Debates of Dec. 2nd, 2013

Member for Scarborough—Agincourt

[Rob Clarke, Conservative, Desnethé—Missinippi—Churchill River, SK]

Mr. Speaker, the leader of the Liberal Party has decided to keep his veterans' spokesman even after that Liberal MP slammed veterans as recently as last week. In the latest gaffe he said:

A lot of the veterans were in the army. We taught them one skill: to kill or be killed, to survive in order to be able to kill tomorrow....

Who could forget the same Liberal MP going on national television on Remembrance Day, saying that giving money to injured veterans was:

...like hanging a case of beer in front of a drunk.... They get the lump sum, they go and spend it,...on booze or addiction.

As a veteran of the RCMP who, like many other military veterans, struggles with PTSD every day, I find these comments to be disrespectful and uninformed.

This may be how the Liberal Party feels, but Canadians know veterans can be, and should be, trusted to manage their own finances. Canadians also know veterans have remarkable skills and experiences that organizations across all sectors would be lucky to have. Why does the Liberal Party not know it?

I call on the leader of the Liberal Party to remove his spokesman immediately.

Montreal's Filipino Community

[Lysane Blanchette-Lamothe, NDP, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

Mr. Speaker, after the devastating typhoon struck the Philippines, Montreal's Filipino community mobilized to help the victims.

In Pierrefonds—Dollard, the seniors of the West Island suburbs organized a clothing drive and a bowling tournament to raise funds. What is more, the Filipino-Canadian Association of West Island mobilized its members and the West Island community by launching an appeal for donations to Typhoon Haiyan relief.

Also in the West Island, Filipino women's group, PINAY, held a spaghetti fundraiser at the Beaconsfield United Church. The Filipino community of St. John Fisher Parish Catholic Church will be hosting a fundraising event on December 14.

For its part, the Filipino Association of Montreal and Suburbs is collecting money and clothing for the victims. It is also organizing a benefit concert in Montreal this Friday.

I congratulate Montreal's Filipino community on its dedication. I invite everyone to show their support for these exemplary humanitarian efforts.

I thank them for their hard work and donations.

Champlain Bridge

[Jacques Gourde, Conservative, Lotbinière—Chutes-de-la-Chaudière, QC]

Mr. Speaker, yesterday, the hon. Minister of Infrastructure, Communities and Intergovernmental Affairs and Minister of the Economic Development Agency of Canada for the Regions of Quebec made an important announcement about the future of the current Champlain Bridge.

On the weekend, a team of skilled engineers set out to install a superbeam, an exceptional bit of maintenance work that went off without a hitch. This allowed traffic to return to normal, which will help people who use the bridge get to work on time and maximize their time with their families.

Our government has also announced that the new bridge over the St. Lawrence will be delivered in 2018 instead of 2021. What is more, the architectural criteria will be established by an engineering firm in Montreal in collaboration with a world-renowned Danish expert.

These new developments address the concerns of the Montreal community and are another testament to our government's determination to ensure the viability of the current bridge and to have a new bridge built as soon as possible.

Medals of Bravery

[Judy Foote, Liberal, Random—Burin—St. George's, NL]

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to congratulate constituents Captain Frank Skinner from Burgeo, Ben Savory from Port aux Basques, Tom Upwards from Rose Blanche, and Ed Strickland from Kippens, who recently received medals of bravery for their life-saving efforts at sea on September 21, 2004.

That night, Ed received a call from the Canadian Coast Guard coordinator in St. John's, notifying him that a 45-foot yacht had been stranded with a lost rudder as a result of Hurricane Ivan. Using critical local knowledge, the maritime rescue sub-centre—which the federal government, by the way, has since closed—contacted Ed because the water was too rough for the only vessel that search and rescue had in the area.

Frank, Ben and Tom joined Ed and sprang into action, despite ocean swells between 10 and 12 metres high and wind gusts of up to 96 kilometres an hour. Sixteen hours after leaving shore the crew finally made it back to Stephenville at 8 a.m. the next day, with the five stranded passengers aboard and the yacht in tow.

I ask all members to join me in acknowledging the brave actions of Captain Frank Skinner, Ben Savory, Tom Upwards and Ed Strickland.

