Mr. Speaker, the important word the member used was “seemed”. He said it seemed as if there was tax evasion. If the member genuinely believed what he is trying to give the impression of to those who might be watching, then he should feel comfortable enough to go outside of the House of Commons chamber and say that the former prime minister did some sort of illegal activity and make the accusation he just made here outside the House. I suspect his comments would be greatly watered down.
If we want to talk about individuals, we have to be very careful. If I were to bring up individuals, much as we have seen the Conservative caucus do during S. O. 31s, where they constantly cite not one but two NDP, and I underline “NDP”, members of Parliament who are not paying their taxes. The member needs to be very careful. I would argue that there is an equally strong case to be made, if not a stronger case to be made, with regard to his two colleagues, members of Parliament who sit with him today, than there is with former prime minister Paul Martin. If he believes that Paul Martin did something illegal, then I would challenge him to have the courage to say outside the House that there was illegal activity and let Canada Revenue Agency know about it. However, I suspect he would not do that. I suspect that because he used the word “seemed”.
Let there be no doubt that there are many Canadians across the country who, when they process their tax returns, look at ways to minimize the amount of tax they have to pay, and there is nothing wrong with doing that. The problem is when individuals choose not to pay their taxes, as are the allegations with two of his colleagues, which is a problem, or when people conduct themselves in an illegal way to avoid paying taxes.
I do not think the Liberal Party has to make apology any more than the New Democratic Party, especially if we apply the relevance of time. As of today, there are two members of his own caucus whose behaviour is being questioned on the issue of paying their fair share of taxes.