House of Commons Hansard #29 of the 41st Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament's site.) The word of the day was tax.

Topics

Village of Cap-PeléStatements By Members

2:10 p.m.

Liberal

Dominic LeBlanc Liberal Beauséjour, NB

Mr. Speaker, as we speak, hundreds of people from Cap-Pelé and the region are gathered at Sainte-Thérèse d'Avila Church to pay tribute to four young men who died tragically in a car accident on Friday night.

Justin Léger, Sébastien Léger and Justin Brown were all 18 years old and were graduates of Louis-J. Robichaud High School in Shediac. Luc Arsenault was 17 years old and was in grade 12.

The village of Cap-Pelé is in mourning today and is saying a sad goodbye to its four sons. Their families are in our thoughts and prayers.

On behalf of this House, I offer my condolences to the families, communities and friends who have been deeply affected by this tragedy.

Constable John ZivcicStatements By Members

2:15 p.m.

Conservative

Roxanne James Conservative Scarborough Centre, ON

Mr. Speaker, yesterday, tragically Toronto Police Constable John Zivcic lost his life. He was gravely injured in a car crash over the weekend while responding to an emergency call about an impaired driver.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family and his friends, as well as all of his colleagues at 22 Division. Tragic cases like this, where a young man has lost his life far too soon, are a stark reminder of the risks that our police officers subject themselves to on a daily basis in order to keep their fellow Canadians safe.

On behalf of our government and all Canadians, I would like to thank each and every police officer for all that they do each and every day.

As we all enjoy the Christmas season and embark on our holidays, I ask everyone to please not drink and drive.

HousingStatements By Members

2:15 p.m.

NDP

Mylène Freeman NDP Argenteuil—Papineau—Mirabel, QC

Mr. Speaker, today, hundreds of people braved the cold to ask the government to help the homeless find decent and affordable housing.

Meanwhile, the senators are still wondering about the location of their primary residence and how much money they can claim from Canadians so that they can have more than one residence, even if they are not entitled to it.

While the Conservatives and the Liberals are defending the entitlements of their friends, while the Conservatives are using taxpayers' money to hire Bay Street firms to cover up the cover-up, while they are busy deleting emails and are caught up in their web of lies, they are forgetting the reality of those who are not as fortunate as they are.

All that these people are asking for is access to housing during the harsh winter months or access to employment insurance benefits because the plant where they worked for 20 years just closed down.

The NDP will always put people first. We will leave it up to the old parties to protect their privileged friends.

Canadian Broadcasting CorporationStatements By Members

2:15 p.m.

Conservative

Larry Miller Conservative Bruce—Grey—Owen Sound, ON

Mr. Speaker, the CBC violated its own code of ethics in giving a payoff to Brazil-based former porn industry executive, Glenn Greenwald, for national security information stolen from one of Canada's allies. Shockingly, Canadians watching the original TV broadcast were not informed of this cash-for-news scheme.

What is more, yesterday we learned that the CBC also grossly inflated the contents of the U.S. documents. According to Professor Wesley Wark who was the national security expert used by CBC in its original story, “There was no support in the document for the claim originally made by the CBC that...the Communications Security Establishment Canada would lend its technical expertise to the NSA effort”.

The CBC should apologize for violating its code of ethics. It should apologize for concealing its cash-for-news scheme with a former Brazil-based porn industry executive and it should apologize for allowing Glenn Greenwald's personal and partisan agenda direct its news coverage. The CBC should just apologize.

EthicsOral Questions

2:15 p.m.

Outremont Québec

NDP

Thomas Mulcair NDPLeader of the Opposition

Mr. Speaker, it was the head of legal operations in the Privy Council Office who wrote to the RCMP telling it that Perrin's emails had miraculously been found. Who at the Prime Minister's Office initially asked to find Ben Perrin's emails?

EthicsOral Questions

2:15 p.m.

Port Moody—Westwood—Port Coquitlam B.C.

Conservative

James Moore ConservativeMinister of Industry

Mr. Speaker, as has been confirmed publicly by the comments from the Privy Council Office, the mistake that was made at the Privy Council Office was indeed its. The information that was being sought by the RCMP has now been delivered to it and the PCO has apologized for the mistake it made.

EthicsOral Questions

2:15 p.m.

Outremont Québec

NDP

Thomas Mulcair NDPLeader of the Opposition

Mr. Speaker, if Ben Perrin's emails were frozen due to “unrelated litigation” as the Prime Minister's Office has claimed, would the head of legal operations not have had those emails all along? Who did they ask? That is not in the PCO letter that Conservatives keep reading to us.

