Debates of Nov. 18th, 2024

Request for Witness to Attend at the Bar of the House

[Peter Julian, NDP, New Westminster—Burnaby, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I am please to rise on this subamendment that we are not supporting, which I will come back to in a moment, and the motion that we are supporting, on this issue of the question of privilege.

I would like to say that unlike the Conservatives, who are acting incredibly childishly and disingenuously in the House of Commons, we believe in transparency and getting to the bottom of things. That is why we have raised broad concerns about both the questions of privilege: the SDTC, which my colleague from Windsor West has raised repeatedly, and now this issue of calling before the bar Mr. Anderson, which the member for Hamilton Centre has raised in committee and in the House of Commons.

We have raised concerns because we want Canadians to get to the bottom of this Liberal scandal. I will submit as well that when it came to the SNC-Lavalin scandal, it was the NDP MPs who played the pivotal role in getting to the bottom and getting answers for Canadians. When it came to WE Charity, it was the member for Timmins—James Bay and I who got to the bottom of that issue, and when it comes to SDTC and the questions swirling around GHI, these are issues the NDP believes Canadians have the right to transparency on.

That is absolutely a fundamental principle in this democracy. It was abused horribly during the Harper regime. Conservative corruption, scandals and cover-ups were unbelievable. I will come back to that in just a moment. Every single Conservative MP should hang their head in shame when they speak to issues of transparency and accountability, when we had the worst government in Canadian history, without a doubt, over a number of years with a majority government, shutting down every single parliamentary inquiry and every single attempt at transparency.

We did not have people called to the bar during the Harper regime, because Conservatives refused it and shut it down. They refused any information going to Canadians. Conservative MPs stand up and postulate and do the play-acting they do so well, when they had the worst, most corrupt regime that engaged in the broadest cover-ups in Canadian history and have never apologized for it. They have never come forward and said they were sorry. They obviously have not learned the lessons. In fact, we know the four slogans the Conservatives would love to bring forward in the next election, and they are all to “bring back”: bring back Conservative cover-ups; bring back Conservative cuts, as we saw during the Conservative regime; bring back Conservative corporate tax havens; and bring back Conservative corruption.

The reality is that Canadians deserve better. They deserve better than the Liberal scandals we are seeing now, and they deserve better than the unbelievably horrible years of the Harper regime and the cover-ups, scandals and misspending of billions of dollars that no Conservative MP has ever apologized for. No Conservative MP has ever stood up and said, “We really screwed up. We should not have covered up. We should not have had all of this corruption.” They have never done it, so Canadians cannot trust Conservatives to clean up Ottawa, and they obviously cannot trust Liberals either. That is why the NDP has stood up and said repeatedly that we need transparency. Regardless what the source of the scandal is, it is important to get to the bottom of things.

The National Post article today, published just a few minutes ago, is profoundly disturbing. I will read an excerpt into the record:

The medical-supply company co-owned by [the] Employment Minister...shared a post office box with a woman named in arrests in two major drug busts, according to corporate filings....

The mailbox, rented at an Edmonton UPS Store, appears on the April 2020 licence for the Edmonton MP’s former enterprise, Global Health Imports Corporation (GHI), which National Post obtained from Health Canada through access-to-information legislation....

UPS Store spokesman Steve Moorman said that someone named Francheska Leblond has rented the mailbox since 2013. GHI’s name is not on the rental agreement, he said, although GHI’s mail sometimes arrived at the mailbox. He said people occasionally turned up at the store in the Edmonton strip mall looking for GHI.

[The member for Edmonton Centre] owned half of GHI at the time the mailbox was shared with her. The Liberal cabinet minister recently said he gave up his shares this year following public scrutiny of the business’s dealings.

This summer, Global News revealed a link between [the member for Edmonton Centre's] former business partner, Stephen Anderson—

He is the object of the motion that is before us today, which we support, to call him before the bar.

—and Leblond. It reported that after [the member for Edmonton Centre] won the September 2021 election and was appointed to cabinet, Leblond and Anderson registered a business together called 13560449 Canada Ltd.