Privy Council of Canada

[Glenn Thibeault, NDP, Sudbury, ON]

Mr. Speaker, who can forget Harry Whittington, the wealthy 78-year-old Austin businessman who in 2006 got himself in between Dick Cheney's shotgun and some quail? After being shot in the face, Mr. Whittington famously apologized, saying, “My family and I are deeply sorry for all that vice president Cheney has had to go through this...week.”

That brings us to last night. It has long been PMO policy to delete emails of departed staffers. Despite this, Privy Council quietly released a letter late Sunday night saying:

We regret that we previously failed...to accurately inform you and the PMO about the availability of Mr. Perrin's emails. We apologize for any inconvenience it may have caused.

It seems the Prime Minister and his gang will do almost anything to avoid taking responsibility for the PMO-orchestrated cover-up. They will even force others to apologize to them for making their own mistakes. Canadians deserve better.

Ukraine

[Bernard Trottier, Conservative, Etobicoke—Lakeshore, ON]

Mr. Speaker, this weekend we saw hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians protest against their government's decision to suspend economic co-operation negotiations with the European Union. These people were peacefully exercising their democratic rights in Kiev's Independence Square, but Ukrainian authorities used heavy-handed methods to disperse them.

We condemn in the strongest terms the violence by the authorities against these peaceful protestors. Freedom of speech and freedom of assembly are fundamental tenets of any truly democratic country.

This weekend I met and shared my concerns with Ukrainian Canadians in Etobicoke—Lakeshore, who were exercising their freedoms, demonstrating outside the Ukrainian consulate in solidarity with those in Ukraine.

We call upon the government of Ukraine to not only respect but protect the rights of its citizens to express their opinions freely. Our government stands with the people of Ukraine to build a society based on freedom, democracy, human rights and the rule of law.

International Development

[Nina Grewal, Conservative, Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC]

Mr. Speaker, since its inception, Canada has been a strong supporter of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Support for this organization is in line with the Prime Minister's announcement in the Speech from the Throne that maternal, newborn and child health is the flagship priority for Canada's international engagement.

To that end, the Minister of International Development reaffirmed our outstanding, long-standing commitment this morning with the announcement of $650 million over the next three years.

The global fund is getting real results, saving approximately 100,000 lives, preventing thousands of newborn infections each month, and providing 2.1 million pregnant women living with HIV with the necessary treatment.

This is real action and we are delivering concrete results.

Ethics

[Thomas Mulcair, NDP, Leader of the Opposition]

Good to go.

Mr. Speaker, three months ago, the RCMP asked the Prime Minister for emails from his own lawyer, Ben Perrin. The RCMP's office answered that unfortunately, all of those emails had been destroyed. Why did the government change its story once again?

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Minister of State (Democratic Reform)]

Mr. Speaker, let me quote from the letter the Privy Council Office wrote to Assistant Commissioner Michaud:

In September 2013, in connection with your investigation, the PMO asked the PCO to make available to the RCMP the emails of certain individuals requested by the RCMP. That list included Mr. Perrin. In response to that request, we advised PMO, who we understand informed the RCMP, that Mr. Perrin's emails had been deleted from the server and were no longer available.

We learned several days ago that that is not, in fact, the case.

[Thomas Mulcair, NDP, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, “unrelated litigation”: that is today. What unrelated litigation was the Prime Minister's lawyer, Ben Perrin, involved in?

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Minister of State (Democratic Reform)]

Mr. Speaker, I am neither a litigator nor a litigant, so I cannot answer that question. What I can tell him is that the Prime Minister's Office had indicated to the PCO that it should transmit all emails requested by the national police force.

In this letter, the chronicle of the events that happened since that time is clearly laid out for the Leader of the Opposition to read. I encourage him to do so.

[Thomas Mulcair, NDP, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, how could the emails from the Prime Minister's lawyer, Ben Perrin, just disappear for three months? How could they have disappeared when, in fact, they were being retained for unrelated litigation? Can the minister explain that to us?

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Minister of State (Democratic Reform)]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member would have the explanation he is looking for if he had merely read the letter the PCO published.

It says here:

It is the operating protocol of the [Privy Council Office] to close and delete email accounts of departing employees of the PCO and the PMO as a mattter of course. Consistent with this protocol, upon Mr. Perrin's departure at the end of his employment in late March 2013, the PMO was provided a notice that his emails had been deleted from the computer server.

[Thomas Mulcair, NDP, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, actually, what we are talking about is the operating protocol of the Prime Minister's Office, which is to deny until they get caught and then change their story. Would it not be easier for them just to table the emails here in Parliament? Would that not be easier?

