Mr. Speaker, it is a privilege to have the opportunity to speak to such an important motion today. I would like to start by reading the motion the opposition is putting forward:
That, given the Prime Minister's comments of Wednesday, February 20, 2019, that the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights is the appropriate place for Canadians to get answers on the SNC-Lavalin affair, and given his alleged direct involvement in a sustained effort to influence SNC-Lavalin's criminal prosecution, the House order the Prime Minister to appear, testify and answer questions at the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights, under oath, for a televised two-hour meeting, before Friday, March 15, 2019.
I held a town hall in my riding of Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill on Sunday on taxes, tariffs and trade. We had a good discussion on taxes, tariffs and trade, but what most of my constituents wanted to know was what the SNC-Lavalin affair was, and perhaps more importantly, why it mattered.
It is highly complicated and confusing, with a lot of different information surrounding it. Therefore, what exactly is it and why does it matter? First and foremost, it is not about SNC-Lavalin and it is not about jobs. It is specifically about the coordinated, unsolicited and sustained pressure on the former attorney general to politically interfere and overturn a decision by the director of public prosecutions to proceed with the prosecution of fraud and bribery charges against SNC-Lavalin.
That is quite complicated, but what it is more importantly about is the pattern of behaviour from the government, the Prime Minister, his staff, ministers and cabinet in general, undermining the democratic institutions at the very core of our rules-based order and who we are as Canadians.
Let us talk about that for a bit. The executive branch, the judicial branch and the legislative branch are critically important pillars of our democracy. They are structured in such a way as to be independent and somewhat separate from each other because they act as checks and balances on each other. Within the executive branch, there is cabinet and the Prime Minister. They have specific responsibilities as well, not the least of which is to not politically interfere in the judicial system and to protect and preserve the independence of that judicial system.
Why is that important? It is that ultimately our democracy and rules-based order is dependent on every citizen, company and organization being equal in the eyes of the law and justice being blind to their race, ethnicity, creed, vocation, language or whatever it is. Secondly, those decisions must be made with only the law in mind, not with political interference.
In this case, we are looking at a Prime Minister who had a pattern of inappropriate and possibly illegal behaviour. First of all, he said that the former attorney general has the authority to make these decisions on her own because they are her decisions and hers alone. There is an issue with that. As a mother, when I tell my son I want him to do the dishes, is it his decision whether he does them or not? It is actually not really his decision because I have a certain amount of authority over my son, or I like to think I do. If my daughter, who is younger than my son, were to ask him to help her with something, it truly would be his decision.
Therefore, when the Prime Minister asks the former attorney general to do something, it absolutely is pressure, because, as we can see, she decided not to take the course of action that he was recommending. As a result, he put even more pressure on her after that decision was made, and in the end she actually was removed from her position. One has to ask if someone else was put in her place to do what she would not.
The other key thing here is that the Attorney General and the Minister of Justice may physically be the same individual, but they are two separate and distinct responsibilities. Cabinet, the Clerk of the Privy Council and even the PMO under our rules, regulations and laws have the ability to advise and support the Minister of Justice, but they do not have that same privilege for the Attorney General, because the Attorney General is acting as a capacity of that judicial system, which is separate. Therefore, to confuse those two positions further undermines it.
One has to ask what the responsibility was of the PMO, Gerald Butts and others when they were having meetings with the former attorney general and applying pressure at the Château Laurier. One does also have to ask why the meetings were at the Château Laurier. It is not a normal operation of our business. We have offices here in the House of Commons and other government buildings around the town, so we should be having meetings there.
Of course, there is the Clerk of the Privy Council who has a responsibility to advise and support the execution of the machinery of the executive branch but not to advise the Attorney General on legal matters.
The three important aspects of democracy are truly what is at stake in this conversation. The rule of law and our democracy are incredibly important, and that is why we are here to talk about it today. To say that this motion for getting to the truth is for partisan political points absolutely grossly misrepresents the severity of this conversation. Each and every one of us, as members of Parliament or as ministers in the executive branch, has sworn an oath to this country and to the Queen to uphold democracy. If we cannot rely on members of Parliament to be above partisan policy when the very nature of our democracy is at stake, then what is the value of being in the House? If we will not stand up to protect, preserve and defend our democracy, and in so doing ensure that individuals holding important positions in the executive branch are held accountable in accordance with our laws, then who will?
That is why this motion is so incredibly important. We must get to the truth. We must ensure that the very nature of our democracy is preserved, and we must find a way to have the courage on both sides of the House to remember that we are serving Canadians first. We get paid by Canadians, not by a political party, and we are here to deliver for Canadians not only a government agenda but also the very nature and fabric of our democracy.
That is what is at stake in the SNC-Lavalin case. It is not about jobs and it is not about SNC-Lavalin. It is about whether or not the individuals in this institution are upholding their responsibilities, and this motion is critically important to be able to get to that.
I hope that all in this House will support this motion to protect, defend and preserve our democracy.