Debates of March 12th, 2012

Japan

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

Mr. Speaker, it has been one year since the devastating earthquake and tsunami struck the coast of Japan. Canadians remember and honour the memory of the thousands of people who perished due to the devastating events of that fateful day.

During this solemn time, our hearts go out to the families whose lives have been changed forever. We think of the children who lost their parents, the parents who lost their children and the seniors who lost their families who were to follow them. As Canadians, we admire the amazing resilience of the Japanese people in the face of such devastation. The people of Japan are an inspiration to us all.

The Japanese continue to rebuild their lives and their communities. Canada responded quickly in the aftermath of these disasters. We will continue to support the rebuilding efforts of the Japanese people. Japan and its people are our friends, our partners and our neighbours. On behalf of all Canadians, our thoughts and prayers are with the Japanese and their families in this difficult time.

City of LaSalle

[Hélène LeBlanc, NDP, LaSalle—Émard, QC]

Mr. Speaker, this year, LaSalle will celebrate its 100th anniversary. Located on the banks of the St. Lawrence River, it owes its name to René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, born in 1643 in Normandy. He settled in the region that was later called Lachine—meaning China—because of the great explorer's ambition to find the route to Asia.

Just like its illustrious namesake, it was builders and labourers who founded LaSalle in 1912. These women and men had that same energy and determination which gave rise to the industrial boom of the Island of Montreal.

Settlers named Bergevin and Newman were followed by others named Caruso, Singh and Wong. Newcomers from Italy, Nigeria, Pakistan, Cameroon and many places in between have found LaSalle to be a vibrant, welcoming and respectful community where they can work and live together. I am looking forward to taking part in the festivities to commemorate the centenary of LaSalle and to celebrate the rich heritage of this forward-looking community.

Nigeria

[Chris Alexander, Conservative, Ajax—Pickering, ON]

Mr. Speaker, on Sunday, March 11, 2012, a suicide attack outside a Roman Catholic church in Jos killed several people, sparking panic and clashes. This violence follows another attack on a church in Jos on February 26 for which Boko Haram claimed responsibility.

Canada condemns unequivocally these latest cowardly attacks in Nigeria. The victims were targeted because of their religion. Canada sees religious freedom as a fundamental human right. We must not let terrorists undermine it or set religious communities against one another.

On behalf of all Canadians, I would like to offer my sincere condolences to the families and friends of the victims. We wish a speedy recovery to those who are suffering due to this senseless violence. The Canadian High Commission in Nigeria is working actively with Nigerians to restore peace, especially in Jos. We strongly support the people and the government of Nigeria in their efforts to fight terrorism, and to reinforce stability and unity against this scourge.

Town of Mount Royal

[Irwin Cotler, Liberal, Mount Royal, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I am honoured to rise today to commemorate the centenary of the Town of Mount Royal.

First conceived as a model city initiative of the Canadian Northern Railway, it is now home to a diverse and dynamic community, rich in history, culture, tradition and sports.

Indeed, this model city was designated a Canadian national historic site in 2008 because it is a “remarkable synthesis of urban renewal movements of the early 20th century.”

Today, the Town of Mount Royal is a veritable green oasis, with 20,000 trees for 20,000 residents and an exceptional quality of life. A series of celebratory events is planned through the hard work and dedication of the Centennial Celebration Society.

On this memorable occasion, I would like to commend the mayor, Philippe Roy, the municipal counsellors, volunteers and residents of Mount Royal.

Here is to the next 100 years.

41st General Election

[Tom Lukiwski, Conservative, Regina—Lumsden—Lake Centre, SK]

Mr. Speaker, last week the Liberal interim leader denied the Liberals have the ability to conduct centralized calling. That is a shocking statement, because the Liberals have been using their U.S.-source Liberalist for exactly that purpose, including during the last election. We know that the opposition spent millions of dollars on hundreds of thousands of phone calls during the last election.

We have also heard the shocking revelations that voters in Guelph were targeted by deceptive robocalls from the member for Guelph's campaign. Interestingly enough, Liberalist.ca shows that the Liberals were training their campaign workers to use robocalls on the afternoon of April 30, just hours before a Liberal campaign worker sent illegal, anonymous messages to voters using an assumed name, from a bogus phone number.

Why is the Liberal leader trying to cover up the existence of Liberalist? What kind of dirty tricks are the Liberals teaching their volunteers?

