Debates of Nov. 20th, 2012

41st General Election

[Alexandre Boulerice, NDP, Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie, QC]

Mr. Speaker, that is an interesting answer. It is not unlike what his colleague from Beauce said. They are at about the same level.

I have a problem with the Conservatives’ attitude in this case and in general. The NDP moved a motion to tighten the electoral rules. The Conservatives supported it, but after that they did nothing. They did not act on it, and they are twiddling their thumbs.

The NDP has introduced a bill to ensure that this kind of election fraud does not happen again, and they do not seem to be prepared to support it. The time has come to make a choice: either the Conservatives support our initiative and act on our recommendations or they support election fraud.

Which side are they on?

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Transport]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member makes reference to the comments of the member for Beauce who was simply quoting from a proposal put forward by the NDP in the transportation committee. It proposes a new value-added sales tax, line number four on page two.

What I find so troubling is that the member does not have the same degree of generosity with taxpayers that he did 29 times with his separatist friends back home.

[Charlie Angus, NDP, Timmins—James Bay, ON]

Mr. Speaker, yesterday the Conservatives tried to claim that, “No one from the national campaign ever told anyone that a poll had changed locations”. However, that is exactly what the documents from Elections Canada say and it traces the calls right back to Conservative Party headquarters. The affidavits now show us that was what the script said and the Conservative lawyers confirmed that the calls had been made. That is not a clean and ethical campaign.

Will the Conservatives tell us who at Conservative Party headquarters ran these Watergate burglars, who ran the dirty tricks campaign?

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Transport]

Mr. Speaker, the specific concern the member referenced in his question was addressed by the Conservative Party to Elections Canada well over a year ago. The allegation is completely false.

In the riding of Guelph, we are working with Elections Canada proactively to ascertain what exactly happened.

The member talks about dirty tricks. In fact, it was he who played a dirty trick on his own constituents after promising election after election to oppose the long gun registry. When he had the chance, he betrayed his word, he changed his position, he flip-flopped. That is a dirty trick.

[Charlie Angus, NDP, Timmins—James Bay, ON]

My friend the duck hunter, Mr. Speaker.

I am glad he brought up Guelph because we will turn attention to the Guelph campaign and the member for Labrador, the minister, who yesterday refused to say why he hired a key Guelph operative to work in his office and refused to explain why he was now the director of parliamentary affairs.

Yesterday we found out the Conservatives said that they were glad that the minister had been hiding out in his riding rather than doing his job across Canada.

I have a simple question for this minister. Was the hiring of Guelph operative Chris Crawford a political payoff to keep him out of the limelight in the office of what the Conservatives hoped was the most quiet minister on the Hill?

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Transport]

Mr. Speaker, neither the minister nor any member of this government will ever apologize for spending time in our own communities. The people we represent deserve to see us there.

It is precisely because he reaches out to the good people of Labrador that he represents their values of hard work and common sense in the House of Commons.

Maybe if that member did the same in his constituency, he would know that the good rural people in his riding do not want a wasteful, billion dollar long gun registry that harasses duck hunters and farmers.

[Scott Andrews, Liberal, Avalon, NL]

Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives refuse to answer serious questions about the robocall scandal, despite the fact that we know now that they knew about it before the election.

No minister over there has the guts to touch this issue. All we are getting is bafflegab from the parliamentary secretary, who has so discredited himself by trying to dismiss the in and out affair until the conviction.

What is the Conservative government trying to hide, and when will it have the guts to turn over the unredacted emails?

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Transport]

Mr. Speaker, in fact, the specific concern the member raised was addressed with Elections Canada more than a year ago.

As it relates to Guelph, we continue to work with Elections Canada, proactively, to ascertain exactly what happened there.

Right now the only party in Canada that has been found guilty of illegal robocalls is the Liberal Party of Canada. If that member really wants to know what happened in Guelph with regard to illegal calls, he just needs to walk three seats over and ask his friend, Frank.

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[The Speaker, Conservative, Andrew Scheer]

Order, please. I will remind the hon. member not to use proper names, but titles or ridings.

The hon. member for Avalon.

[Scott Andrews, Liberal, Avalon, NL]

Mr. Speaker, it is a funny thing, that parliamentary secretary used to run a political calling company himself. He ran robocalls without address tag lines and broke CRTC rules. Maybe he should look at his own history when it comes to robocalls.

Let us be frank. When will the Conservatives stop dodging, diverting, deflecting and playing the victim and come clean with Canadians about their role in the election fraud scandal?

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Transport]

Mr. Speaker, we know that only one party has been found guilty of illegal robocalls.

I have always been very frank, but I do not want to be frank like that member over there. In fact, I do not think anybody in the House of Commons wants to be that frank.

The member needs to know how to follow the rules and frankly we will do anything we can to teach him what those rules are.

Ethics

[Marc Garneau, Liberal, Westmount—Ville-Marie, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the member for Labrador has had every opportunity to clear his name about anonymous and corporate donations, about interest-free loans, about illegally discounted air travel and about spending way over his campaign limit. His official agent even said that when he signed off on the paperwork, everything was okay.

How can that minister sit in the front row and act as though nothing had happened? How can the Prime Minister turn a blind eye to all of this? Is there no shame in the government?

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Transport]

Mr. Speaker, the minister in question continues to work hard to represent both the people of Labrador and, more broadly, the people of Canada. However, he need not take any lectures about loans from the party that continues to have almost $500,000 in illegal outstanding loans that have become donations well over the limit.

