Debates of June 10th, 2013

Privacy

[Thomas Mulcair, NDP, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, we now know that the American monitoring program, PRISM, also apparently affected communications of millions of Canadians.

We have learned that the Conservative government has its own electronic monitoring program. It was put in place by the Liberals and was resurrected by the Conservatives in 2011.

Is the Canadian government actually monitoring Canadians' telephone calls and emails?

Are the Conservatives monitoring the phone and email records of Canadians, yes or no?

[Peter MacKay, Conservative, Minister of National Defence]

Mr. Speaker, let me be very clear. This program is specifically prohibited from looking at the information of Canadians. This program is very much directed at activities outside the country, foreign threats, in fact. There is rigorous oversight. There is legislation in place that specifically dictates what can and cannot be examined.

Here is what the CSE Commissioner found: “activities were authorized and carried out in accordance with the law, ministerial requirements, and CSEC's policies and procedures”.

[Jack Harris, NDP, St. John's East, NL]

Mr. Speaker, we are hearing what we think is a bit of doublespeak from the minister. The reports—

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[The Speaker, Conservative, Andrew Scheer]

Order, please.

The hon. member for St. John's East now has the floor.

[Jack Harris, NDP, St. John's East, NL]

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

There are reports today that the minister has authorized domestic monitoring by the CSE.

Now, the National Defence Act says that the activities of CSE “shall not be directed at Canadians or any person in Canada”. I want the minister to listen carefully. Can the government confirm that the CSE has not been collecting data on the communications of Canadians?

[Peter MacKay, Conservative, Minister of National Defence]

Mr. Speaker, my learned friend has answered his own question. In fact, the program, as I just said, is prohibited, by law, from directing its activities at Canadians anywhere in the world or at any person in Canada.

I remind him again that in the report, the commissioner said, “I found the new policies and procedures were comprehensive and contained satisfactory measures to protect the privacy of Canadians”. He went on to laud CSE's culture of compliance.

[Jack Harris, NDP, St. John's East, NL]

Mr. Speaker, we are obviously going to need to see those directives.

PRISM, the U.S. government program that collects information from places like Google, Apple and Facebook, has been making headlines around the world. People are concerned. In the U.K., the government has committed to report to Parliament about its use of PRISM.

Is Canada's Communications Security Establishment making use of information from PRISM? If so, will the government report this use to Parliament, as the British government is doing?

[Peter MacKay, Conservative, Minister of National Defence]

Mr. Speaker, I have a heads-up for the member. It has have been doing it for years, and the reports are tabled in Parliament.

I would point him, again, to the fact that CSE does not target the communications of Canadians. This is foreign intelligence. This is something that has been happening for years. In fact, as I said, the commissioner highlighted that the “activities were authorized and carried out in accordance with the law, ministerial requirements, and CSEC's policies and procedures”.

Ethics

[Ralph Goodale, Liberal, Wascana, SK]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister claims that he knew nothing of the secret deal between his office and Mike Duffy until May 15. However, his chief of staff, his communications shop and his lawyer were all engaged on this file well before that date trying to cover up Mr. Duffy's wrongful claims and the audit that was about to expose them.

Will the Prime Minister confirm that his lawyer, Benjamin Perrin, may not have known the wrongful source of the $90,000 but was aware of the terms of the Duffy deal, because he helped to negotiate it?

[James Moore, Conservative, Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister has been very clear. However, I appreciate the member for Wascana raising the issue of deals, because we heard over the weekend the Liberal leader defend Senator Mac Harb.

Here is the deal that he made for himself. Mac Harb was a Liberal member of Parliament for Ottawa Centre. He is now a Liberal senator for Ottawa Centre. He has claimed $50,000 in living allowances for living away from home, in Ottawa Centre.

Taxpayers want to know from the Liberal Party why it is that they are so high and mighty in asking for accountability from some senators but are not holding Liberal senators accountable when they rip off taxpayers.

[Ralph Goodale, Liberal, Wascana, SK]

Mr. Speaker, the issue--

[The Speaker, Conservative, Andrew Scheer]

Order, please. The hon. member for Wascana.

[Ralph Goodale, Liberal, Wascana, SK]

Mr. Speaker, the issue is the dirty deal in the PMO. Mr. Perrin's public statements about this matter have been very narrow and very precise. He says he did not know of Nigel Wright's personal cheque, but he does not deny participation in the plan to bail out Mike Duffy, whitewash the audit and soften the consequences of Duffy's wrongdoing.

