Madam Speaker, it is fortuitous, I suppose, that I am in the House today. I am here for another reason. I did not know we were going to be having this discussion today, but I am glad that I am here because somebody has questioned my honour. I am going to stand here and defend it.
I will issue a challenge right now to any member in the House, to any member who is listening online or to anybody who hears about this later: I will stand with them anywhere, any time, and defend my ethics and my honour.
Sometimes politics gets reduced to people playing dirty. They get cheap. When the member for Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes presented this today that is how I would categorize it: nothing more; nothing less.
Let me start by saying that I have total respect for the Ethics Commissioner, the Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner and the process they use when going through reports and preparing reports. When the report was tabled in the House of Commons a few weeks ago, at 10 o'clock, I stood up virtually and did what the Ethics Commissioner recommended. I apologized and I apologized unconditionally because I respect him and his office. To now ask for a concurrence of the House can only be characterized as an assassination of my character or using me as an assassination of the character of this government. I am glad I am here to defend myself.
I do not know whether the member for Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes or other members have actually taken the time to read the report in its entirety. It appears to me that they have not, because if they had they would feel ashamed for some of the remarks they have made today. Let me tell the House those facts.
When we were elected in the fall of 2019, we were all required to file our compliance statement. My statement was due in early January. The House was not sitting, if colleagues recall. I emailed the Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner, apologized because I was late and said that I would be filing it in short order. I returned to Ottawa in January when the House resumed sitting. I had my information hand delivered to his office on January 23, 2020.
On January 24, 2020, I returned to my office from question period and a member of my staff said that there was more information needed. I asked her how she knew that. I walked over to her computer and I was looking at an email from the Ethics Commissioner's office that had scanned my complete report and all of my financial personal information that I had submitted the day before.
Let me ask every member in the chamber how they would feel if that happened to them. It is a rhetorical question because I know the answer.
I immediately picked up the telephone. I called the Ethics Commissioner's office. I expressed my dissatisfaction with what had just taken place. I said that I expected to have a conversation with the Ethics Commissioner himself because I would like an explanation and I would like an apology. I subsequently received an email from a staff member in his office with an “I'm sorry”, but no word from Mr. Dion. I again put in writing that I would like to hear from Mr. Dion to explain to me how this could have happened and to explain to me, more importantly, how he will take steps so that it does not happen again in the future.
Over the course of the next weeks, I had another email from the office, several of them, in fact. Some of them are laid out in the report, if people care to read it. I said, “I have given you all of my information. I don't have any more information”.
What had not been provided was my tick mark in five boxes on one page of the very long disclosure statement. I told them the reason that I did not tick those boxes was that I did not truly know the answer. I was not hiding anything because they had then all of my financial personal information, which answered the questions asked in the disclosure statement that they said was outstanding.
I reiterated that position several times, until early March when I got a response from his office saying, “Here is the information that is outstanding.” I responded, “I still expect to hear from Mr. Dion, but if you want it again, I will send it to you.”
Perhaps that is where I fell down, because I did not send it. It was on March 5, and everybody will recall that on Friday, March 13, the House adjourned for five weeks, which at the time we thought was a lengthy period, because of the pandemic.
Over the course of the next several months, I did what every other member of Parliament was doing. I worked with my constituents to make sure they were safe, to make sure they were able to be brought back to Canada safely, and to make sure they got the services that were available to them. That was my total preoccupation at the time.
Mr. Dion sent me three letters over the course of three months, to which I did not respond. I apologized to him. Nonetheless, I did not hear from Mr. Dion, nor did the office ask for further information. It was asking me to tick those five boxes. Ultimately, in August of this year, I ticked the five boxes and sent them back. There was no additional information.
However, by this point an investigation had been opened. According to the process, it cannot be called back once it is started. I had to go through this process with Mr. Dion and his counsel in his office. I explained all of this to them. Through that process, I explained to him that I respect his office. What happened after that is getting into the details and repeating myself.
There was nothing new. What I did in January was what was done in August. On the Ethics Commissioner's website are columns that read “you have not submitted your disclosure statement”, “you have submitted but there is some outstanding information”, “there is outstanding information with the office”, or “complete.”
My status on that website, until about August 20 of this year, was “you have not submitted”. This was factually incorrect, because I did. That is what gave rise to this whole issue.
Members can read the report. Nowhere in there does it say that I hid anything or I failed to disclose anything. I handed it in late.
Somebody may stand in the House and tell me what the job of a lawyer is. In my previous life, before I came to the House I took great pride in practising law for over 20 years. Ethics and responsibility were two of my hallmarks. I will line up people to back me up on that. Someone might use the word negligence. How dare they?
When I was practising, if somebody in my office inadvertently disclosed the confidential information of one of our clients, I would expect the most senior person in my office to pick up the phone and issue a formal apology, and explain how it happened.
I stood in the House and apologized, because that is what I was required to do. I am here doing it again, but do not let anybody dare to question my ethics or my integrity.