House of Commons Hansard #233 of the 41st Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament's site.) The word of the day was s-4.
Thomas Mulcair NDPLeader of the Opposition
Mr. Speaker, does the Prime Minister still believe that all senators meet the residency requirements to sit in the Senate? If so, would he be kind enough to tell us where Senator Carolyn Stewart-Olsen lives?
Stephen Harper ConservativePrime Minister
Once again, Mr. Speaker, after a complete audit the leader of the NDP gets up and makes an accusation against someone who is accused of absolutely nothing.
The fact of the matter is that the Senate has done an audit and the Senate is responding to its recommendations.
What has not been responded to is NDP members taking public money and putting it into their own party organization. That is what was done in the sponsorship scandal. They have done that at a level of three times all of the accusations against senators combined.
It is totally unacceptable. I look forward to Canadians passing judgment on them.
Thomas Mulcair NDPLeader of the Opposition
Mr. Speaker, Carolyn Stewart-Olsen, the senator for Ottawa-Moncton.
Does the Prime Minister agree with his Conservative senator, Jean-Guy Dagenais, who thinks that his office is entitled to claim money from taxpayers for mileage on travel that he admits never took place?
Stephen Harper ConservativePrime Minister
Mr. Speaker, the Auditor General issued his report and the Senate is acting on it. The NDP leader is obviously trying to make up accusations against some individuals. The truth is that this member took $400,000 from taxpayers, as in the sponsorship scandal, for his own political party. That is completely unacceptable, and the public will have a chance to have its say.
Justin Trudeau Liberal Papineau, QC
Mr. Speaker, it is 2015, and sexual harassment in our military is unacceptable. Someone in a leadership role excusing it as biological wiring is unacceptable. An apology that says this was just an awkward characterization is unacceptable.
The Prime Minister just said that he agrees, so why will the Prime Minister not immediately dismiss his Chief of the Defence Staff?
Stephen Harper ConservativePrime Minister
Mr. Speaker, I am glad to see that the leader of the Liberal Party has been briefed on the facts in terms of the year.
In terms of the more serious issue, as I have said, obviously the comments made here are offensive. They are inappropriate, they are inexplicable, and the general did immediately apologize. As we have said repeatedly, sexual misconduct is unacceptable in any institution, government or non-governmental. The Canadian Armed Forces takes this issue very seriously. They commissioned a report, with a series of comprehensive recommendations, and they are acting on them.
Justin Trudeau Liberal Papineau, QC
Mr. Speaker, sexual harassment is unacceptable. Those in leadership positions need to set an example.
The Canadian Armed Forces Chief of the Defence Staff made unacceptable comments on that subject. His apology is not good enough.
Once again, seriously this time, can the Prime Minister tell us why he did not immediately demand that the Chief of the Defence Staff resign?
Stephen Harper ConservativePrime Minister
Mr. Speaker, the general apologized immediately. As I said, his comments were inappropriate, offensive and unacceptable. The Canadian Armed Forces are acting on recommendations and taking a comprehensive approach to eliminating sexual harassment among military personnel. The Chief of the Defence Staff has already announced his retirement, his successor has been appointed, and the transition will take place soon.
Justin Trudeau Liberal Papineau, QC
Mr. Speaker, for 10 years, the Prime Minister has repeatedly attacked the Supreme Court. He changed the judicial appointment process, making it partisan and closed.
The Liberal Party has a plan for real change, to make the Supreme Court appointment process inclusive, representative and transparent again, a process that will ensure that judges are bilingual.
Why does the Prime Minister refuse to acknowledge the importance of having judges who understand our two official languages?
Stephen Harper ConservativePrime Minister
Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to see the Liberal Party leader's 32 number one recommendations.
He has 32 number one recommendations, number one policies, none of which, of course, correspond to anything here his party has ever done in the past on this or any other issue.
Our institutions are bilingual. The Parliament of Canada is bilingual. The Supreme Court of Canada is bilingual. Other institutions are. We do not require every single member of them to be bilingual.
Thomas Mulcair NDPLeader of the Opposition
Mr. Speaker, Nigel Wright told the RCMP that he briefed the Prime Minister on the media lines for the Duffy deal. Wright said in an email that he had the “good to go from the PM”.
Why did the Prime Minister claim that he had never given Wright any instructions regarding the Duffy scandal? “Good to go” seems like a pretty clear instruction.
Stephen Harper ConservativePrime Minister
Mr. Speaker, as the leader of the NDP knows very well, he is quoting from an RCMP report that thoroughly examined this matter. It was given access to all documents and was very clear that I knew nothing of this particular matter, unlike him, who signed all of the papers, that took the money, inappropriately and fraudulently, out of the House of Commons, for which he will have to answer.
Thomas Mulcair NDP Outremont, QC
Mr. Speaker, the question is just that: Is the Prime Minister good to go?
Is he good to go to swear to these statements under oath on a witness stand? If the Prime Minister is called to testify in the Mike Duffy trial, will he appear, or will he hide?
Stephen Harper ConservativePrime Minister
Mr. Speaker, once again, as those who have investigated this have said that I am neither a participant nor a witness to any of these events, there is absolutely no reason why I would be before the court.
However, I would invite him to have the RCMP look at his files on the $400,000 he personally took and the $3 million his party took out of the House of Commons.
Thomas Mulcair NDPLeader of the Opposition
Mr. Speaker, now that we have heard the Prime Minister talk about the Liberal-Conservative kangaroo court, why do we not look at what real courts have had to say about the Conservative record.
In 2006, convicted in court of cheating in the in-and-out scandal; 2008, convicted of cheating in the Dean Del Mastro affair; 2011, convicted in court for cheating in the robocalls scandal.
The Prime Minister's team has been convicted of cheating in every single election he has won. What safeguards has he put in place to try to ensure that his team does not cheat this time around?
Stephen Harper ConservativePrime Minister
Mr. Speaker, here is a party that itself has been found guilty of inappropriate robocalls and has been forced to return union funds that it illegally raised, and knowingly did so, and of course, still, $2.7 million was taken out of the House of Commons by the NDP, not for any parliamentary purpose, for the use of its own party offices across the country.
This is exactly the kind of thing that happened in the sponsorship scandal, and the NDP will be held accountable.
Thomas Mulcair NDPLeader of the Opposition
Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister is using Bill C-51 to attack our rights and freedoms while offering no proof that this law will actually protect Canadians.
If the Prime Minister is so confident of the legality of Bill C-51, why does he not simply refer it to the Supreme Court prior to royal assent?
Stephen Harper ConservativePrime Minister
Mr. Speaker, Bill C-51 gives our law enforcement and security agencies all of the powers they typically have across major western governments to deal with very real security threats, things like sharing information between departments and having the ability to use peace bonds in case of imminent threat. I could go through those.
Of course, the NDP is always against these things, always against this kind of thing, votes against every single piece of security legislation ever put forward because of its extreme and ideological positions. What would we expect from leader who thinks Osama bin Laden is still alive and there is no such thing as a terrorist attack in Canada?
Thomas Mulcair NDPLeader of the Opposition
Mr. Speaker, 400,000 good-paying manufacturing jobs have been lost while this Prime Minister did absolutely nothing. Sixty percent of the jobs created over the past six years are precarious, part-time, or contract work. In Ontario, that number is a whopping 83%.
Is that the Prime Minister's plan: for middle-class families to support themselves with part-time jobs?