These are serious concerns and allegations. That is why we support the motion to bring Mr. Anderson before the bar to answer these important questions. I know the member for Hamilton Centre, who is our ethics critic, was forthright in pushing for answers that Canadians deserved to get to ensure that Canadians would understand what transpired. Because Mr. Anderson was not forthcoming at committee hearings when repeatedly asked questions to which Canadians demand answers, it is important that he be called before the bar and forced to answer those questions.

I have two points to make before I come back to the issues of how Parliament and the government should be run. From the NDP's standpoint, and from the member for Burnaby South's standpoint, it is time that we close off the decades of Conservative corruption and Liberal scandals and that we move to a Parliament and a government of which Canadians can be proud.

My first point is that these are serious allegations of connections, as Conservatives have pointed out in their statements as well, concerning the issue of illegal activity linked potentially to a post office box that was registered in the name of a company, which was at least 50% owned by a member of cabinet, and they need to be fully explored.

I want to remind the Canadian public of how bad things were under the Harper regime. We do not want a repetition of that. I will read into the record an article dated May 8, 2008, from the Toronto Star, which talks about concerns about a top cabinet minister in the Conservative government and a former girlfriend with past ties to the Hells Angels. The article states that Prime Minister Stephen Harper “dismiss[ed] security concerns over the relationship between a top cabinet minister and a former girlfriend with past ties to the Hells Angels.” Stephen Harper also brushed off the matter and instead accused the opposition of being “gossipy old busybodies”.

That was the reaction of Stephen Harper to a similar situation. This is why I say that New Democrats, as the adults in the House, are not going to take any lessons from the childish Conservatives. Their reaction to a similar set of circumstances being tied to a minister in the Conservative cabinet was to say that there was nothing to see. That is the Conservative record. That is the record of the member for Carleton. That is the record of every single Conservative MP, except for the member for Richmond—Arthabaska who resigned because he could not stand the hypocrisy of the difference between what Conservatives say and what they actually do.

This is something that Conservatives wear, and they will wear it forever until they stand and apologize to all Canadians for their misbehaviour, for their corruption, for their cover-ups and for their cuts that hurt so many people.

The member for Windsor West spoke earlier about the cuts to veteran services across the country. How mean do people have to be to finance these massive overseas tax havens with $30 billion a year given to the corporate elite and the billionaires, but to finance it, they will cut health care, cut supports for seniors and cut veteran services? How irresponsible do they have to be?

It is an unbelievably mixed-up sense of priorities to say billionaires first and veterans get thrown out on the street. The member for Windsor West spoke very eloquently to that earlier. That is the Conservative record. It is cutting veteran services, forcing them out on the street and forcing them to be homeless. It is unbelievable.

Not a single Conservative MP has ever stood up and apologized for the years of corruption and cuts, and all the hurt caused to so many Canadians. I think Canadians would be forgiving if one Conservative were willing to stand up and say that the Conservatives are sorry for all the damage they did to our country; that they are sorry for the $300 billion that we gave to the rich, the well-connected and Conservative insiders, that they apologize for that; that they are sorry for slashing our health care system, the implications of which we still see today; that they are sorry for throwing veterans out on the street; and that they are sorry for cutting CBSA and RCMP officers, cutting the crime prevention centres, seeing crime go up. Crime is always higher under the Conservatives. We have seen this time and again.

In the United States, the Republican states have the highest crime rates. In Canada, Conservative provinces have the highest crime rates. Why? Because Conservatives cut all the infrastructure and the institutions that actually enhance public safety, including the cruel cutting of crime prevention centres. We know that a dollar invested in crime prevention saves $6 in court costs, policing costs and prison costs. To cut the crime prevention centres is unbelievable hypocrisy. The Conservatives pretend that they have some credibility on public safety. They certainly do not; they were terrible.

