House of Commons photoWon his last election, in 2021, with 62% of the vote.
COVID-19 Pandemic and Other Matters August 12th, 2020
Mr. Speaker, the government still cannot provide simple, direct answers to very clear and simple questions.
The Prime Minister invented this phony story about pushing back on officials on May 8. Can the minister explain how on May 5 WE was told that it could already start spending money and charging taxpayers?
COVID-19 Pandemic and Other Matters August 12th, 2020
Mr. Speaker, it looks like my last question period as leader of the Conservative Party is just like my first: warm, sunny and the Prime Minister is nowhere to be found.
The Prime Minister is showing contempt for francophones by awarding a $900-million contract to a unilingual organization with no presence in Quebec.
Why did the Prime Minister disrespect francophones in yet another attempt to help his close friends?
COVID-19 Pandemic and Other Matters August 12th, 2020
Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister has had enough. He is tired of accountability and facing tough questions. He does not want to explain why he paid off his friends at WE with taxpayers' money. He will not tell us about the contract that he gave to the company that employs his top staffer's husband, and he certainly does not want to tell us how big of a cheque he cut to the former Liberal MP from Montreal.
When the Prime Minister cancelled Parliament in April, May and June, he replaced it with four sitting days this summer. The Liberals could have picked any day they wanted. Can the person auditioning for the role of Prime Minister today please tell us why the Prime Minister picked today if he was not going to show up?
COVID-19 Pandemic and Other Matters July 22nd, 2020
Mr. Speaker, he answered “no” to the previous question, but he could not answer yes or no to that question, so I wonder what that means.
Did the Prime Minister or anyone in his office speak to WE or anyone at WE prior to his April 22 announcement on the student grant?
COVID-19 Pandemic and Other Matters July 22nd, 2020
Mr. Speaker, did the Prime Minister or anyone in his office receive the proposal that included the student grant program that was sent to the finance minister's office on April 21, a day before the announcement was made, yes or no?
COVID-19 Pandemic and Other Matters July 22nd, 2020
Mr. Speaker, did the Prime Minister or anyone in his office receive the unsolicited proposal that Craig Kielburger sent to officials on April 9, yes or no?
COVID-19 Pandemic and Other Matters July 22nd, 2020
Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister has to understand that it is not about his recusing himself from this decision. The Clerk of the Privy Council himself said that it would be impossible for the Prime Minister and the finance minister to recuse themselves from giving a sole-source contract to an organization with such close ties to the Liberal Party and his immediate family.
Was the Prime Minister aware that the sole stated purpose of the shell corporation that signed the contracts was to hold real estate?
COVID-19 Pandemic and Other Matters July 22nd, 2020
Mr. Speaker, that did not answer the question.
Was the Prime Minister aware that this agreement was being signed with a shell corporation with no history of charitable work, yes or no?
COVID-19 Pandemic and Other Matters July 22nd, 2020
Mr. Speaker, what we have before us with the WE corruption scandal is an organization that receives sole-sourced contracts from the government, from the taxpayer. The organization then sets up a real estate company and gobbles up over $40 million worth of prime downtown Toronto real estate. It also pays members of the Prime Minister's immediate family cash for speaking engagements. It also provides a huge platform for Liberals to do their campaigning. The organization even did an election-style ad promoting the Prime Minister.
However, it gets into trouble. Red flags start going up about its bank covenant, members of the board resign and so it lobbies the government and the government gives it another sole-sourced contract from which it can take $40 million worth of administration.
Canadians, rightly, are concerned by this kind of “You scratch my back, I scratch your back” type of relationship with a Liberal-friendly organization. Therefore, I have a series of very simple yes or no questions to help Canadians understand the depths of this scandal.
Was the Prime Minister aware that the agreement he signed with this organization was not with the WE Charity itself but was with a shell corporation that has no assets and no history of charitable work?
Ethics July 21st, 2020
Mr. Speaker, here is what the watchdog Charity Intelligence said about that claim: “I'm not sure how you would assess the charity's track record or capability to do this if it had not previously done such work in the past”. The Prime Minister's explanation just does not hold up.
There are two camps developing in the Liberal Party. On the one hand we have the foreign affairs minister, who wisely took a barge pole and separated himself from the scandal, saying that it was a mistake and he did not know anything about it. Then we have the deputy prime minister, who had no problem showing Liberal faithful that she was willing to defend her leader.
I would ask the deputy prime minister what it would take for her to lose confidence in the scandal-plagued Prime Minister.