Debates of April 18th, 2008

Harold Buchwald

[Steven Fletcher, Conservative, Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia, MB]

Mr. Speaker, yesterday Canada lost a great Canadian, Harold Buchwald.

After completing his Masters of Law at the University of Manitoba, he went on to establish one of the pre-eminent law firms in the country. He became known in Manitoba as the “go to guy” for community organizations and often was their saviour.

Mr. Buchwald was chair of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra and became its director emeritus. He was director of countless community organizations, including the Jewish Foundation of Manitoba.

He received an honorary doctorate degree from his beloved University of Manitoba and was honoured by the Hebrew University. Most recently, he was involved with the Canadian Human Rights Museum and initiatives to save the Upper Fort Garry gate. Mr. Buchwald was inducted into the Order of Canada in 1993.

He is survived by his wife Darlene, sons Jeffrey and Richard, daughter-in-law Tracy, and grandchildren Rachael, Serena and Adam.

Whenever a musical note is heard in Manitoba or a piece of art is appreciated, a part of Harold's soul is present.

Organ and Tissue Donation

[David McGuinty, Liberal, Ottawa South, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to draw attention to National Organ and Tissue Donation Awareness Week, which will begin April 20. Next week will help raise awareness of the vital importance of organ and tissue donations to help improve and extend the lives of so many.

I would also like to recognize my constituent, Emile Therien, for arranging a donation following the loss of his beautiful daughter, Sarah Beth.

In 2006 Sara Beth became a pioneer in Canadian organ donation. Prior to her actions, organs were not accepted from those who had died of heart related issues. Before becoming ill, Sarah Beth had signed an organ donation card and the Therien family worked with hospital staff to ensure that her generous and compassionate wish to help others was granted.

Filling out a donor registration form is not time consuming, but it can change so many lives. As medical technology increases, more transplants will become possible, but more donations are desperately needed.

I encourage all Canadians to sign their donor cards.

Liberal Party of Canada

[Bruce Stanton, Conservative, Simcoe North, ON]

Mr. Speaker, leadership means that when one makes a decision, one sticks to it. Leadership means having a vision and a plan of how to get there. Leadership means recognizing the truth from fiction. These are all things that the Liberal Party is sorely lacking.

The Liberals are out of touch with the issues that matter most to Canadians. They choose to focus on scandals that do not exist, and cheap smear jobs based purely on fantasy. They just do not get it.

Thankfully, our Conservative government does get it.

We recognize the issues that are important to regular citizens and we have taken concrete action. For example, continuing with our strengthening of justice legislation, just this past week we moved to toughen penalties for auto theft. We are making life more affordable for working families, and we are taking action to improve the health of Canadians.

While the opposition continues to demonstrate its lack of leadership, this government is getting the job done.

Special Events

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I am honoured to support the Friends of Ethiopia and join in its celebration of the Ethiopian millennium.

To mark this historic event, Friends of Ethiopia is sending some of the basic tools for self-sufficiency and independence to Ethiopia.

I attended the launch of its first event when it approached the City of Ottawa to donate an ambulance. Soon the ambulance will be sent to Ethiopia.

I congratulate Friends of Ethiopia and its founder, Samuel Getachew. I wish the Friends of Ethiopia every success.

I wish to pay tribute as well to the Public Service Commission which is celebrating its first centenary this year. On behalf of my hon. colleagues, I extend best wishes to all of its employees who continue to help the Public Service Commission do its important work on behalf of Canadians.

I encourage everyone to visit the Library and Archives of Canada from April 29 to May 2, when the library will be hosting a special historical exhibit that highlights the Public Service Commission's achievements during the past 100 years.

Earth Day

[Bryon Wilfert, Liberal, Richmond Hill, ON]

Mr. Speaker, while the rest of the world celebrates Earth Day on April 22, Canadians will be left to wonder why the government has abandoned Canada's role as an environmental leader.

Earth Day 2005 was a high water mark for Canada's commitment to the environment. The leader of the official opposition was our environment minister. We announced the greenest budget in Canadian history. The world had asked Canada to chair the UN conference on climate change later that year.

How far we have fallen in the last two years. On Earth Day 2008, we will be left with an Environment Minister who cavorts with known climate change deniers. He advises the Prime Minister, caught funding ads through the University of Calgary, claiming that global warming does not exist.

The government's climate change plan has been denounced by every environmentalist, scientist and economist who has studied it.

On Earth Day 2008, we will have met the government's appalling lack of action on the environment. We also know that Canada has done and can do much better.

Olympic Hall of Fame

[Robert Vincent, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

Mr. Speaker, on April 12, Danièle Sauvageau and Guillaume Leblanc were inducted into the Olympic Hall of Fame, both of whom have distinguished themselves as athletes in Quebec.

