Mr. Speaker, before I address the substance of today's opposition motion, I am pleased to recognize the women and men who are doing the important job of keeping Canadians safe during the COVID-19 pandemic in spite of the incompetence of the Prime Minister and his ministers in protecting Canadians.
It is a proven fact that years of incompetence and mismanagement by the Liberal Party have left Canadians vulnerable today to health crises such as the current pandemic. It did not take another Auditor General's report, like the one issued today, to confirm just how unprepared the government was for any type of emergency. Canadians are tired of the lockdowns caused by this incompetence. Canadians are angry over the Prime Minister's refusal to stay focused on keeping Canadians safe. He would rather drag Parliament into the next scandal caused by another one of his government's ethical lapses.
I am the member of Parliament for the eastern Ontario riding of Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke, home to Garrison Petawawa, the largest army base in Canada, and the decision to participate in today's debate was made by my constituents. The women of Canada who chose to serve their country in uniform as members of the Canadian Armed Forces have a right to be treated with dignity and respect. No woman in today's age should be forced to work in an environment where sexual harassment is tolerated.
Today's motion would order Zita Astravas, the former chief of staff to the defence minister, to come before the Standing Committee on National Defence. That committee, of which I am the longest-serving member, was forced to take this action as a result of the contempt Ms. Astravas has demonstrated to our parliamentary committee by not responding to our polite requests to appear.
Zita Astravas has a connection to the Kielburger brothers of WE Charity scandal fame. The WE Charity boys published an article under their names, wherein they slandered the people of Thunder Bay, Ontario, by calling that city the “hate crime capital of Canada” for what the Kielburgers claim are the rates of racist vandalism, assaults and murders. The Kielburger article quotes extensively from sources that are funded by Zita's new department, where she is currently chief of staff. Ms. Astravas is the chief of staff to the Liberal minister of gun control. It is nasty business slandering an entire community, as the people of Quebec know.
It is obvious that the reason Zita Astravas is afraid to appear before the defence committee is that the truth will come out about how little respect the Prime Minister has for women in Canada, in this case the women who serve their country in uniform as members of the Canadian Armed Forces.
It is not as though Canadians have not seen the Prime Minister disrespect women before. The Prime Minister's groping incident, when he made unwanted advances by groping a female reporter while she was trying to do her job, should have been a red flag to the Liberal Party about how he treats women: the Kokanee grope.
The Prime Minister's decision to throw the only strong women in his party under the bus—women like the former justice minister during the SNC-Lavalin scandal, the former minister of health for standing up for her colleague, and former Ontario female MP Celina Caesar-Chavannes for showing a backbone—demonstrates a pattern of behaviour. Canada's self-called feminist Prime Minister talks a good game about supporting women, but when the chips are down, they are the first ones to take the blame for his own mistakes.
The toxicity on Parliament Hill for women, particularly women in his own party, stems from the Prime Minister himself. When the times comes, will Zita Astravas be thrown under the bus to take the fall for the Minister of National Defence and for the Prime Minister's failure to act on the information from the military ombudsman about General Vance? No wonder she is hiding. Her career could be over.
The taxpayers of Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke recognize the importance of holding the government accountable. At the end of the day, there is only one taxpayer. That individual taxpayer is the one who gets stuck paying for all of the government's mistakes. Today's opposition motion is about upholding the principles of democracy. It is about the rights of all Canadians, through their elected representatives, to hold politicians accountable when they are busy spending their money.
Blocking the work of parliamentary committees and stalling until an unwanted election is called will not prevent Canadians from eventually finding out the truth, which is what the Liberals are afraid of: the truth. In just the same way, the Liberals are afraid that the public will find out how many tax dollars have been wasted while Canadians get sick from COVID-19.
The WE Charity scandal is without a doubt a Liberal Party scandal. For a very accurate summation of the WE scandal, I will quote the observations veteran journalist Rex Murphy addressed to the Kielburger brothers about the WE Charity scandal in the March 17 edition of the National Post. I encourage anyone watching this debate to read all the articles written by Rex Murphy about the WE Charity scandal.
He wrote:
Who solicited Mr. Trudeau as a huge draw and speaker for so many WE Day rallies, and who billboarded his presence? Who invited his mother, Margaret, and his brother, Alexandre, to your WE days? Who paid out fees and expenses of close to $300,000 to them? Who drew Mr. Trudeau’s wife, Sophie Grégoire Trudeau, to act as one of your charity’s ambassadors?
The point of all these questions, just to be clear, Marc and Craig, is to point out the fact that you invited, and most times paid, members of the prime minister of Canada’s family, to boost your WE day pitches and add credibility to them. And it is as near to certainty as we can hope for in the vale of tears, that the frequent presence of Justin Trudeau, before and after he became prime minister, along with his family members, must have been a very strong asset in getting schools to go to WE Day, and corporations and media to support it.
He went on later in the article:
If there is a scandal here’s a better description of its character: a Canadian-based, international charity/enterprise had deep and continuous association with the leader of the Liberal party, the prime minister of Canada, and his family to the mutual benefit of the Liberal party and the charity/enterprise.
WE received the highest, strongest endorsement Canada has to offer. The prime minister and his family were to all intents and purposes acting as WE patrons.
WE also received, prior to the singular contract to distribute vast millions to Canadian young people, grants from the federal government.
And when, out of the unclouded blue, the huge, sole-sourced (and mysterious) contract was made known, along with WE’s “administrative” fee of $43 million, many people — not just in the press or Parliament — looked at all this and asked: What is this? A private enterprise, with very heavy access to the party in power, very close association with its leadership, gets chosen over the civil service to hand out millions to Canadian citizens? A thing never heard of before.
He continued:
The interwoven and mutually beneficial connections between WE, Mr. Trudeau, and his family, more than justified a Commons committee to ask WE Charity necessary questions.
And therefore it was right and proper that a committee of our federal parliament mounted an open inquiry on whether WE business got special treatment because WE and the Trudeau family are so close, in compact and style.
The committee’s unquestionable remit is to probe why one family, Kielburger Inc., and another family, that of the prime minister of Canada, were so webbed in a common enterprise. And why $43 million — of Canadian taxpayers’ money — was to go to Kielburger Inc. for “administering” a public program of the government of Canada.
The questions raised by Rex Murphy are all the questions being asked by Canadians who are concerned about propriety in government. Parliament is obligated to report the facts to Canadians. If the Prime Minister feels he is in too much of a conflict of interest to come before a parliamentary committee, then he is obligated to order his staff members Ben Chin, Rick Theis, and Amitpal Singh to appear before Parliament and answer all of our questions.
Knowing the close association between Ben Chin and Gerald Butts, probably Butts should be in the lineup also. We can save ordering the puppet master to appear before Parliament for another day.
If the Prime Minister and his party are not prepared to do the right thing, then Parliament can do the right thing. Once Parliament does the right thing and passes today's motion, I want the women in uniform to know that I have their back. Let us hope other Canadian parliamentarians have their back as well.