and there are many more—of a promise broken by the Prime Minister and by this government.
On January 11 he said—