Debates of May 8th, 2019

Justice

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

Mr. Speaker, the government's witch hunt against Vice-Admiral Norman has collapsed, but it has exposed the ruthlessness of a Prime Minister who was willing to destroy the career of a naval officer who served this nation with distinction. Why? It was because the vice-admiral raised questions about a lucrative pork-barrel deal on an important naval deal.

What we have seen are the shocking lengths to which this Prime Minister will go to interfere in the legal system to help cronies in the Liberal Party, but to attempt to destroy an admiral's career is way over the line. I am asking the Prime Minister to stand in this House today to apologize to Vice-Admiral Norman and his family.

[David Lametti, Liberal, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada]

Mr. Speaker, as the hon. member well knows, the RCMP, which did the initial investigation, operates independently of government. The Public Prosecution Service, which looks at the evidence gathered by the RCMP and decides whether to lay charges, which proceeds with the prosecution if it decides to lay charges and then, in this case, decides to stay the proceedings, also operates independently of government, independently of my office and independently of the Prime Minister's office.

The director of public prosecutions stated today, as she stated in February, that there was no outside—

[The Speaker, Liberal, Geoff Regan]

The hon. member for Timmins—James Bay.

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

Mr. Speaker, the minister left out one important point: It was a star Liberal MP, a former decorated general, who stepped forward and was willing to testify against this Prime Minister and his own government over this harassment of Admiral Norman, so this is much bigger than defending the cronyism of the Liberal Party of Canada, which the Attorney General of Canada has been defending as of late. This is about the rule of law in Canada.

Why is the Prime Minister refusing to stand up to apologize to Canadians, to explain himself and to launch an independent investigation into the behaviour of his government?

[David Lametti, Liberal, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada]

Mr. Speaker, the only thing I agree with in the hon. member's statement is that this is about the rule of law in Canada, and indeed the rule of law in Canada functioned very well, from the RCMP in beginning its investigation through to the Public Prosecution Service acting independently and making decisions based on the evidence as it came through.

This Public Prosecution Service operates independently of government. It operated independently of government. It made appropriate decisions. It proves that the rule of law is alive and well in Canada and that the system works well.

[Mark Strahl, Conservative, Chilliwack—Hope, BC]

Mr. Speaker, Vice-Admiral Mark Norman served our country with honour and distinction, but the Prime Minister and the Liberals tried to destroy him. They attacked him personally and professionally, and they even tried to bankrupt him and his family. Now the Prime Minister needs to start to make amends, and that starts by issuing an apology.

Will the Prime Minister finally apologize for all that he has done to Vice-Admiral Mark Norman?

[Harjit S. Sajjan, Liberal, Minister of National Defence]

Mr. Speaker, I encourage the member to actually read the statement of the Public Prosecution Service of Canada, which confirmed today that every decision made was completely independent. I will have to quote again: “No other factors were considered in this decision...including political influence”. Any accusations otherwise are absurd.

[Mark Strahl, Conservative, Chilliwack—Hope, BC]

Mr. Speaker, it is unbelievable that the Prime Minister cannot bring himself to apologize for what he has done to Vice-Admiral Norman, a man who has served our country with honour for decades. The Prime Minister seems to have no problem apologizing for the actions of others, but when it comes to his own bad conduct, “sorry” seems to be the hardest word.

Why did the Prime Minister have no problem apologizing to a convicted terrorist, Omar Khadr, but cannot bring himself to apologize to Vice-Admiral Norman for the damage he has done to his career, his family and his reputation?

[David Lametti, Liberal, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada]

Mr. Speaker, I obviously reject the premise of the hon. member's question.

This country is all about the rule of law. This country is about great institutions, like the RCMP, like the Public Prosecution Service, which was a good thing started by the previous Conservative government in order to give independence to the prosecutorial decisions and the governance of prosecution proceedings in Canada.

That system worked well today. Members do not have to just believe me. They can believe the lawyer for Vice-Admiral Norman, who said the rule of law worked.

[Pierre Paul-Hus, Conservative, Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC]

Mr. Speaker, a few days after the hon. member for Orléans announced that he was preparing to testify against his own government, the Prime Minister dropped the charges against the vice-admiral.

If the Liberals had provided the documents requested by Vice-Admiral Norman's defence team, this whole matter would have been settled in no time. For more than a year, the Liberals allowed Vice-Admiral Norman's reputation to get tarnished and his career destroyed.

Will the Prime Minister at least apologize?

[David Lametti, Liberal, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada]

Mr. Speaker, as I said in French and English, the government fulfilled all of its obligations with respect to documents requested in the proceedings.

The Public Prosecution Service of Canada operates independently from the Government of Canada, my office and the Department of Justice. This proves that the rule of law system works very well in Canada.

[Pierre Paul-Hus, Conservative, Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to remind the Attorney General that, upon leaving the courthouse this morning, Vice-Admiral Norman's lawyer said there had been political interference because the government did not provide the document requested. This story is not over.

Will the Prime Minister apologize to Admiral Norman?

[David Lametti, Liberal, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada]

Mr. Speaker, I reject the premise of the question.

We fulfilled all our obligations. We co-operated with the court for the production of documents.

The director of the Public Prosecution Service of Canada makes decisions independently of government. As she said in February and again today, there was no political interference.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister is creating two classes of refugees in Bill C-97 to pander to the right. Facing backlash, the government emailed Liberal MPs saying that no asylum seekers would be at risk. The Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers and Amnesty International were clear: That is not true.

