Debates of April 28th, 2008

Elections Canada

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the President of the Treasury Board]

Mr. Speaker, in fact, the Conservative Party, and its members on that committee, is the only party that has not voted against hearings on this very subject. In fact, we put forward amendments to have hearings on the subject, but to include all the parties so that we could examine the $1.7 million that the Liberal Party transferred to ridings and the $1.3 million that those ridings then purchased back from the central party.

What do the Liberals have to hide? What is buried in that $1.3 million worth of secrets that they do not want to come out in the committee?

[Ralph Goodale, Liberal, Wascana, SK]

Mr. Speaker, the parliamentary secretary will not be able to hide the truth. The election overspending scandal that is engulfing the Conservative government involved, according to Elections Canada, improper advertising by 67 Conservative candidates across the country. Money flowed in and out, advertising flowed back and forth, all apparently to circumvent the law.

To clarify the scheme, if the parliamentary secretary is so confident, will the government simply table here and now copies of all the actual ads and all the details of where and when they ran and who paid for them in these 67 ridings?

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the President of the Treasury Board]

Mr. Speaker, Conservative candidates paid for Conservative ads with Conservative money, to answer his question.

We have very interesting news about the Liberal candidate in Central Nova. Elizabeth May has put forward a fundraising scheme in which she says that people can donate through the Green Party of Canada. In small print it says, “The donation will go to the Green Party of Canada, who in turn will transfer the money to Central Nova. The tax receipt will be issued by the Green Party of Canada”.

Is that why the Liberals do not want to have hearings into their own financial practices at the committee?

Justice

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

Mr. Speaker, last Friday the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that police who use dogs to find drugs in high schools or public places must be able to justify prior suspicion of a crime in order to use evidence seized. With the amount of drugs in high schools increasing in recent years, parents want to know that every effort is being taken to keep drugs out of our schools.

Can the Minister of Justice comment on how this latest Supreme Court of Canada decision will affect keeping kids safe from drugs?

[Rob Nicholson, Conservative, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada]

Mr. Speaker, we will examine this decision to determine the best ways to protect children. I note that there was a significant minority decision as well. We want to ensure that police have all the tools they need to protect children and if that requires new initiatives from this government, Canadians know that they can count on us.

Television Industry

[Thomas Mulcair, NDP, Outremont, QC]

Mr. Speaker, earlier, the Minister of Canadian Heritage, Status of Women and Official Languages informed this House that Remstar's offer had been approved by the court. Is the minister aware that, at the hearing on the future of TQS, the controller, who is appointed by the court, said that the buyers, namely Remstar, had no intention of asking for substantial changes to the licence? We now know that this is false. Indeed, the massive layoff of journalists and the death of the news services are in blatant contradiction with the formal commitments made by TQS, when it applied for its licence.

Rather than merely sympathize with these people, will the minister finally do something?

[Josée Verner, Conservative, Minister of Canadian Heritage]

Mr. Speaker, I will definitely do more than the member who just put the question. I have already written a letter to the CRTC chair, who will keep me informed of the process that is going to be put in place. All interested parties have until May 15 to express their views to us, and the hearings will take place on June 2.

Again, I remind the hon. member that this is a private transaction. Remstar must present its offer to creditors.

[Thomas Mulcair, NDP, Outremont, QC]

Mr. Speaker, so this is just a private transaction. We are talking about culture, language and information, but we are told this is merely a small private affair. That is shameful.

The Liberals said the same thing before CKAC shut down its newsroom. The Liberals did nothing at the time, and the Conservatives are not doing anything now. Yet, 270 people are going to lose their jobs, while Quebec and its regions will lose a major voice.

Instead of writing letters and saying that this is a private transaction, will the minister wake up and realize that she is the one responsible, and will she finally take action?

[Josée Verner, Conservative, Minister of Canadian Heritage]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member is in fact suggesting that the CRTC does not have the requisite qualifications or authority to hold hearings. I think we should let the CRTC complete its process, and we should also let creditors make a decision on Remstar's business plan.

Elections Canada

[Todd Russell, Liberal, Labrador, NL]

Mr. Speaker, Joe Goudie, the Conservative candidate in Labrador in 2006, was told to take part in the Tory in and out financing scheme.

In an affidavit for Elections Canada, his campaign manager said, “If I was a victim of one of those email scams, I wouldn't feel any more duped...”.

Mr. Goudie is so angry at being trapped in this scheme by the Conservative Party that he is planning to leave the party altogether.

Advisers to both the House leader and the Prime Minister ran this scheme.

Will the Conservative Party stop badmouthing its former candidates who are only being honest, and instead, fire the scam artists?

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the President of the Treasury Board]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to take the opportunity to highlight some of the practices of the hon. member for Wascana.

During the last election, Liberal candidates in the region of Regina engaged in regional media buys and he was part of that scheme. At around the same time, according to the affidavit I have in my hands, money was transferred from the national party. However, guess what? There was no contact between those local campaigns and the advertising firms that carried the placement of his ad lines. Very strange. They did not break any laws. Their only crime is hypocrisy.

