Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to take part in adjournment proceedings. My question goes back to remarks I made in question period. While it was a question, I am not sure that we got a real answer.
Of course, this goes back to the WE scandal. This summer, we saw the now infamous Canada student service grant presented to Canadians worth $912 million. Before the program was able to launch, it was cancelled. We had the Prime Minister apologize for failing to recuse himself. The then finance minister apologized for failing to recuse himself.
The WE organization was right at the centre of it. The reason the recusals would have been necessary for the Prime Minister and for the former finance were that members of the Prime Minister's family had been paid nearly half a million dollars by the WE organization. He then he turned around and gave approval for Canadian tax dollars for this organization to administer a half a billion dollars.
The former finance minister's challenges came out of him having his daughter directly employed by this organization. He accepted $40,000 in free vacations from this organization. Both the then finance minister and the Prime Minister were at the cabinet table when this was approved.
We look back to very recent history and this is the first Prime Minister in Canadian history found guilty of breaking ethics laws. We have seen that detailed in the “Trudeau Report” and the “Trudeau Report II”. That was, in the first instance, for the Prime Minister's trip to billionaire island. In the second instance, it was his interference in the criminal prosecution for his friends as SNC-Lavalin.
We now have an issue that will be the subject of the third report coming from the Ethics Commissioner where we have this situation where the Prime Minister's family received half a million dollars and he turned around to give that organization half a billion dollars.
What happened when the committee investigations got too hot for the Prime Minister on the eve of documents to be disclosed to the finance committee and documents to be released to the ethics committee? The Prime Minister shut down Parliament.
We do not have to remember too far back into history when the Prime Minister said that sunlight was the best disinfectant. When the Prime Minister prorogued, he said there would be lots of time for questions when the House resumes. Then the House resumed and what did we have? Over 40 hours of filibuster from the Liberals at committee.
We are going to hear from the parliamentary secretary about Conservatives looking for scandals under every rock, but the question to the parliamentary secretary is very clear. If there is nothing to hide and if the government has the courage of its convictions, why not just let these matters come to a vote? Why filibuster? Why give rise to the appearance of corruption if, as he will tell us, there is none? We have seen them obstruct, filibuster and look to block rightful questions by the official opposition and by parliamentarians into the conduct of the government. It is unbecoming of a Prime Minister. It is shaking the confidence Canadians have in their parliamentarians and in Parliament.
We need to get back to good, ethical government. I look for Canadians to have that opportunity after the next election by electing a Conservative government with the Prime Minister being from the riding of Durham. In the meantime, we need the current, temporary occupant of the Prime Minister's Office to do his part and let the sun shine in.