[Pierre Nantel, NDP, Longueuil—Pierre-Boucher, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives are so rude. The rogue Conservative who organized the fraudulent calls in Guelph hid behind a rather pathetic alias: Pierre Poutine from Separatist Street. Using that particular street name demonstrates just how much contempt and prejudice the Conservatives feel towards Quebeckers.

The Conservative fraudster needed a false Quebec identity and that was the best he could come up with. How disrespectful. This name, Pierre Poutine, perfectly illustrates all the scorn this government feels towards Quebec. It is unfortunate that Conservative members from Quebec are content to just read their little note cards word for word, because it would have been a good opportunity for them to stand up for us. Quebeckers already know that this government does not share their values. Now, with this Pierre Poutine business, they also know that it is playing tricks behind their backs and laughing at Quebec.

[Scott Armstrong, Conservative, Cumberland—Colchester—Musquodoboit Valley, NS]

Mr. Speaker, on April 30, 2011, the Liberal Party's national campaign held a secret training session for Liberal campaign workers to teach them how to use robocalls. Hours later, the phones in Guelph were ringing off the hook with a Liberal dirty trick. Someone was calling residents with an anonymous and misleading message from a fictional character named Laurie MacDonald. These were fake Liberal calls from a fake phone number from a fake Liberal volunteer using a fake name.

The member for Guelph has admitted that he paid for these illegal and unethical phone calls to fight the NDP surge. If these calls were simply an “oversight”, why did he wait until he was about to get caught to come forward? It just does not add up.

We know the opposition spent millions of dollars on hundreds of thousands of phone calls during the last election. How many other Canadian households did it target with this illegal campaign?

[Nycole Turmel, NDP, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, today we learned that a Conservative will finally be blamed for the fraudulent calls in Guelph. Yet last week the Minister of National Defence said that the guilty party had been found. I have to say that this whole affair is very strange.

Can the government tell us who the new scapegoat is in this Conservative scandal?

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

Mr. Speaker, we have learned a lot today. According to CRTC rules, part IV, section 4(d), “...telecommunications shall begin with a clear message identifying the person on whose behalf the telecommunication is made. This identification message shall include a mailing address and a local or toll-free telecommunications number...”.

The Liberal member for Guelph admitted to using fake names and numbers for his robocalls. He broke the law. He should stand up in the House, apologize and answer questions about his actions.

[Nycole Turmel, NDP, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives' arrogance is truly astounding. They will not take responsibility for anything.

Canadians want the Prime Minister to take this fraud seriously. People want to know who is behind this, which Conservative strategists are involved.

If the Prime Minister has nothing to hide, then he should order a public inquiry. Let us clean up politics. Let us clean house. That is what people want.

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

Mr. Speaker, we support Elections Canada's efforts to find out what really happened in the riding of Guelph. What we do know is that the Liberal member for Guelph has admitted to making illegal calls and breaking the law.

Now we want to know what the Liberal leader and the Liberal Party knew about it. Those calls were dirty, illegal and Liberal.

[Nycole Turmel, NDP, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, the President of the Treasury Board said that he wanted to change the culture of Ottawa. Changing the culture, like replacing Liberal scandals with Conservative scandals, a culture where people can rig elections, a culture where the Prime Minister does not answer questions, a culture with no accountability and no transparency, and a culture of denial and partisan attacks.

If the Prime Minister wanted to change the culture, he must take responsibility. Will he?

[Dean Del Mastro, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister and to the Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs]

Mr. Speaker, last week, the Liberal leader indicated that suggestions being brought forward by myself and this party were, indeed, wacko. Unfortunately, they have proven to be absolutely true because we now know that the member for Guelph paid for illegal robocalls that concealed the fact that the calls came from his Liberal campaign. The Liberals used a bogus number and a fictitious character. They broke the CRTC regulations. They broke Elections Canada laws. They have acted in a fashion that is disgraceful, deceptive and dishonest.

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

Mr. Speaker, Canadians want answers to the ever-widening pattern of voter suppression that happened under the Conservatives. Now we understand today that a Conservative will be coming forward to admit responsibility for his or her role in the voter fraud in Guelph. That is a good start, but who paid for those calls? Who provided the scripts and why are they the same scripts that are being used in other ridings? Is there something else the government would like to tell us about its role in this before it comes to a public inquiry?