Initiated to Olympic race walking when he was merely 10 years old, Guillaume Leblanc already had the love for that sport in him. After winning a fourth place at his first Games, in 1984, he finally climbed on the second step of the podium in 1992, in Barcelona. This was the first time in 88 years that a Quebec athlete accomplished the feat of winning an Olympic medal in track and field.

In 2002, as head coach and managing director of the Canadian women's hockey team, Danièle Sauvageau led her team to victory and a gold medal at the Olympic Games in Salt Lake City. Never in the history of that sport had that happened before. She has been the first female coach in Quebec's major junior hockey league and the first female hockey commentator on the CBC French network.

On behalf of all my colleagues from the Bloc Québécois, I want to congratulate today these truly exceptional Quebeckers and to thank them for the inspiring example they set.

Justice System

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

Mr. Speaker, on Monday of this week, the Conservatives launched their stronger justice system week. On Tuesday and Wednesday, as part of the Conservatives' justice week, the RCMP raided their party headquarters.

The facts are clear. Elections Canada has ruled that the Conservatives broke Canada's election laws. The Conservatives have refused to cooperate fully with the Elections Canada investigation, which has led to the unprecedented RCMP raid on Conservative headquarters.

The Ontario Supreme Court issued a search warrant authorizing that raid. Canadians deserve to know what is in that Ontario Supreme Court warrant.

What are the Conservatives hiding? Why are the Conservatives so soft on Conservative crime?

Liberal Party of Canada

[Merv Tweed, Conservative, Brandon—Souris, MB]

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to thank the Liberal Party for their continued support of our government.

In the past several months, the Liberal Party has opposed our budgets, our tackling crime packages, our environmental plans and our immigration proposals. While the Liberals have rabidly attacked these proposals, when push comes to shove and it is time to vote their convictions, the Liberals can be seen scurrying from the House, sitting on their hands and abstaining, actually voting to support our proposals, or just not showing up.

The Liberal leader has threatened an election monthly since becoming the leader of the party, only to retreat and retrench.

Is it any wonder Canadians have absolutely no idea where the Liberal Party stands on any issue?

While our government continues to improve the lives of Canadians by standing up for them, the Liberal Party continues to ride the pine collecting splinters.

Elections Canada

[Michael Ignatieff, Liberal, Etobicoke—Lakeshore, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the fundamental issue in the Conservatives' election spending scandal is relatively simple. They exceeded legal spending limits of the national campaign by over $1 million. They violated the Canada Elections Act. They broke the law.

When will the government admit that was why there was a search warrant and why there was a police raid?

[Peter Van Loan, Conservative, Leader of the Government in the House of Commons and Minister for Democratic Reform]

Mr. Speaker, the fundamental issue at play is one of interpretation of the act. Our interpretation of the act is that it is entirely all right for Conservative candidates to talk about their national leader and their national party policies in running election campaigns.

The position of Elections Canada is that we cannot do that. That is the interpretation that is at stake and the interpretation that is at the core of the proposition that was put forward by the member for Etobicoke—Lakeshore.

We have gone to court to fight an interpretation. Why one needs a warrant to understand how to fight an interpretation, we do not know. We have provided every--

[The Speaker, Liberal, Peter Milliken]

The hon. member for Etobicoke--Lakeshore.

[Michael Ignatieff, Liberal, Etobicoke—Lakeshore, ON]

Mr. Speaker, this is a smokescreen.

The Federal Court made it clear two months ago that the Conservatives were the only party guilty of wrongdoing in this matter.

The government must be aware that there are some very serious punishments which result from breaches of the Canada Elections Act. It must be aware of the possibility of jail time. It must be aware that it can even be stripped of its status as a political party.

Are those not the real reasons that it has tried so desperately to obstruct Elections Canada? The issue here is obstruction.

[Peter Van Loan, Conservative, Leader of the Government in the House of Commons and Minister for Democratic Reform]

Mr. Speaker, the member for Etobicoke—Lakeshore came here with high heights as a man who it was thought would be a saviour and set a new standard for discourse. He talks about obstruction. There has been not one iota.

We have produced every document that Elections Canada has asked for with regard to our lawsuit initiated on this issue.

We have been quite open about it. We do not understand why that search by Elections Canada was necessary, the same way we do not understand why Conservative Party candidates are treated entirely different from Liberal Party candidates in this matter.

[Michael Ignatieff, Liberal, Etobicoke—Lakeshore, ON]

Mr. Speaker, they continue to put up a smokescreen. Yesterday, we asked the Conservatives to table the search warrant in this House but we were told that the affidavit was still sealed. The warrant and the affidavit are two different documents and they know it as well as we do. It is the warrant that is important for the time being.

Therefore, will they table the search warrant here and now in this House?