EthicsOral Questions

2:15 p.m.

Port Moody—Westwood—Port Coquitlam B.C.

Conservative

James Moore ConservativeMinister of Industry

Mr. Speaker, again, the Privy Council Office has taken responsibility for the mistake that it made in not handing over the information to the RCMP. However, the real question that the leader of the NDP is asking here is with regard to the openness of the Prime Minister's Office and here is what the RCMP said in its ITO. It said:

Rob Staley, 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....The PMO has also waived solicitor-client privilege for those e-mails.

This also includes any emails related to, or being sent by, Mr. Perrin. Therefore, the transparency that has been demanded has been delivered and the mistake made by the PCO—

EthicsOral Questions

2:20 p.m.

Conservative

The Speaker Conservative Andrew Scheer

The hon. Leader of the Opposition

EthicsOral Questions

2:20 p.m.

Outremont Québec

NDP

Thomas Mulcair NDPLeader of the Opposition

Mr. Speaker, apparently the only person who has not assumed responsibility is the person who is responsible. The Privy Council Office is the ministry of the Prime Minister and ministerial responsibility should apply first and foremost to the Prime Minister.

The government is trying to make us believe that deleting emails is entirely normal procedure. The Information Commissioner does not agree. She has launched an investigation, since the law rather requires that government emails be kept.

Why is this government, which claims to be for law and order, breaking the law again?

EthicsOral Questions

2:20 p.m.

Port Moody—Westwood—Port Coquitlam B.C.

Conservative

James Moore ConservativeMinister of Industry

Mr. Speaker, this is not true at all.

The Office of the Information Commissioner is independent from the government. It is a parliamentary office. The Commissioner may conduct any investigation she wants, and it is up to her to decide whether to do so.

EthicsOral Questions

2:20 p.m.

Outremont Québec

NDP

Thomas Mulcair NDPLeader of the Opposition

Mr. Speaker, with regard to the letter informing the RCMP of the miraculous discovery of Benjamin Perrin's emails, the Privy Council sent a copy to none other than the Bennett Jones law firm.

Who is this? This is the same law firm that is defending and representing the staff at the Prime Minister's Office, those people whose emails are under investigation.

Why did the Privy Council, the Prime Minister's department, warn certain former PMO employees, who may be suspects in this shocking affair, about the details of the RCMP investigation? How does any of this help maintain law and order?

EthicsOral Questions

2:20 p.m.

Port Moody—Westwood—Port Coquitlam B.C.

Conservative

James Moore ConservativeMinister of Industry

Mr. Speaker, there is actually no question here.

If the NDP leader really believes in these laughable arguments, he should be presenting them to the people who are about to conduct the independent investigation.

EthicsOral Questions

2:20 p.m.

Outremont Québec

NDP

Thomas Mulcair NDPLeader of the Opposition

Mr. Speaker, the RCMP does not inform people that they are under investigation, but apparently the Conservative government does.

On May 28, the Prime Minister said, “There is no legal agreement between Duffy and Wright”. Why then did the Prime Minister's own office falsely deny the existence of emails between the Prime Minister's lawyer and Duffy's lawyer? Why does it continue to hide them today if it is not to further the cover-up?

EthicsOral Questions

2:20 p.m.

Port Moody—Westwood—Port Coquitlam B.C.

Conservative

James Moore ConservativeMinister of Industry

Mr. Speaker, of course, there is no such truth to the allegations of the leader of the NDP. In fact, it is the RCMP which said in its ITO just last week, “I am not aware of any evidence that the Prime Minister was involved in the repayment or reimbursement of money to Senator Duffy”.

The RCMP makes it very clear and it also makes it clear that the Prime Minister has been wide open and transparent in terms of making sure that the RCMP has all the information that it needs. It said, “The PMO has also waived solicitor-client privilege for access to those e-mails”.

The transparency that has been demanded has indeed been delivered.

EthicsOral Questions

2:20 p.m.

Liberal

Dominic LeBlanc Liberal Beauséjour, NB

Mr. Speaker, it is hard to believe that the Prime Minister knew nothing about the repayment to Mike Duffy. It is hard to believe that a dozen of his confidantes were aware of it but told him nothing. The hardest thing to believe is that he had access to Benjamin Perrin's emails for six months, but that the officials were the ones who did not realize how important those emails were.

If that is the case, who had the emails, and how was it possible not to know of their existence when the RCMP requested the information?

EthicsOral Questions

2:20 p.m.

Port Moody—Westwood—Port Coquitlam B.C.

Conservative

James Moore ConservativeMinister of Industry

Mr. Speaker, the NDP leader just asked the same question, and the answer is the same. The Privy Council Office clearly stated that it made a mistake in not turning over the emails and not informing the Prime Minister's Office and the RCMP about the content of the emails. Now the emails have been delivered to the RCMP for its independent investigation.

EthicsOral Questions

2:25 p.m.

Liberal

Ralph Goodale Liberal Wascana, SK

Mr. Speaker, in June I asked for all Ben Perrin's emails. The PCO told me it conducted a thorough search, but there were none.

Now we know that was untrue. It does not matter why the files were retained, the fact is that they were. Parliament was told a falsehood, while a case of bribery, fraud and breach of trust was emerging.

Who ordered the retention of Perrin's files? Who had custody of them? Has that person been unconscious for the past six months? What is being done by the clerk of the Privy Council and the Department of Justice to ensure no more evidence is contaminated?

EthicsOral Questions

2:25 p.m.

Port Moody—Westwood—Port Coquitlam B.C.

Conservative

James Moore ConservativeMinister of Industry

Mr. Speaker, again, I would refer the member opposite to the comments made publicly by the Privy Council Office. It erred in saying publicly that the emails had been destroyed. They had not been destroyed. They had been frozen in unrelated litigation. This information is now in the hands of the RCMP, which is were it should be, so it can continue its independent investigation.

EthicsOral Questions

2:25 p.m.

Liberal

Ralph Goodale Liberal Wascana, SK

Mr. Speaker, when the PMO ethics scandal exploded in the public domain in May, the PMO and PCO surely knew it was serious, serious enough for Nigel Wright to lose his job. Ethical issues, even criminal matters could be involved.

Ben Perrin was named early on by the media as a central participant. That was confirmed by police way back in July. His paper trail is crucial.

If the government cared more about truth than cover-up, how could it take six months and three specific demands from the Mounties before it coughed up the evidence?

EthicsOral Questions

2:25 p.m.

Port Moody—Westwood—Port Coquitlam B.C.

Conservative

James Moore ConservativeMinister of Industry

Mr. Speaker, again, I do not know where the member for Wascana has been since Sunday night, but the Privy Council Office has spoken very clearly to the status of those emails. Those emails are now in the hands of the RCMP so it can continue its independent investigation.

EthicsOral Questions

2:25 p.m.

NDP

Charlie Angus NDP Timmins—James Bay, ON

Mr. Speaker, on May 27, Ben Perrin released a public statement and said, “I was not consulted on, and did not participate in, Nigel Wright’s decision to write a personal cheque to reimburse Senator Duffy's expenses”.

Now that the Prime Minister has had time to read the RCMP affidavit, would he agree that the statement given by his own lawyer was completely untrue?

EthicsOral Questions

2:25 p.m.

Oak Ridges—Markham Ontario

Conservative

Paul Calandra ConservativeParliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister and for Intergovernmental Affairs

Mr. Speaker, as we read through the exact same documents, it is quite clear that, as the RCMP has stated, on page 72 in these exact same documents, it could find no evidence that the Prime Minister knew anything of this.

The Prime Minister has said on a number of occasions that had he known that this scheme was being hatched, he would have of course put an end to it right away.

EthicsOral Questions

2:25 p.m.

NDP

Charlie Angus NDP Timmins—James Bay, ON

Mr. Speaker, is he saying that he is now admitting that his own lawyer misled him? I did not hear an answer.

Let us continue on. It is quite as the crickets over there.

On May 28 our leader asked a simple question. He asked, “Can the Prime Minister tell us what part Mr. Perrin played in this story?” The Prime Minister responded, “Mr. Perrin has already answered these questions”.

Now that they have read the affidavit of the RCMP, would the Conservatives say that the Prime Minister knew at the time that what Mr. Perrin was saying was completely untrue?

EthicsOral Questions

2:25 p.m.

Oak Ridges—Markham Ontario

Conservative

Paul Calandra ConservativeParliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister and for Intergovernmental Affairs

Mr. Speaker, I will read right from the same document the member is quoting. It says, “I am not aware of any evidence that the prime minister was involved in the repayment or reimbursement of money to Senator Duffy or his lawyer”. That is right in the exact same documents that the hon. member chooses to reference.

As the Prime Minister has said on a number of occasions, had he known that this plan was being undertaken in his office, he would have put an immediate stop to it.