Debates of Oct. 29th, 2020

Public Safety

[Michael Barrett, Conservative, Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON]

Madam Speaker, I would like to start with some very good news and that is the arrival of my nephew today, Santiago Barrett, the first-born to my brother Matt and his wife Sulin. I say congratulations to them and welcome to Santiago. It is really exciting news. We can hear the excitement from the government benches, but I do have to pivot from the good news to the bad.

It goes like this: tens of millions of dollars invested in hotels, multi-million dollar mansions, millions of dollars in cash, targeted shootings, sex trafficking, dozens of arrests, many seized illegal weapons and much seized illegal ammunition. Those items were reported this week by Sam Cooper with Global News, as he reported on a China-based transnational cartel operating in Toronto and Vancouver.

The business model involved illegal casinos believed to be laundering drug cash. That cash was then used for, among other things, political donations. Those political donations were used to gain access to Liberal politicians. There are pictures in the article here from those newspaper reports and online reports. In the past we have seen reports of former Liberal MP Joe Peschisolido with those very individuals, but also of the Prime Minister. It is important to note that there was also a million-dollar donation to the Trudeau Foundation.

Following those donations, there were meetings with the Prime Minister. The Chinese Communist Party refers to this strategy as its magic or secret weapon for improving and gaining influence here in Canada. It is troubling that we have had illegal casinos operating in two provinces that we know of, with drug cash, shootings, sex trafficking and dirty money flowing back into the pockets of organizations that fund political activity in Canada, with those donations being used to gain access.

The most troubling aspect of this, of course, is the source country: Communist China. We have great concern about their dealings, and there is so much at stake with Canadians illegally jailed there.

When will the government and the Prime Minister put their relationship with Communist China on ice and deal with Canadian interests first? It's time to put Canada first. When will they?

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the President of the Queen’s Privy Council for Canada and to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons]

Madam Speaker, I first want to congratulate the member opposite on the birth of his nephew, and congratulations to the happy parents, too.

The member is the ethics shadow minister for the Conservative Party. I must say, he has a creative imagination. If there is an opportunity to look under something, even if there is nothing there, he has a decent ability to give a perception of something. He is fairly good at pushing that perception. Ultimately, he believes that if it is pushed long enough and hard enough, he might convince some people there is a sense of reality to it.

Regarding election laws and financing, back in 2017 we introduced legislation and, about a year later, we had it passed. Today, compared with democracies around the world, we have some of the most stringent, transparent and accountable election laws. I would challenge the member to name a few places, particularly here in North America, that are more stringent and have a higher sense of accountability and transparency than our election laws.

I can remember giving speeches in the chamber. As an example, the very most a Canadian citizen can give me is $1,500 or $1,600. I can tell members there is no one who is going to give me $1,600 and feel I owe them something as a result of that.

At the end of the day, democracy requires that there has to be money to finance political parties. I am sure the member is aware that the Conservative Party raises a lot of money too. I suspect a lot of that money comes in the form of $1,600 donations.

Upon reflection, if we were to look at every member who contributed to the Conservative Party, we might find some questionable characters. I am not the parliamentary secretary responsible for ethics, so I am not going to go and search for it. I can appreciate the member opposite has the responsibility to look under those blankets and see where there might be something we can tie to.

Do members really think that what is taking place in China has an impact on what we are thinking as a government, in terms of policies? I do not believe that for one moment. I really do not believe it for a moment. I do not think contributions coming to individual members of Parliament are influencing the direction our caucus wants to move in, especially during this crisis situation with the coronavirus.

We need to be realistic. We have very much gone beyond what the election laws require of us. We used to have these large fundraisers, before the coronavirus and physical distancing, and our Prime Minister would invite the media to attend. We are prepared to share lists. We challenged the Conservative Party to do likewise, but they will not do that.

I am a bit suspicious of the official opposition, generally speaking, when it comes to issues of ethics. I prefer to look at our Ethics Commissioner, who is an apolitical—

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Alexandra Mendès), Liberal, Alexandra Mendes]

The hon member for Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes

[Michael Barrett, Conservative, Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON]

Madam Speaker, these are not allegations raised by the opposition. These are raised by national security experts, CSIS and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and reported on by the free press, Global News and Sam Cooper. Mr. Cooper's journalism is exhaustive in his 20 pages that report on this very issue.

We have identified the issues to the Liberals: the million-dollar donation to the foundation and the tens of thousands donated to Liberal riding associations and members. If the member believes in transparency, if he wants to get that dirty money out now that he knows, now that it has been identified and now that he says he has done the job he was asked to do, will they return the money?

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Winnipeg North, MB]

Madam Speaker, something I know about the member opposite is that if there was a whiff of truth to some of the things stated from the Conservative Party, not just this particular member as it is not meant to be a personal reflection, the first thing Conservatives would do is go to the Ethics Commissioner. Then they would say that they asked the Ethics Commissioner to look into x, y and z so they could generate a story to enhance the perception, in order try to turn that perception into reality.

If there was something of a serious nature, which is why we have an Ethics Commissioner, I am fairly confident the Conservatives would be bringing it to the Ethics Commissioner. I would be more interested in hearing what the Ethics Commissioner might have to say, as opposed to a Conservative opposition that has since day one consistently, even before the Prime Minister was prime minister, always personally attacked him.

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Alexandra Mendès), Liberal, Alexandra Mendes]

The motion to adjourn the House is now deemed to have been adopted. Accordingly, this House stands adjourned until tomorrow at 10 a.m., pursuant to Standing Order 24(1).

(The House adjourned at 7:31 p.m.)