How can Canadians be assured of the integrity of any of this evidence when the Conservative government has been withholding it for three months?

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Minister of State (Democratic Reform)]

Mr. Speaker, the member's question is, once again, counter-factual. Allow me to quote directly from the RCMP's “Information to Obtain” document, which said that:

...[the] legal representative for the PMO, advised my office that he had clear orders from the Prime Minister to provide complete cooperation with the investigation, and to provide any assistance or documentation the RCMP requested.

[Thomas Mulcair, NDP, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, “counter-factual” reminds me of Watergate, when we were told the previous evidence was no longer operative, whatever that meant.

For three months, the RCMP, the Mounties, have been asking the Prime Minister for those emails. How, exactly, on Sunday night, did the Conservatives finally find the emails from the Prime Minister's lawyer, Ben Perrin, after telling the RCMP that the emails had been deleted? Can the minister explain that to us?

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Minister of State (Democratic Reform)]

Mr. Speaker, the operative word is “read”. That is the verb the member should employ with regard to this letter, which says:

On November 28, 2013, the PMO relayed the request to the PCO to confirm our prior advice on the availability of Mr. Perrin's emails. In response to this inquiry, on November 29, 2013 we found that Mr. Perrin's emails had in fact been retained due to a litigation hold in an unrelated matter. On learning that Mr. Perrin's emails were in fact available, we informed the PMO on November 30, 2013. The PMO and the PCO agreed to inform you [the RCMP] as soon as possible.

[Dominic LeBlanc, Liberal, Beauséjour, NB]

Mr. Speaker, for months, the Prime Minister told us that the emails from his own lawyer, Benjamin Perrin, had been deleted. We now know that was not true.

We already know his staff had no ethical difficulty in attempting to pay off a senator or whitewash a Senate report, so considering the lack of trust that Canadians have in the Prime Minister and his office, can the Prime Minister assure Canadians that no member of his staff had access to these emails from Mr. Perrin and were able to delete, doctor, alter, or whitewash Mr. Perrin's emails as well?

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Minister of State (Democratic Reform)]

Mr. Speaker, as this letter from the independent, non-partisan Privy Council Office indicates, the Prime Minister's Office just learned of the continued existence of these emails. As soon as it did so, the Prime Minister said that the information should be shared with the RCMP and the existence of the emails should be made public, as it was yesterday.

[Dominic LeBlanc, Liberal, Beauséjour, NB]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister told us that he did not have Benjamin Perrin's emails, when the opposite was true. He waited six months to finally tell the truth.

Benjamin Perrin was involved in the Mike Duffy deal, and the PMO tried to cover up the illegal repayments.

Can the Prime Minister confirm that no one in his office had access to those emails and that no one was able to doctor them or remove them from the Privy Council Office?

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Minister of State (Democratic Reform)]

Mr. Speaker, I have here the letter that was provided by the Privy Council. I have quoted from it, and I will do so again:

We regret that we previously failed, even if inadvertently, to accurately inform you and the PMO about the availability of Mr. Perrin's emails. We apologize for any inconvenience it may have caused.

[Dominic LeBlanc, Liberal, Beauséjour, NB]

Mr. Speaker, a Prime Minister in this situation who cares about ethics would have investigated all of the actions of his office and made public all of the relevant documents. That would have been behaviour respectful of Canadians. Instead, the Prime Minister denies until the RCMP digs deep enough and he has no other choice but to confess the truth. It looks a bit like the Rob Ford crisis management strategy.

Is the Prime Minister waiting to be called as a witness in a criminal trial to finally make public all of the relevant documents so that Canadians can see the extent of this cover-up?

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Minister of State (Democratic Reform)]

Mr. Speaker, no.

[Chris Charlton, NDP, Hamilton Mountain, ON]

Mr. Speaker, Canadians are not buying the Prime Minister's story, and they are not satisfied with the Conservatives' claim that only Nigel Wright and Mike Duffy are responsible.

Does the Prime Minister believe that Senator Carolyn Stewart Olsen told the full truth to the RCMP, and will there be any consequences for this Conservative senator if she did not?

[Paul Calandra, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister and for Intergovernmental Affairs]

Mr. Speaker, of course, the RCMP is continuing to look into this matter. I trust that the RCMP will do the job Canadians expect it to do.