The Liberals can be criticized, as we do in the NDP corner of the House, for not fixing what the Conservatives broke. They have not re-established the crime prevention centres. They have not sourced up CBSA and the RCMP to the extent that is needed. They have not corrected all the Conservatives' gaffes and irresponsible actions, and that is on them.

If the NDP wins in the next election, we will ensure that those investments take place. We have the Conservatives—

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh.

[The Deputy Speaker, Chris d'Entremont]

Order. I am having a hard time hearing the member speaking.

The hon. member for New Westminster—Burnaby.

[Peter Julian, NDP, New Westminster—Burnaby, BC]

Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives laugh at their health care cuts that caused so many problems. They laugh at cutting all the public safety infrastructure. They laugh at the $30 billion, according to the PBO, that they gave Mr. Harper and the entire Harper regime. Every single Conservative MP voted for the $30 billion that went to offshore tax havens. Canadians are not laughing. Under the Conservative government, we saw a doubling of food bank lineups and housing costs. The Conservatives will say that the Liberals did the same thing.

That is why we have to stop this cycle of two inept parties, neither of which are able and capable of governing the way Canadians deserve to see. They want to see a government that does things like putting in place dental care and pharmacare, which was as a result of the NDP, anti-scab legislation and affordable housing. Finally, after decades of having affordable housing simply ignored under the Conservatives and the Liberals, the NDP forced investments in it.

These are all the things the NDP did with 25 members. Imagine what we would be able to do with 225 members. We would ensure that Canadians are taken care of and that seniors actually would receive the supports they need. We would not be throwing veterans out on the streets. The Conservatives laugh when we say they threw veterans out on the streets. Veterans with disabilities are being thrown out on the street and they laugh at that. They find that funny, yet they go to Remembrance Day ceremonies and pretend. They put their hand over their heart and they say that they stand for veterans. No, they do not. We saw what they did to veterans and we will not let them do it to them ever again. What they did was reprehensible.

The Conservative MPs should hang their head in shame for what they did to veterans, for what they did to seniors, forcing them to work longer and cutting their pensions. The Harper regime's primary goal was to ensure that the billionaires, the big banks and the wealthy CEOs had massive amounts of money. The Conservatives gave away $30 billion a year to overseas tax havens for the rich and the privileged. They gave $118 billion to the banks. They took that money from CMHC housing, which should have been a priority under the Harper regime. It was already in crisis, yet the Conservatives took that money from CMHC and gave it to the banks so they could get executive bonuses and dividends. They had an unbelievable track record. It was the worst government in Canadian history.

The Conservatives have offered up an amendment to their own motion. We are supporting the motion. We want to call Mr. Anderson before the bar. We want to do that because we were not able to do it during the Harper years. The Conservatives refused any sort of transparency. This is the second time that we will call a someone before the bar. We did the same thing for Mr. Firth. This is important for transparency. It is a tool that members of Parliament can use to ensure we get to the bottom of issues.

When we have unco-operative witnesses, then we can get the answers for which Canadians are asking. We supported the call to the bar for Kristian Firth. Because it is a parliamentary demand, the practice is, as the Speaker is well aware, to ensure that every recognized party, and in this case there was an allocation given to the Green Party, which is not a recognized party, as well, that all members of Parliament have an equitable distribution of questions. Therefore, we would think the Conservatives, if they were mature and not children, would approach this call to the bar in the same—

[Bob Zimmer, Conservative, Prince George—Peace River—Northern Rockies, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. Certainly, parliamentary language is something about which the NDP pretends to care. The member has gone on a bit of a tirade with unparliamentary language. I wish he would get back to the subject at hand and proceed with parliamentary language, as he should.

[The Deputy Speaker, Chris d'Entremont]

I thank the hon. member for the reminder. I will remind everyone to stick to what we are debating today.

Rising on the same point of order, the hon. member for Waterloo.

[Bardish Chagger, Liberal, Waterloo, ON]

Mr. Speaker, we have heard many speeches today from the Conservatives as well. One of the Conservative members was referring to a cabinet minister in a very derogatory manner. Therefore, I would suggest that the member talk to his—

[The Deputy Speaker, Chris d'Entremont]

Again, I would remind hon. members to try to be as parliamentary as we possibly can, even though, sometimes, the debate that we are having is maybe difficult.

