Debates of March 27th, 2018

Arnaud Beltrame

[Luc Berthold, Conservative, Mégantic—L'Érable, QC]

Mr. Speaker, on March 23, France experienced another senseless terrorist attack, in Carcassonne and Trèbes. Four people were killed and 15 others were injured after crossing paths with a despicable radicalized Islamic terrorist.

After assaulting someone in a car, the terrorist took people hostage in a grocery store. At this point, French police officer Arnaud Beltrame committed an extraordinary act of bravery. Arnaud Beltrame traded places with a female hostage, putting his life in the hands of this dangerous madman. In doing so, Mr. Beltrame saved a life, but he sacrificed his own. Arnaud Beltrame is a hero, and he must be honoured, not only in his home country, but also here in Canada.

The world is changing. Every day, thousands of men and women in uniform confront unknown and intangible dangers. These men and women, whether they work for the RCMP, for provincial or municipal police forces, within our armed forces, or even here, for the Parliamentary Protective Services, are prepared to step up and deal with the worst case scenario.

On behalf of my colleagues in the House of Commons, I salute Arnaud Beltrame for his sacrifice. He will not be forgotten.

Development and Peace

[Joël Lightbound, Liberal, Louis-Hébert, QC]

Mr. Speaker, today I am pleased to rise in recognition of Development and Peace's 50th anniversary. Through its community development and humanitarian aid projects, the organization has enhanced Canada's presence in the world.

Development and Peace helps vulnerable populations worldwide by promoting universal values, such as social justice and intercultural harmony. Much like our government, whose international aid is informed by feminist policy that promotes gender equality, Development and Peace firmly believes that women play a critical role in making peace and economic justice a reality.

I am proud to see that our government's actions are consistent with the Development and Peace vision for a more just and accountable world. For example, we created an ombudsperson to monitor the activity of Canadian companies abroad and boosted our international aid funding by $2 billion.

I am so impressed by Canada's dedicated, 13,000-member-strong organization, Development and Peace, especially the dynamic team located in the Plateau neighbourhood of Sainte-Foy. I thank them for being an inspiration to me and to all of us. I look forward to seeing them again in our Campanile Street office.

Ethics

[Andrew Scheer, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister broke the law when he took an illegal trip the Aga Khan's private island. It is totally unacceptable that he is now refusing to tell Canadians what additional gifts he received during that trip.

What was the unacceptable gift and what is the Prime Minister doing about it?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, as members across the way know, I worked with the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner for months last year. I answered all her questions, I was completely open and I provided all the information she asked for. Then, I not only accepted her recommendations, but I also followed through on them.

Canadians take comfort in knowing that we have an Ethics Commissioner who rises above the partisanship we see in the House when ruling on these matters.

[Andrew Scheer, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, these transparency rules exist for a reason. Not only did the Prime Minister accept an illegal trip to a private island, he went there and received additional gifts from someone who is actively lobbying the government. Those are the facts.

Will the Prime Minister come clean and tell Canadians, did he return those illegal and unacceptable gifts before he could be lobbied again?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, I worked with the Ethics Commissioner throughout last year, answering all her questions, putting forward a full disclosure, full transparency. She made a report, which we accepted. We followed every single recommendation she made within that report.

As often happens at holiday times, when we are with family and friends, we exchange gifts. If the member opposite really wants to know, I gave him a sweater and he gave me an overnight bag.

Public Safety

[Andrew Scheer, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, it is the fact that he accepted a gift in the first place that broke the ethics laws.

The problem is that the media was offered a briefing in India that was organized by the Prime Minister's Office as a distraction from a disastrous trip where the Prime Minister rubbed elbows with a convicted terrorist. However, yesterday, the Prime Minister and the Minister of Public Safety suggested that the information was classified.

Can the Prime Minister tell us who in his office helped provide classified information to the media?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, at no time did members of our public service provide classified information to the media, nor would they. The hon. member across the way knows that full well.

The odd thing is that the Leader of the Opposition, who could get a classified briefing on everything that happened, refuses that briefing because he does not want to know the truth. He just wants to keep playing political games, just as he is doing right now.

[Andrew Scheer, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister allowed a convicted terrorist to attend an official Government of Canada event in India.

Someone in the Prime Minister's Office then ordered the national security adviser to tell the media that the Indian government was responsible for this embarrassment. Yesterday, the Prime Minister and the public safety minister suggested that the content of that media briefing was classified.

Can the Prime Minister inform us who in his office helped orchestrate the release of classified information to the media?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, of course, at no point did members of the public service ever reveal classified information to the media, nor would they.

The issue is that the Leader of the Opposition so wants to be able to play political games with this issue that he plugs his ears, refuses to know the truth, and continually refuses to get a full classified briefing on this situation. The only reason he is doing that is so that he can continue to play petty politics instead of getting to the truth.

[Andrew Scheer, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, the only reason why the Prime Minister is offering me a briefing of classified information in my capacity as a privy councillor is to prevent me from asking questions about his disastrous trip to India and the cover-up that he helped orchestrate.

All we are asking for is that the same information that has been provided to the media be provided to the House of Commons. The Prime Minister has just affirmed that classified information was not provided to the media. Why, then, can that same information not be provided to the House?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, only Stephen Harper's Conservative Party would think that giving information to the media is somehow hiding information from Canadians.

The question is: why does the Leader of the Opposition not want to know the truth?

Canadians understand that when it comes to intelligence issues and security issues, there is a need for classified information.

We have offered the member opposite to know the truth, but he prefers to play political games.

