Madam Speaker, I am glad I was here to hear my newly elected colleague's comments on this bill. I congratulate him on his election.
It is right for Liberals to be standing up on this because if anybody knows about white collar crime, it would be them. We certainly support tougher rules to protect investors, pensioners and business owners from corporate fraud.
Let us just look at the Liberals' take on this when we look at the history: Senator Raymond Lavigne alleged use of Senate resources for personal gain; Benoît Corbeil sentenced in December 2009 to 15 months in jail for his role in producing fake invoices while he served as the director of the Liberal Party of Canada's Quebec office; Gilles André Gosselin, former head of Liberal-friendly ad firm, pled guilty to charges of fraud and forgery totalling $655,276 in the Liberal sponsorship scandal; Jean Brault, the former head of the Liberal-friendly ad firm, plead guilty to five charges of fraud connected to his involvement in the Liberal sponsorship scandal; and Suzan Pawlak, the former treasurer of the federal Liberal riding association in Elgin—Middlesex—London, sentenced to 12 months of house arrest for committing fraud that a high level party official tried to cover up.
When we see that, I can see why the Liberals are such experts on this. With respect to that, maybe the member would like to comment a little bit more about some of the weaknesses in this bill.