When did Mr. Perrin discover that Mr. Wright had cut that $90,000 cheque? Did he notify the law society, and did he call the police?

[James Moore, Conservative, Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages]

Mr. Speaker, I think Mr. Perrin has spoken for himself in the statement he gave publicly, but I am pretty pleased that the member for Wascana has raised the issue of a dirty deal.

I think to the taxpayers, it is a pretty dirty deal. The Liberal member of Parliament for Ottawa Centre, now a Liberal senator for Ottawa Centre, bills taxpayers for the cost of living in Ottawa Centre. He lives here. The actual institution of the Senate is physically in his district, yet he claims $50,000 in living allowances for coming to work in the Senate.

How can the Liberals actually, with a straight face, pretend to stand up for the middle class, when Liberal senators are stealing money from taxpayers?

[Ralph Goodale, Liberal, Wascana, SK]

Mr. Speaker, no amount of obfuscation will change the channel. As the Prime Minister--

[The Speaker, Conservative, Andrew Scheer]

Order, please. The hon. member for Wascana.

[Ralph Goodale, Liberal, Wascana, SK]

Mr. Speaker, as the Prime Minister explicitly said, acting in his capacity as chief of staff, Nigel Wright is out $90,000. An audit in the Senate has been manipulated. That is Duffy's audit. The Senate has been reimbursed from an illegal source, and Mike Duffy is keeping $90,000 from taxpayers that he should not have claimed in the first place.

Will the government start some basic transparency by producing Mr. Wright's cancelled cheque showing the exact amount, the date and to whom it was paid?

[James Moore, Conservative, Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages]

Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased that the Liberals are on this topic of respect for taxpayers. Not only is there the question of Liberal Senator Mac Harb ripping off $50,000, but on top of that, we, of course, have Liberal Senator Pana Merchant. Liberal Senator Pana Merchant has $1.7 million that she is hiding from Revenue Canada and is not paying taxes on. The Liberals have not denied that.

The Liberals should be very careful when they start accusing other people of disrespecting taxpayers' interests. Mac Harb is ripping off taxpayers. The million-dollar taxpayer, Senator Merchant, is not paying her fair share in taxes. The Liberals actually pretend to stand up for taxpayers. Nobody buys it.

Conservative Party of Canada

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

Mr. Speaker, on Friday, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Transport rose in the House and claimed that no PMO-controlled Conservative fund existed, but on Saturday, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of National Defence contradicted the member for Nepean—Carleton. He said, “no one is denying” the existence of a separate Conservative Party fund controlled by the Prime Minister's chief of staff.

Can the parliamentary secretary who was not telling the truth please stand and explain this contradiction?

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

Mr. Speaker, can I tell you a secret? Do you promise you will not tell anybody? Do not tell the NDP. Do not tell the CBC.

The Prime Minister of Canada is the leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, and when there are Conservative Party of Canada expenses, including from its leader, they are paid by the Conservative Party.

I have been meaning to get that off my chest for a while. Please do not tell the CBC. Please do not tell the NDP.

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

Mr. Speaker, the parliamentary secretary for National Defence said “no one is denying” the existence of a separate fund from the Conservative fund that was accessed by the chief of staff, so let us try this again. The government can choose either to mislead Canadians or to tell the truth.

I ask the government again: was it the parliamentary secretary for national defence or the parliamentary secretary for transport who has been telling the truth to Canadians?

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

Mr. Speaker, if the hon. member wants to know the answer, he should look to the previous response to his question.

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

Mr. Speaker, I think the Conservatives' answers are short because they cannot get their story straight about a secret million-dollar fund that was administered by the same guy who wrote a secret $90,000 cheque to get a rule-breaking senator to keep quiet.

Now, the member for Ajax—Pickering actually went on national television and said, “...we don't think it would serve the public interest very well to have...cheques being shown in front of television cameras...”.

Why not? If they have nothing to hide, why will they not cough up the cheque and be clean with Canadians?

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

Mr. Speaker, when the Conservative Party of Canada has expenses for partisan purposes, including those of its leader, they are paid by the Conservative Party of Canada. In the NDP, those members say they too have a party function to cover costs of this nature. I do not know if they want to stand up in the House of Commons and demand an inquiry into their own party financing, but this is the practice of every party and has been for decades.