The hon. member for Brantford—Brant is rising on a point of order.

[Larry Brock, Conservative, Brantford—Brant, ON]

Mr. Speaker, for the last eight or nine minutes, I thought I was transported back to 2011—

[The Deputy Speaker, Chris d'Entremont]

We are falling into debate. I appreciate the relevance.

The hon. member for New Westminster—Burnaby.

[Peter Julian, NDP, New Westminster—Burnaby, BC]

Mr. Speaker, obviously, the truth hurts for Conservatives, and they cannot ignore their record. They cannot hide from their record and they cannot cover up their record like they did the myriad scandals that took place during the Conservative reign.

We have talked about Liberal scandals. The Conservative corruption needs to be read into the record to be believed. The ETS scandal was $400 million, stolen from seniors, veterans and people across the country who were just trying to make ends meet. The G8 scandal was $1 billion. We will remember the gazebos and we will remember how the Harper regime shut down any inquiry into that. They did not care about taxpayers' money then. The Phoenix pay scandal was $2.2 billion. The Liberals, ill-judged, continued on with the Phoenix pay scandal, and we see the results even today. That was $2.2 billion and Conservatives wear that. We will remember the anti-terrorism funding. The paper trail of $3.1 billion just disappeared.

If we put all those numbers together, that is $7 billion misspent. No Conservative has ever apologized for it. No Conservatives have ever said that they were wrong to misspend billions and billions of dollars, that they were wrong to shut down Parliament so that we could not get to the bottom of it, and that this was something that they apologize for. I just want to hear one Conservative MP stand up and apologize for depriving veterans of basic services, forcing seniors to work years longer, slashing health care and slashing public safety funding so that, of course, criminals could prosper because there were no more crime prevention centres. The RCMP was cut back. CBSA was cut back. Conservatives have never apologized for that. Their record is absolutely deplorable and yet no Conservative MP is willing to stand up and say that they were wrong to do all that. Of course, how can we trust them today?

As for the subamendment, where they very clearly want to take two-thirds of the questions, basically to deprive the rest of Parliament, we are not going to be supporting it. My final point is this. We do not want to go back to Conservative cover-ups, Conservative cuts, Conservative corruption and Conservative corporate tax cuts.

[Bardish Chagger, Liberal, Waterloo, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I almost feel like seeking unanimous consent to give the member more time to speak, because I think that there are a lot more Conservative scandals that we need to hear about.

I apologize. I got distracted. There is a lot of back-and-forth chatter in the chamber. First of all, I want to give the hon. member appreciation for reminding us what the previous government—

[The Deputy Speaker, Chris d'Entremont]

Order. I will interrupt just for a second, because I see some secondary conversations going on again. I just want to make sure that we put those aside and that we can allow the hon. member for Waterloo to ask the question.

The hon. member for Waterloo.

[Bardish Chagger, Liberal, Waterloo, ON]

Mr. Speaker, first of all, I want to give appreciation for reminding Canadians of what took place under 10 years of former prime minister Stephen Harper. The hon. member referred to a precedent that was set not too long ago where parliamentarians were able to ask Mr. Firth to come to the bar, and the way that breakdown of questions happened. I recognize that, in the chamber, parties are recognized because they have 12 seats or more. The Green Party was given an opportunity to ask Mr. Firth questions. I would like to hear the member's comments on whether, having been duly elected, Green Party members should also have the opportunity to ask questions.

[Peter Julian, NDP, New Westminster—Burnaby, BC]

Mr. Speaker, this is a Liberal scandal. We have to get to the bottom of it. Parliament is making the decision to call Mr. Anderson before the bar, but this wacky Conservative amendment basically says that the Conservatives will take two-thirds of all the questions. We know that their track record is absolutely dismal, that they, under their years in government, were the most corrupt and most dishonest government in Canadian history. They are now saying that they want to have two-thirds of the questions, that they do not want the questions to go to the opposition parties, like the Bloc or the NDP or the Green Party, that they do not want the government to have questions. It is a bit rich. It just shows how immature they are and how they can never form government. God help us if they do.