The Liberals are desperate for a fix, but experts were explicit: There is no fix. Any people pretending the Liberal proposal is the same as the independent work of the IRB are fooling themselves.

Will the Prime Minister do what thousands of Canadians are demanding and withdraw these dangerous provisions?

[Bill Blair, Liberal, Minister of Border Security and Organized Crime Reduction]

Mr. Speaker, I will be very clear that our government remains committed to a fair and compassionate refugee system.

As the UNHCR has stated, we are upholding our international and domestic legal obligations, as all claimants still have access to a robust oral hearing, subject to appeal, and will receive Canada's protection if they are found to be at risk. The UNHCR went on to attest that the PRRA, which we are providing, provides the same objectives as the IRB's process and confirms the same degree of refugee protection.

Canadian Heritage

[Pierre-Luc Dusseault, NDP, Sherbrooke, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the Auditor General issued a scathing criticism of the Liberal government yesterday morning on the issue of web giants. The government keeps saying that it is waiting for the international community to join forces to come up with a solution to address the growth of the digital economy. These are just more excuses, and the problem has yet to be solved.

What is interesting is that of the 60 countries polled by the OECD, Canada is one of just two countries that have yet to do anything. Worst of all, it has no intention of doing anything.

What excuse will the Prime Minister use next to justify his failure to act?

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

Mr. Speaker, the various remedies available to all western governments are under active consideration now through the forums provided by the Five Eyes alliance and by the G7 security ministers. Various potential approaches have been advanced by a number of those countries. There will be international discussions following later this spring.

It is obviously clear that those who purvey dangerous material on the Internet need to assume responsibility for their behaviour.

Rural Economic Development

[Churence Rogers, Liberal, Bonavista—Burin—Trinity, NL]

Mr. Speaker, rural communities across Canada play an important role in our national economy and are a special part of the Canadian identity and vibrancy. As the MP for Bonavista—Burin—Trinity, a large rural riding, I see first-hand the unique sorts of issues faced by rural communities and the need for a coordinated, specific plan to address them.

Can the Minister of Rural Economic Development please give this House an update on the work being undertaken to develop a national rural economic development strategy?

[Bernadette Jordan, Liberal, Minister of Rural Economic Development]

Mr. Speaker, our government understands that rural communities face unique challenges, requiring unique solutions.

Since my appointment as minister of rural economic development, I have visited rural communities across the country to hear directly from Canadians, including in my hon. colleague's riding. We have heard from stakeholder groups, local governments and small business owners. The feedback we have been receiving has been immensely helpful in getting the message out, which we will make sure will help form our national economic development strategy.

I look forward to continuing the work to develop this strategy, bringing it back to the House soon and sharing these opportunities with all Canadians.

Justice

[Richard Martel, Conservative, Chicoutimi—Le Fjord, QC]

Mr. Speaker, in February 2018, the Prime Minister announced that the Norman case would go to court even before the RCMP laid charges. On the eve of the election, the charges were withdrawn after the Liberal member for Orléans confirmed that he would testify on behalf of Vice-Admiral Norman. We were told these are coincidences.

The government never wanted to hand over the necessary documents to Vice-Admiral Norman's defence team. What is it hiding?

[David Lametti, Liberal, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada]

Mr. Speaker, I will repeat that the decision to stay charges was made by the director of the Public Prosecution Service of Canada alone. As I have repeated many times, we co-operated with the court to produce the documents required for the trial. The director herself said this morning, as she did in February, that there was no political influence in this case.

Public Services and Procurement

[Richard Martel, Conservative, Chicoutimi—Le Fjord, QC]

Mr. Speaker, Vice-Admiral Norman has always put the national interest first. The Asterix was a tremendous success for military procurement. It was delivered by Davie on time and on budget.

However, the Liberal government is hurting Quebec by putting its political and partisan interests ahead of the national interest, which is to provide our armed forces with suitable equipment in a timely manner.

Why did the government want to take the contract away from Davie?

[Carla Qualtrough, Liberal, Minister of Public Services and Procurement and Accessibility]

Mr. Speaker, I can assure members that we are laser-focused on delivering for our men and women in the military and in the Coast Guard.

We have delivered a fully-costed defence policy and a defence investment plan that is going to allow research and development into the future. We have launched the future fighter jet procurement for the replacement of 88 fighter jets. We have delivery of our first interim jet. We have the first large vessels in the water built under the national shipbuilding strategy, including the first offshore fishery and science vessel and the first Arctic offshore patrol ship. We are building two more. We cut steel on the fourth last week. We purchased fixed-wing search and rescue aircraft. We have awarded—

[The Speaker, Liberal, Geoff Regan]

The hon. member for Selkirk—Interlake—Eastman.

Justice

[James Bezan, Conservative, Selkirk—Interlake—Eastman, MB]

Mr. Speaker, it was the political interference by the Liberal government that was the catalyst for the Vice-Admiral Norman show trial. The Liberal government obstructed the legal process and sat on the evidence that Vice-Admiral Norman needed to defend his case. It dragged his good name through the mud, drove him into near bankruptcy and refused to turn over evidence to the courts. It is no surprise that the case against Vice-Admiral Norman has been dropped.

Canadians want to know, what is the Prime Minister so desperate to hide?