[Peter Van Loan, Conservative, Leader of the Government in the House of Commons and Minister for Democratic Reform]

Mr. Speaker, I have made the same response before.

We have not seen the affidavit, so obviously I cannot table that. A party official saw the search warrant but we are not in possession of that either, so I am in no position to table that.

Those are things the member will need to ask Elections Canada for. From the questions the Liberals have posed, they seem to know a lot more about this than we do.

[Marlene Jennings, Liberal, Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Lachine, QC]

Mr. Speaker, yesterday the government House leader refused to confirm where the Prime Minister was the morning of the RCMP raid at Conservative Party headquarters, so we will try again.

Was the Prime Minister at Conservative Party headquarters at any time on Tuesday morning, April 15, before or during the police raid?

[Peter Van Loan, Conservative, Leader of the Government in the House of Commons and Minister for Democratic Reform]

Mr. Speaker, talk about the absurdity of the questions put forward by the Liberal Party. The member for Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Lachine, following in the footsteps of the member for Wascana, is laying out exactly that proposition.

The answer is no. The Prime Minister has not been to party headquarters in all of 2008. I do not believe he has been there in the past 12 months. However, that does not stop the member for Wascana from asserting it as if it were a fact.

The problem with members of the Liberal Party is that they stand up and say things in this House that have no basis in fact, for which they have no evidence, because the only thing they can grasp onto, absent a leader and policy, is smear and pretend scandal.

[Marlene Jennings, Liberal, Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Lachine, QC]

Mr. Speaker, all he had to do was answer no yesterday.

Will the Prime Minister and Leader of the Conservative Party table a copy of the search warrant in the House and agree to make public the affidavits pertaining to the warrant?

[Peter Van Loan, Conservative, Leader of the Government in the House of Commons and Minister for Democratic Reform]

Mr. Speaker, apparently the member for Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Lachine did not hear my response to the member for Etobicoke—Lakeshore on that issue. I would invite her to review that.

I would also invite her to review my comments yesterday and my questions about her in and out scheme, how she accepted money from the Liberal Party of Canada, spent it in her local campaign, gave an identical, exact to the penny, amount of money back to the Liberal Party, while claiming a rebate for her riding campaign.

That is what the Liberals say is wrong but that is what the member did. If it is okay for her, why is not okay for us? That is the core of why we took Elections Canada to court. Why is she--

[The Speaker, Liberal, Peter Milliken]

The hon. member for Joliette.

[Pierre Paquette, Bloc, Joliette, QC]

Mr. Speaker, despite the facts provided by Elections Canada, the Prime Minister continues to repeat that the Conservatives' election practices are legal. That is exactly the same argument he used when Elections Canada challenged the treatment of registration fees collected at their March 2005 convention. Six months later, the Conservative Party was forced to admit that it had neglected to report several hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Chief Electoral Officer.

Rather than waiting until his back is up against the wall, will the Prime Minister just admit that, in the last election, the Conservatives broke the Elections Act, period?

[Peter Van Loan, Conservative, Leader of the Government in the House of Commons and Minister for Democratic Reform]

Mr. Speaker, we absolutely will not because we did not. We have followed the law on every aspect in this matter. We took Elections Canada to court because we think we should be treated the same as everyone else.

He mentions the convention fees issue, which is an interesting one. I was president of another party, the PC Party of Canada, back in the days when Elections Canada said that it was perfectly fine to make those registration fees fully eligible for contributions. As a result, when it changed its interpretation, somebody did not tell us. Guess what? We were the only ones it picked on.

[Pierre Paquette, Bloc, Joliette, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives must stop treating Quebeckers and Canadians like fools. If the Conservative Party offices were searched, it is because they are hiding information and documents from Elections Canada. The phoney excuses we have heard all week only serve to discredit the Conservatives day by day.

Before losing their remaining shred of credibility, will they admit that they broke the law and will they table the Elections Canada and RCMP search warrant in this House?

[Peter Van Loan, Conservative, Leader of the Government in the House of Commons and Minister for Democratic Reform]

Mr. Speaker, yet another member who has not been paying attention.

We did not break the law. We followed the law. We do not have the warrant in our possession, so we cannot be in a position to table it. We certainly, in this regard, have followed practices that every party has followed.

Our dispute is one with Elections Canada. We have produced every document Elections Canada has requested in this regard. We have not done anything the member has suggested. We have been totally forthcoming and have provided every document Elections Canada has sought. That is where we stand. We are always prepared to cooperate fully.

[Pauline Picard, Bloc, Drummond, QC]

Mr. Speaker, yesterday, the Leader of the Government said, and I quote, “We have offered every document to Elections Canada”. But that is impossible. There was a search, and in order for there to be a search, Elections Canada would have had to prove to a judge that it could not obtain the information without a warrant. He should stop misleading the House.

What is the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons waiting for to table the warrant in the House right now?