[Denis Trudel, Bloc, Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, QC]

Mr. Speaker, today is like a nightmare. For a month, we were unable to debate issues, to fix the problems Canada is facing, including the housing crisis, the climate crisis and the language crisis. For a month, we did not talk about those things. Then, after spending a week in my riding, I drove back here thinking that now we would fix the problems in this country, that now we would get to debate. I must say that I am disappointed. One privilege motion has just ended, but another has been introduced. I agree that it is an important motion, but I sense that once again, we are going to waste hours and hours on it.

I would like to talk to my colleague about a very serious problem confronting us right now, namely encampments and homelessness. This is extremely important in Quebec. Before the last budget, the federal government announced a $250‑million fund to end encampments across the country. The Government of Quebec already has a plan to address homelessness in Quebec. Therefore, the federal government should give these funds to Quebec so that it can use them to end this major problem. However, the negotiations are getting bogged down. The federal government wants accountability. It wants to set conditions, and the negotiations are dragging on. Winter is around the corner. I would like to ask my colleague if he can put pressure on his friends in the Liberal government to bring the negotiations to a close and pay the money to Quebec so we can end the encampments before winter arrives.

[Peter Julian, NDP, New Westminster—Burnaby, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I have a lot of respect for my colleague. As he knows, the reality is that all the funding for affordable housing and ending homelessness comes from the NDP. We pushed for this for years, and the result was that the spring budget offered tens of billions of dollars for this issue. The NDP has been working on this problem for years, and we were able to improve things. The member for Burnaby South fought to have funding go to Quebec, just as it does elsewhere in Canada, to ensure that there is affordable housing. We went through years of no investment under Liberal and Conservative governments, but the NDP finally managed to force the government to invest.

I would like to say one more thing. My colleague raised important questions. In Quebec, 600,000 Quebeckers are already registered for the NDP's dental care plan. It is incredible. It is the highest registration rate in the country. Of course, nearly 100% of the dentists, denturists and dental hygienists in Quebec are participating in the NDP's dental care program. I hope my Bloc Québécois colleague will stop opposing this dental care plan, because it is making a huge difference in Quebeckers' daily lives.

[Gord Johns, NDP, Courtenay—Alberni, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I am really grateful to my colleague for his speech, but also for talking about the importance of supporting veterans. Here we are, all of us MPs, coming back from our ridings where we went and paid respect to those who served in the military and RCMP, put their lives on the line to protect us and served our country. I am glad he talked about the amnesia down the bench on the Conservative side: when theLeader of the Official Opposition was in cabinet, they cut a third of the employees at Veterans Affairs. It led to a backlog of tens of thousands of veterans with disabilities seeking disability benefits and waiting for the support they needed. The Conservatives also closed nine veterans' offices and fought veterans in court.

I will correct my colleague, because the Phoenix pay system was not $2.2 billion; it has now cost Canadian taxpayers over $3 billion. The Conservatives promised that it would save us $78 million a year. That is how the privatization scheme went for the Conservatives and how it has impacted Canadians.

Does my colleague agree that theLeader of the Official Opposition, who was in the Stephen Harper cabinet that caused so much harm to the Canadian military and RCMP veterans, should apologize for the harm and damage he created? The Liberals have failed to fix it, but the institutional damage runs so deep that it still causes harm to veterans today.

[Peter Julian, NDP, New Westminster—Burnaby, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I want to praise the member for Courtenay—Alberni. I have been in his riding, right across the length and breadth of Courtenay—Alberni. He stands for his constituents and he stands up for veterans. He is one of the loudest, strongest and most passionate voices for veterans in our country. At a time when we are just coming out of Remembrance Day commemorative ceremonies, it is so important to have his voice as he has been so eloquent for so long with respect to supporting our nation's veterans.