Ethics

[Guy Caron, NDP, Rimouski-Neigette—Témiscouata—Les Basques, QC]

Mr. Speaker, allow me to clarify something for the Prime Minister. The Ethics Commissioner's report was not a series of recommendations; it was a penalty for violating the Conflict of Interest Act.

Now, we know that the Prime Minister received a gift on his all-expenses-paid visit with the Aga Khan. Today, the commissioner's office said that this gift cannot be listed on the public registry because it was declared unacceptable. Ultimately, we can deduce that this gift was worth more than $1,000 and that it was not simply a bag or a sweater.

What gift did the Prime Minister receive from the Aga Khan?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, I have answered this question here in the House and also to the Ethics Commissioner directly.

The very reason we have an Ethics Commissioner in the House is so that he or she can resolve and examine issues far away from the partisanship we see here in the House. Canadians can know that I worked with the Ethics Commissioner, that I answered all of her questions, and that, yes, I followed all of her recommendations to avoid these situations in the future.

[Guy Caron, NDP, Rimouski-Neigette—Témiscouata—Les Basques, QC]

Mr. Speaker, once again, the report did not contain recommendations, but rather a penalty.

It would be nice if the Prime Minister would stop hiding behind public servants and backroom, closed door discussions. In his open letter to Canadians, he said himself, “I am committed to leading an open, honest government that is accountable to Canadians, lives up to the highest ethical standards”.

Accepting a gift that the Ethics Commissioner considers to be not allowed and unacceptable does not fall within my definition of “highest ethical standards”. We are still waiting for the open and accountable government the Prime Minister promised to Canadians.

Has he forgotten the basic principles of ethics that should be guiding his government's behaviour?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, we continue to demonstrate the openness and transparency Canadians were looking forward to after 10 years under Stephen Harper. We remain open and accountable because we want to convince Canadians that we are building a better country with more opportunities for our young people and our seniors. We are delivering on our promises and doing what Canadians have asked us to do.

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

Mr. Speaker, this old city on the Rideau has heard some pretty outrageous whoppers over the decades defending the loopholes for graft and pork-barrel lobbying, and rum-bottle politics, so it is not often we hear a new one.

Kudos to the Prime Minister for coming up with a new loophole. When he accepts a gift from a billionaire lobbyist like the Aga Khan, if it is appropriate, he is compelled to report it, but since it was inappropriate, he told us that he did not have to report it. Oh, come on.

Is that his new standard, that the door to the PMO is open as long as the lobbyists bring the gifts?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, we have a Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner so that Canadians can be reassured that above the personal attacks that happen in the House of Commons, the wild accusations and the mudslinging, there is someone to look into the facts of the matter, gather those facts together, make a report, and make recommendations.

As I said, we fully accept the report of the ethics commissioner and have moved forward to ensure it never happens again and that we fulfill all of her recommendations.

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

Okay, Mr. Speaker. Speaking of loopholes that are big enough to fly the Aga Khan's private helicopter through, I note that the Prime Minister's beach buddy on that trip also did not register his inappropriate gift.

It is a simple thing. All members of Parliament have to register all travel that is paid for by lobbyists and third parties, yet the member for St. John's South—Mount Pearl did not bother to register his trip to billionaires island. What is with that? Were they sharing loophole ideas when they were hanging out on the beach?

Why does the Prime Minister have such a low standard for accountability for his caucus?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, when we report gifts, when we report issues and actions, we report to the Ethics Commissioner. I sat down, answered all the Ethics Commissioner's questions, and disclosed fully everything that happened, and she made her report. She did the work that she is asked to do by this House and by Canadians; that is, get to the nub of the matter, get to the heart of the facts, rather than fall into the partisan mudslinging that, unfortunately, characterizes this House.

Public Safety

[Candice Bergen, Conservative, Portage—Lisgar, MB]

Mr. Speaker, for weeks we have been asking, as parliamentarians, for the same briefing the media received from the government's national security adviser. For weeks we have been denied. In fact, last week we had to sit here while the government and the Liberals stood up for over 20 hours protecting the Prime Minister from our being allowed to hear what the media received. Yesterday we were told it is classified. All of a sudden, the media must be part of the Privy Council, if it was classified. Today the Keystone cops seem to have changed their story. Why cannot we, as parliamentarian, hear the same—

[The Speaker, Liberal, Geoff Regan]

The hon. Minister of Public Safety.

[Ralph Goodale, Liberal, Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness]

Mr. Speaker, the media have already reported everything extensively, and there was no classified information. As senior Conservative bloggers have pointed out, the key issue is the broader and classified context around the Atwal matter. We have offered the Leader of the Opposition a full classified briefing, but so far, he has declined, so the essential question is, why is he choosing to remain deliberately uninformed and misinformed?

[Candice Bergen, Conservative, Portage—Lisgar, MB]

This is incredibly serious, Mr. Speaker. The government sent out the national security adviser to the media to float out a story that India was responsible for the government's absolutely disastrous India trip. We want to know what the media were told. Now the public safety minister is saying, “Just read the newspaper and you're fine.” No. We are elected by Canadians to get an answer from the government, and it should answer the question.

[Ralph Goodale, Liberal, Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness]

Mr. Speaker, the point clearly is this. Why would the Leader of the Opposition decline to get the full story and prefer to operate on bits and snippets of misinformation, or disinformation, or incomplete information? The government has made the offer to the Leader of the Opposition to be fully informed of all of the context around this situation so that he can, in fact, function in an appropriate leadership role. He has declined, and the only conceivable reason is that he wants to play a political game.