[Pablo Rodriguez, Liberal, Honoré-Mercier, QC]

Mr. Speaker, Liberato Martelli, the 2006 Conservative candidate in the riding of Bourassa has also criticized the in and out scandal.

Mr. Martelli directly implicated the Prime Minister in this scandal, saying, “The [Prime Minister] knows what is happening. He micro-manages. He knows everything that is going on around him.”

Will the Prime Minister publicly renounce his little in and out scheme, or will he and his organizers deliberately break the law again?

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the President of the Treasury Board]

Mr. Speaker, the Conservative candidates spent Conservative funds on Conservative advertising. It is completely legal; all the parties do it. That is why we are taking Elections Canada to court.

One day before Elections Canada was asked about its actions, it visited our office with Liberal cameras. That is very strange, and we are prepared to defend our actions during the election.

[Scott Simms, Liberal, Bonavista—Gander—Grand Falls—Windsor, NL]

Mr. Speaker, in order to run away from the scandal, the Conservative Party will not only attack Elections Canada but now it is contradicting its own candidates and volunteers.

Cynthia Downey, the former Conservative candidate for Random—Burin—St. George's, said:

We thought that the federal party was actually going to do something to help us....

But then we found out that we were not to spend that money, but to return it.

The Minister for Democratic Reform now claims this money was spent for the local campaign.

I challenge the parliamentary secretary to stand in the House and call Cynthia Downey a liar.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the President of the Treasury Board]

Mr. Speaker, back in a 1997 report on that year's election, the then chief electoral officer said that advertising was considered local based on its tag line not its content.

I challenge the member to call the former CEO of Elections Canada a liar.

[Francis Scarpaleggia, Liberal, Lac-Saint-Louis, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the Conservative candidate in Compton-Stanstead, Gary Caldwell, confirmed that the Prime Minister and his team cheated during the last election. Mr. Caldwell said that the money was supposed to be spent on local advertising, but that did not happen. He advised the Prime Minister to accept Elections Canada's decision, as he has.

Does the Prime Minister plan on taking his candidate's advice, or does he plan on ordering Conservative organizers in the ridings to do the same thing again next time around?

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the President of the Treasury Board]

Mr. Speaker, the Globe and Mail dated April 25, 2008, stated:

Look at any party's filings and the flows are recorded for all to see. [The Liberal leader's] 2006 campaign filing shows money moving in and out on the same day. Various New Democrats' filings reveal that in their more centralist structure, more money flows up than down, but they too mix national and local spending freely.

It happens all the time. It comes right from the Globe and Mail. It is a fact. The other parties just need to accept that.

Bill 101 and the Canada Labour Code

[Jean-Yves Laforest, Bloc, Saint-Maurice—Champlain, QC]

Mr. Speaker, Bill C-482 calls for Bill 101 to apply to the 240,000 workers in Quebec governed by the Canada Labour Code. If recognizing Quebec as a nation means anything, then its culture and language have to be protected.

Can the Minister of Labour and member for Jonquière—Alma tell us what his policy is for Quebec: French as the language of work or bilingualism?

[Jean-Pierre Blackburn, Conservative, Minister of Labour and Minister of the Economic Development Agency of Canada for the Regions of Quebec]

Mr. Speaker, after 18 years of being in Ottawa, the Bloc Québécois is still trying to find ways to stir up trouble here in this House. Do you know how many complaints there have been about language of work in my department? We had five complaints over the past year. Do you know how many had to do with Quebec's official language? There were 2,005.

[Jean-Yves Laforest, Bloc, Saint-Maurice—Champlain, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to remind the minister that what he just said does not apply.

As far as this bill is concerned, a note drafted by the Privy Council to the Prime Minister had been more or less blacked out, according to La Presse. We know that the Prime Minister is obsessed with his desire to control everything and that he maintains a culture of secrecy for government business.

Why was this information censored? Does it reveal government secrets? Could the government please show some transparency and submit the note in full?

[Jean-Pierre Blackburn, Conservative, Minister of Labour and Minister of the Economic Development Agency of Canada for the Regions of Quebec]

Mr. Speaker, as far as language is concerned, the federal government is required to provide services in both languages according to the needs of the public. I would like to remind the hon. member that a member of the other party in Quebec City, the Parti Québécois, wants the federal government to interfere in a provincial jurisdiction by applying Bill 101 across Canada. And yet, this representative of headquarters in Quebec City, the PQ member Daniel Turp, is calling on his constituents to contact him in the language of their choice, even English.

Ethics

[Joyce Murray, Liberal, Vancouver Quadra, BC]

Mr. Speaker, earlier, the Minister of International Cooperation boasted about the Conservatives' meaningful commitments.

Here is one we know about. Financial--

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[The Speaker, Liberal, Peter Milliken]

Order, please. The hon. member for Vancouver Quadra has the floor.

[Joyce Murray, Liberal, Vancouver Quadra, BC]

Mr. Speaker, financial considerations were offered to Chuck Cadman to influence a critical vote.

The Prime Minister's own words are published in a book for sale right across the country. The Prime Minister has shamefully evaded answering questions on this issue time and again.

On the tape, he talked about financial considerations Chuck might use due to an election. What were they?

In the absence of an answer, how does the Prime Minister expect Canadians to trust him?