We send people overseas to fight. Often they are wounded for life and then they have disabilities and they seek supports from Veterans Affairs, which they deserve from a grateful country. There is no Canadian who would stand up and say, “no, we are going to deprive veterans of those essential services and supports”, and yet, the member for Carleton and all the Conservatives who were present in that despicable Harper regime slashed those services and forced people with disabilities to travel sometimes hundreds of kilometres to try to get the basic services that they deserved. People put their lives on the line for the country and Conservatives gave them the back of the hand. Every single Conservative MP should hang their head in shame.

[Ken McDonald, Liberal, Avalon, NL]

Mr. Speaker, I listened, in good part, to the member's speech and he was quick to throw darts at the Liberal Party, who were the government of the day; he was quick to throw darts at the former Conservative government, but he did not throw any darts at the NDP and we would not know but that it was squeaky clean. The New Democrats had the scandal of office rentals, which went to court and they all were ordered to pay back the money. Have the member and all the NDP members paid back the funds from that scandal?

[Peter Julian, NDP, New Westminster—Burnaby, BC]

Mr. Speaker, the Liberals, unfortunately, are going to find themselves in another part of this House after the next election because they refuse to stand up. It will be an NDP government fixing things. I commit that one of the things that we would never do is use or misuse the Board of Internal Economy for partisan purposes. The member knows full well what was involved in that scandalous time under the Harper government where we saw basic parliamentary institutions slashed. The Auditor General's department was slashed, the PBO was slashed and the Board of Internal Economy was used for partisan purposes. It simply was a low time in our democracy. Fortunately, an NDP government would enhance our institutions not diminish them.

[Larry Brock, Conservative, Brantford—Brant, ON]

Mr. Speaker, it is always a pleasure to rise on behalf of the good people of Brantford—Brant, but here we are, another day and yet another Liberal scandal. This time it is the member for Edmonton Centre, a cabinet minister, who finds himself embroiled in yet another scandal that seems to be growing legs. What a legacy the Prime Minister and members of the government will take with them when they are defeated in the next general election, a legacy of being the most corrupt, most unethical government Canada has ever seen.

This is not what the Prime Minister promised Canadians. In 2015, he talked quite a bit about sunny ways. In fact he followed that up with an open letter to Canadians dated November 4, 2015. I want to highlight certain passages of the letter:

Canadians need to have faith in their government’s honesty and willingness to listen. That is why we committed to set a higher bar for openness and transparency in Ottawa....

But in order for you to trust your government, you need a government that will trust you. When we make a mistake—as all governments do—it is important that we acknowledge that mistake and learn from it. We know that you do not expect us to be perfect—but you expect us to work tirelessly, and to be honest, open, and sincere in our efforts to serve the public interest.

The Prime Minister finished the letter by saying:

I am committed to leading an open, honest government that is accountable to Canadians, lives up to the highest ethical standards, brings our country together, and applies the utmost care and prudence in the handling of public funds.

What an absolute joke that is, let alone a disgrace, to the Canadians who voted him into power in 2015, because we have seen nothing of an open, honest and ethical government.

To name a few of the scandals that we have discussed over the last nine years, we all remember “gropegate”. We remember “elbowgate” and we remember blackface, with the Prime Minister not even remembering how many times he wore blackface. We all remember the disgraceful comment to an Indigenous Proud woman at a fundraiser: “Thank you for your donation.” We remember the “experienced it differently” scandal—

[The Deputy Speaker, Chris d'Entremont]

The hon. member for for Timmins—James Bay is rising on a point of order.

[Charlie Angus, NDP, Timmins—James Bay, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I think the member just misrepresented. The disgraceful comment was by the leader of the Conservatives, who said that indigenous people needed to learn how to work hard—

[The Deputy Speaker, Chris d'Entremont]

We are falling into debate again. I appreciate the help, but let us stick to points of order for the House.

The hon. member for Brantford—Brant has the floor.