Mr. Speaker, yesterday, in this House, the member for Nepean—Carleton apologized for the hurtful comments he made about first nations members, right after the government had apologized. His comments cast a shadow over the sincerity of these apologies.
The night before, on Tuesday, this member and all of his Conservative colleagues behaved in an extremely unruly manner—and that is putting it lightly—at the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics. Since they wanted to avoid passing a motion to examine their ethical behaviour concerning their party's financial practices during the election campaign, the Conservatives spent four hours dragging out the debate and delaying the vote. They interrupted the chair at every opportunity and made disparaging and even offensive remarks. It got so bad that the chair of the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics asked the member for Nepean—Carleton to apologize. This request was ignored, adding insult to injury.
The Conservatives should not dodge a review of their ethical practices by throwing ethics to the winds at the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics.