Debates of May 24th, 2013

Ethics

[David McGuinty, Liberal, Ottawa South, ON]

Mr. Speaker, with respect to the $90,000 payment to Mike Duffy, when did the Prime Minister find out about the cheque? To whom was it made payable? On which account was the cheque drawn? What was the date of the cheque, and will the government produce a copy of it?

I ask all of this because the Prime Minister stated that Nigel Wright was acting in “his capacity of chief of staff”, and that cheque therefore belongs to the Government of Canada, and Canadians have a right to see it. Will the Conservatives step up and produce it?

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

Mr. Speaker, that is an explicit falsehood. The former chief of staff has indicated that he paid out of his personal resources the cost of Mr. Duffy's expenses and that it was a decision that he took sole responsibility for making.

41st General Election

[Craig Scott, NDP, Toronto—Danforth, ON]

Mr. Speaker, a Federal Court judge confirmed that widespread voter fraud occurred in 2011 and linked the fraudulent calls all over Canada to the Conservative Party.

Justice Mosley said, “I find that electoral fraud occurred during the 41st general election”. Then he went on to say, “[t]he most likely source of the information used to make the misleading calls was the CIMS database controlled by the [Conservative Party]”.

Why are the members of the Conservative government actually celebrating a court judgment that implicates them in widespread voter fraud?

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

Mr. Speaker, the question is that a false and ultra-partisan organization brought forward a case without any evidence. In fact, it was not able to produce a single solitary person in all of Canada who was prevented from voting because of a robocall. As a result of the absence of evidence, the judge dismissed this case.

[Craig Scott, NDP, Toronto—Danforth, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives acted shamefully before the court to avoid talking about their role in voter fraud. Justice Mosley said Conservatives tried to “block these proceedings by any means”, made “transparent attempts to derail the case” and “engaged in trench warfare” before the court.

It also has been over a year since the government promised amendments to the Canada Elections Act. Are all these delay tactics part of its larger campaign to put fraud and partisanship ahead of fair elections?

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

Mr. Speaker, the reforms we have already introduced were in the accountability act, which banned corporate and union money from the democratic process. The NDP, in accepting $340,000 in illegal union money, broke that law and was forced, after being caught, to give that money back to the illegal donors.

That is the kind of violation that we need to avoid in the future, and I ask the member to stand up and commit that his party will never do that again.

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

Mr. Speaker, the NDP has received thank you letters from Elections Canada. The Conservatives have received a visit from the RCMP. That is the difference.

They repeated over and over their famous line that they would fully co-operate with Elections Canada on the robocall file. However, Justice Mosley saw things differently. In his ruling he said that the Conservative lawyers made “little effort to assist with the investigation”.

What is worse, their party's director of communications is thrilled by the ruling. This is serious. By dragging their feet on electoral reform, the Conservatives are opening the door to more fraud.

When will they give Elections Canada the powers it needs to clean house?

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

Mr. Speaker, I believe the letter that NDP got from Elections Canada was not a thank you letter. It was a please pay back the illegal money letter. He seems to be confusing it with the thank you letter he got from the separatist Québec solidaire for all his generous donations.

While we thank him for asking the question, on this side of the House, we are working to improve the economy and create jobs, and we encourage him to support us in doing that.

Ethics

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

Mr. Speaker, this is the Conservatives' vision: when the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons found out about the Mike Duffy scandal, he said that Nigel Wright had shown leadership by writing a $90,000 cheque. That is the Conservative Party.

Let us come back to the Senate. Yesterday, we heard a good one about Senator Irving Gerstein, a key fundraiser for the Conservative Party. In addition to his senator's salary, he collected $290,000 for sitting on various boards of directors. He is paid hundreds of thousands of dollars by different companies while continuing to collect his salary, compliments of Canadian taxpayers.

Do the Conservatives think this is right, and do they condone this type of conduct by their senators?

[Peter Van Loan, Conservative, Leader of the Government in the House of Commons]

Mr. Speaker, as you know, there are rules in place that strictly apply to what individuals are able to do who are parliamentarians, and that includes senators. It also includes the member for Davenport, from the NDP, who is collecting money from a Canadian crown corporation for his work. He is doing that at the same time as he is sitting as a member of Parliament, where he is reviewing the policies that relate to that.

I say to the hon. member opposite, perhaps he should think a little bit more about cleaning up his own house before he starts worrying about the perfectly appropriate activities of others.

[Niki Ashton, NDP, Churchill, MB]

Mr. Speaker, yesterday, as he was surrounded by reporters, Senator Duffy was asked whether he was planning to resign.

His smug reply was simply, “I'm a senator”. This is a perfect example of the Conservatives' attitude when it comes to their senators. Canadians are disgusted by the corruption in the Senate and the arrogance of the Conservatives.

When will the Conservatives admit to helping orchestrate this cover-up, and when will they submit all the relevant documents?

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

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member asked about the Senate problem in general.

This is precisely why we are working to tighten the rules in the Senate and prevent these kinds of spending abuses in the future. This is why our government introduced seven bills in Parliament providing for elected senators who would serve shorter terms.

The problem is that the opposition does not support these changes. We urge the opposition to work with us to change the Senate.

[Niki Ashton, NDP, Churchill, MB]

Mr. Speaker, the government only came forward after this scandal was on the front pages. It could have come forward earlier, but it chose a cover-up.

Yesterday, the Prime Minister admitted that he perhaps did not act quickly enough in firing his chief of staff, as if it takes two days to consider whether cutting a cheque to a sitting senator for $90,000 is unethical. If the Prime Minister were serious, he would call an independent investigation.

My question is simple. Will they call an independent investigation now?

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

Mr. Speaker, there are two independent examinations under way right now by the House of Commons independent Ethics Commissioner and the Senate independent Ethics Officer.

On the broader question of the problem with the Senate, this government is proposing 11 tough new changes to prevent abuses of Senate expense accounts in the future. We have introduced seven different laws to shorten the term of Senate mandates and to make the body elected. The Prime Minister has appointed four senators who were democratically elected in the province of Alberta, and he has indicated to every single premier in this country that if elections are held, he will appoint the winner.

We are trying to change the Senate. Why do they not join with us?

Employment

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

Mr. Speaker, workers in my riding in Hamilton have been struggling with de-industrialization for years. Now they are confronted with EI changes that could potentially put them on welfare, but Senator Duffy, who got caught stealing from taxpayers, had the Prime Minister's chief of staff underwrite his malfeasance to the tune of $90,000.

My question is simple. When will the government show some of the same generosity to Canadian workers as it has to this double-dipping Conservative senator?

[Kellie Leitch, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development and to the Minister of Labour]

Mr. Speaker, this government is beyond generous. This government is the one focused on making sure Canadians have jobs. Unlike the opposition, we are focused on making sure we create jobs, in fact 900,000 net new jobs since the downturn of the recession. I encourage the opposition to get on board and create jobs for Canadians. That is the most generous thing we can do.

Ethics

[Nathan Cullen, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I will again ask a question that the Conservatives keep avoiding.

Now that we know that the senator in charge of auditing Senator Duffy was in regular contact with the Prime Minister's chief of staff, can the government tell us what documents exist? I am talking about any and every document: emails, memos, reports and all of the legal and perhaps even illegal documents related to Senategate.

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

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member spoke about the differences between the reports, but those differences are the result of Mr. Duffy's expenses being paid back. We said that a long time ago.

The question is whether or not the Liberals will work with us in the Senate to tighten up the rules governing senators' expenses.

We believe that senators should provide proof of all of their expenses. That is one of the changes we are proposing. They need to support that change.

[Nathan Cullen, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

Mr. Speaker, Canadians are increasingly fed up with these non-answers from these great defenders of their Senate cronies. Splitting hairs rather than full disclosure will not make this scandal go away. The Prime Minister's story has more holes in it than a block of Swiss cheese. Leadership is about showing up, not ducking out when it gets too hot. I do not remember looking more forward to the Prime Minister's return to Canada than I do right now, to answer some questions. He once said—

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[The Speaker, Conservative, Andrew Scheer]

Order, please. The hon. member for Skeena—Bulkley Valley.

[Nathan Cullen, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I can recall the Prime Minister once saying that if members bend the rules, they will be punished. If they break the law, they will be charged. If they abuse the public trust, they will go to prison. How quickly they have abandoned those principles in pursuit of power. What ever happened to you guys?

[The Speaker, Conservative, Andrew Scheer]

The member for Skeena—Bulkley Valley knows to address his comments to the Chair.

The hon. Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Transport.

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

Mr. Speaker, what is happening is that we have proposed seven different bills to change the Senate. They include an effort to lower the Senate mandate from a lifetime to eight years and to make senators elected by the people they represent. The Prime Minister of Canada is the first in history to appoint four democratically elected senators and to tell every single premier in this country that if they hold elections, regardless of which party wins, he will appoint the people's choice to the upper chamber.

41st General Election

[Scott Andrews, Liberal, Avalon, NL]

Mr. Speaker, another day, and even more Conservative corruption and stonewalling. Yesterday a Federal Court judge found that it was the Conservatives' database that was used to attack voters, in the biggest voter suppression fraud system this country has ever seen, yet the Conservatives are still withholding information from Elections Canada investigations. They are also stonewalling, and it is going right to the PMO.

Why has the government not provided all documentation to the RCMP about Nigel Wright's cheque?