Mr. Speaker, I do so retract.
As The Economic Times reported at the time, “[So-and-so's] time in India was criticised for its lack of official business, not to mention the excessive photo-ops and insensitive overuse of Indian clothing.” Canadians were once again on the hook for what appeared to be more of a lavish family vacation than a diplomatic bilateral meeting. The fiasco included having his own celebrity chef flown in from Vancouver.
However, all of this pales in comparison to the Prime Minister inviting convicted terrorist Jaspal Atwal to dinner. Mr. Atwal was convicted of attempted murder in Canada in 1987 after he tried to assassinate a visiting Punjabi cabinet minister. It turned out that Atwal was a long-time Liberal supporter and activist, a former donor to the party and a former Liberal board member for the electoral district of Surrey, British Columbia.
There has not been accountability for the India fiasco, and Canada was left red-faced with embarrassment and $1.66 million in debt. There are simply too many Liberal breaches of ethics violations to name them all here today. I have not touched upon the Julie Payette fiasco, nor the Minister of National Defence's interference in the Nova Scotia shooting tragedy. Members will recall that he pressured the then-police commissioner Brenda Lucki to publicly release information about specific firearms used in the shooting to advance the federal government's gun control legislation.
Following the resignation of the former ethics commissioner, Mario Dion, who I believe resigned due to overwork, the Liberal government decided to appoint Martine Richard, the sister-in-law of the current public safety minister, to replace him. Again, is that not a conflict of interest to anyone? Where is the accountability?
This is why common-sense Conservatives have raised this question of privilege. This is why we are here today, why we were here yesterday and the day before, and why we will be here tomorrow and in the coming weeks, if necessary. This is why we call on the government, SDTC and the Auditor General to hand over all documents, unredacted, related to the Prime Minister's green slush fund to the RCMP.
The argument has been made that handing over these documents breaches the constitutional rights of individuals. It is time. The government recognizes that the Constitution was designed to protect individuals from the government, not the government from individuals. It is time for the government to come clean with Canadians. We have had enough with the cover-ups and enough with them gorging themselves, their families and their friends at the public trough.
The Liberals need to hand over the documents. We want to get back to the work of the people in this chamber. It is not Conservatives obstructing this work. All it would take would be for the Prime Minister to hand over the documents. We want accountability.