It is time for the Liberal Party to finally take responsibility for its rule breaking and pay those loans back.

Employment

[Jinny Sims, NDP, Newton—North Delta, BC]

Mr. Speaker, it has been three years since the Auditor General identified serious problems with the temporary foreign worker program. Despite years to fix it, the program is still a mess. Conservative mismanagement of this program puts jobs for Canadian workers at risk.

When will this problem get fixed and how much longer do Canadians have to wait until they can get the first crack at Canadian jobs?

[Diane Finley, Conservative, Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development]

Mr. Speaker, we are very firmly of the belief that Canadians must have first crack at all job opportunities in this country. That is why we brought in programs to help them identify what jobs are available in their skill ranges and areas. We have a whole program to connect Canadians with jobs. We are also looking at the temporary foreign worker program to make sure that it does uphold our values. However, while we are trying to help Canadians get to work, the NDP keeps voting against everything that we are trying to do.

Citizenship and Immigration

[Sadia Groguhé, NDP, Saint-Lambert, QC]

Mr. Speaker, yesterday I asked a question about the closure of 19 regional Citizenship and Immigration Canada offices, but all I got in response was a feeble attempt to justify the wasteful spending of taxpayers' money simply to stroke the minister's ego.

So I will ask the question again: considering the minister's lavish spending on his own image, how can he justify the cuts to immigration services? Does the minister think it is acceptable that, because of the cuts, the response rate for the Montreal call centre was only 9%?

[Jason Kenney, Conservative, Minister of Citizenship]

Mr. Speaker, the question is ridiculous. Yes, our government is doing more to ensure that we hear from various ethnocultural media groups in order to examine the issues that are important to Canadians from cultural communities. In any case, we can have a more efficient immigration system thanks to the use of computer technology, without having all the offices. In fact, this means we can save money in order to improve the services provided to visitors and immigrants to Canada.

Foreign Affairs

[Rathika Sitsabaiesan, NDP, Scarborough—Rouge River, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the United Nations' responses during the final days of the Sri Lankan civil war were highlighted in the Petrie report. The deep tragedy and high civilian cost of the conflict is clear. Sri Lanka's human rights record continues to cause concern around the world. Improvements are nowhere in sight.

Unless concrete action is taken for an independent, impartial international human rights violations inquiry, will the Conservatives recommit to boycotting next year's commonwealth summit in Sri Lanka and encourage other member states to do the same?

[John Baird, Conservative, Minister of Foreign Affairs]

Mr. Speaker, no government around the world, no leader of any government around the world more than this Prime Minister has fought harder to ensure that there is genuine reconciliation in Sri Lanka. No government has fought harder to ensure that there is accountability for the terrible and disgraceful events that happened near the end of the civil war and no government has spoken up more forcefully against the ongoing and deteriorating human rights situation in many parts of that country.

This government will continue to do what is best to promote the interests of people in Sri Lanka, including the Tamil population. We have not yet made a decision as to what will happen at the commonwealth summit, but I can say that the House and all Canadians can count on this government doing the strong and principled thing to ensure the support of Sri Lankan people.

[Wayne Marston, NDP, Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, ON]

Mr. Speaker, this UN report is clear. Responsibility for the atrocities lies both with the Sri Lankan government and the rebels. However, the report also found serious failures at the United Nations. The report states the UN failed to stand up for the rights of people it was mandated to assist.

What is the minister doing to ensure the implementation of these recommendations so that this never happens again?

[John Baird, Conservative, Minister of Foreign Affairs]

Mr. Speaker, I think this is a first. We have the official opposition running down the United Nations on the floor of the House of Commons.

I can assure the House that we will work with our international partners and with the United Nations. We believe this is a thoughtful and intelligent report that points to the need for all of us to ensure we do our best. Canadians can count on this Prime Minister and this government to do what is best on this issue.

Justice

[Rick Norlock, Conservative, Northumberland—Quinte West, ON]

Mr. Speaker, our government has a strong record of putting victims first, getting tough on serious and violent offenders, and keeping our streets and communities safe. For too long, Canadians have lost confidence in our justice system because those who commit crimes such as sexual assault, kidnapping or arson would only be sentenced to house arrest. Those of us on the government side believe that people who burn other people's houses down should not be allowed to serve out their sentences in the comfort of their own homes.

Can the Minister of Justice please provide the House with an update on our government's legislation to eliminate house arrest for serious crimes?

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

Mr. Speaker, I am happy to inform the House that today our government's legislation to eliminate the use of house arrest for serious crimes comes into force. This means that the Safe Streets and Communities Act is now in force in its entirety. Thanks to this government, conditional sentences or house arrest will no longer be available for serious crimes such as sexual assault, kidnapping, arson or human trafficking.

We are cracking down on the use of house arrest despite years of opposition from across the aisle. We will continue with our record of standing up for victims and law-abiding Canadians.

[Randall Garrison, NDP, Esquimalt—Juan de Fuca, BC]

Mr. Speaker, when it comes to supporting victims of crime, Conservatives have been long on rhetoric and short on action. Only after a public plea did the Canadian Resource Centre for Victims of Crime finally get any funding at all. What it did get does not even cover the cost of one full-time staff person. This group cannot continue to provide much-needed services to victims with unpredictable funding.

Will the minister stand up now and commit today to providing stable, long-term funding to the Canadian Resource Centre for Victims of Crime so that they can continue to give victims of crime the help they need and deserve?