[Dean Del Mastro, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister and to the Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs]

Mr. Speaker, Elections Canada is the agency that is charged to deal with this.

However, what we have learned, and this is what the Liberal leader must respond to, is that the Liberal leader provided training sessions for Liberal members at one o'clock on Saturday, April 30. They trained them on Liberal robocalls. What the Liberal member for Guelph then did is conduct a phony robocall that broke the CRTC's regulations and broke the Elections Canada Act laws. Indeed, the Liberals have acted in a fashion that is disgraceful, deceptive and dishonest, and I will say it outside.

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

Mr. Speaker, the issue here is not the incompetence of the Liberals with their campaign. It is about voter fraud that happened under the Conservatives.

Now we have a Conservative who is coming forth and the government pretends that he acted alone. Who paid for those scripts? Who gave him the money to make those calls? Why did he have access to the national Conservative database? Do the Conservatives really think that Canadians will believe that the guy who named himself after cheese curds and gravy is behind this as though he is some kind of robofraud equivalent of Dr. Evil? When will the Conservatives come clean with their involvement in this coordinated campaign of voter harassment?

[Dean Del Mastro, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister and to the Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs]

Mr. Speaker, once again, it is the unsubstantiated smear campaign of the NDP.

What we know and what we have evidence of is that at five o'clock on Saturday, April 30, in the riding of Guelph, the Liberal member for Guelph placed an illegal robocall. These deceptive robocalls used a phony number, a phony person and they attacked and suppressed votes in Guelph. That was the real intent behind them.

The Liberal candidate and the Liberal Party has acted in a fashion that is deceptive, disgraceful and dishonest.

[Bob Rae, Liberal, Toronto Centre, ON]

Mr. Speaker, if the hon. member is so certain about his phony allegations, perhaps he would agree with me that the time has now come for a royal commission into what happened in the last election and what happened in previous elections to ensure that it never happens again.

I can assure the hon. member that nobody on this side has anything to fear from a royal commission. We ask for it, we demand it and the people of Canada require it. Is it willing to do it?

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[The Speaker, Conservative, Andrew Scheer]

Order, please. The hon. Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister.

[Dean Del Mastro, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister and to the Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs]

Or, Mr. Speaker, we could just go to liberalist.ca and we could observe on page 105 where it advises the Liberals that they should pick a caller ID for the robocall, that it must be a land line and should be a phone number that recipients can call to contact their team about the robocall.

However, that is not what the member for Guelph did. In fact, the member for Guelph used a completely bogus phone number with an exchange that does not exist.

The Liberal Party has acted in a disgraceful, deceptive and dishonest fashion. We know it made hundreds of thousands of these calls because the Liberal Party paid millions of dollars for these calls to be made right across the country.

[Frank Valeriote, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

Mr. Speaker, Elections Canada is fully aware of that voice drop. This was an issue-based call that could have easily been tracked back to our service provider. It was totally different from the fraudulent calls that came from Pierre Poutine on election day. It was included in my financial return and I disclosed it to Elections Canada. I have been fully open and co-operative with Elections Canada.

On the other hand, the deputy campaign manager in Guelph is running and hiding from Elections Canada. When will the Conservatives finally start co-operating with the election fraud investigation?

[Dean Del Mastro, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister and to the Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs]

Mr. Speaker, it is not uncommon, when confronted by substantiated evidence, where folks will in fact confess when they have broken the law. That is what the member has done. He has confessed to the fact that he has broken the Elections Canada Act and broken CRTC regulations.

For the last number of weeks, that member has conducted an unsubstantiated smear campaign against this party and this Prime Minister but not once did he breathe a word to this House that he had conducted those illegal calls.

[Bob Rae, Liberal, Toronto Centre, ON]

Mr. Speaker, we believe, as I am sure the New Democrats do too, that Canadians want a public inquiry, a royal commission. That is what we want. That is what we demand.

Is the government willing to create a royal commission? Clearly, Canadians want a public inquiry, a royal commission to get to the bottom of all of this.

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

Mr. Speaker, let us consider for a moment the hon. leader of the Liberal Party's audacity. Over the past few weeks, members of the Liberal Party have been rising in the House to conduct a smear campaign against our party, knowing full well that the Liberal Party and its members made illegal calls to voters in the riding of Guelph.

The leader of the Liberal Party should rise and apologize to all Canadians for his party's unlawful behaviour.