Blake Desjarlais

[Privilege, October 11th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, my hon. colleague's speech about financial accountability was very passionate. New Democrats often are found in the interesting position of striving for financial accountability. No matter what government is in place, the Conservatives seem to care about financial accountability only when it means scoring partisan points.

However, in an interesting part of the member's speech, he mentioned a Liberal insider. I am sure he was referring to Ms. Verschuren, the former chair of SDTC who was kicking back millions of dollars to her own company. That individual happens to have donated to the Conservative Party for almost her entire time as chair of SDTC, maxing out donations to the Conservative Party.

How much money does the member think Ms. Verschuren donated in total to the Conservative Party that she was maybe or likely getting during the time she was the chair of SDTC?

[Indigenous Affairs, October 11th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, Jon Wells was known by his family and fellow Blood Tribe members as a cowboy, kind and respectful, but that did not stop Calgary police from assaulting, tasing, pepper-spraying and sedating him while he was lying face down. He died before he ever made it to a hospital.

Racism, colonialism and systemic violence continue to murder indigenous people today. When will the minister act to bring justice and accountability to policing that kills?

[Privilege, October 10th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate you asking us to offer something good, so I have good news: The New Democrats just passed pharmacare in the Senate. It is breaking news right now. I congratulate all—

[Privilege, October 10th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, I believe there was a small comment that was incorrect in my hon. colleague's speech when he talked about an NDP-Liberal insider. I think he meant to say “Liberal-Conservative insider”, since she is a donor to the Conservative Party.

[Privilege, October 10th, 2024]

Madam Speaker, speaking of cherry-picking, the member spoke specifically about all the Conservative donations made by Ms. Verschuren, the Liberal-Conservative insider of the SDTC fund, that do not directly affect the Conservative Party. He mentioned all the leadership donations she made to the Conservative Party, but he failed to admit that she made direct contributions, as recently as last year, including a max donation in 2022, to the Conservative Party when she was chair of SDTC. The Liberal-Conservative insider of SDTC, Ms. Verschuren, has robbed Canadians and given herself a bunch of money, and the Conservatives do not even have the courage to admit when they are wrong.

I will give the member another chance. Liberal-Conservative insider Ms. Verschuren, who was chair of SDTC, gave herself millions of dollars. Will the member admit that these donations and her insider affiliation with the Conservatives are wrong?

[Privilege, October 10th, 2024]

Madam Speaker, I have asked this question several times now. It has been raised several times, as maybe a slogan about this Liberal insider business, which I agree with, that Ms. Verschuren is a donor and member of the party. She has been a large contributor financially to the Liberal Party, but so has she been a large donor to the Conservative Party. She has made a donation to it almost every single year, including the years she was the chair of SDTC.

She is also an insider, would the member not agree?

[Privilege, October 10th, 2024]

Madam Speaker, since we are on the topic of natural resources and the work the Conservatives did to damage the natural resource sector, I will note that I was in Alberta working in the natural resource sector in the northeast part of the province at the Cold Lake oil sands when I was laid off because the Conservatives had sold off Canadian Natural Resources Limited. Stephen Harper sold it to a state-owned enterprise known as Nexen, a Chinese natural resource company. Where was the member then when it came to Chinese state ownership of CNRL, which he and his party sold off? Where is he today?

[Privilege, October 10th, 2024]

Madam Speaker, I want to give my hon. colleague the opportunity to speak directly to Canadians, as she has been doing in her speech, who are considering voting for the Conservative Party versus the Liberal Party versus the New Democrats. Our country has been governed by just the Liberals and the Conservatives. The Conservatives have found themselves, throughout the course of history, in very similar circumstances to those of the Liberal government, whether it was Mike Duffy during the Harper era or what we saw with fake lakes and bags of money handed over to individuals, and then they were found to be in contempt of the public spending laws. What does she say to Canadians, and has the Conservative Party not learned more about financial accountability considering its past?

[Privilege, October 10th, 2024]

Madam Speaker, this is the first time I have been able to debate the hon. member since the summer.

I want to thank her sincerely for her courage and her allyship to the 2SLGBTQI community, with which she stood in solidarity when there was a very terrible and violent act of burning a pride flag in her community. I know how much courage it takes to do that, and it really means a lot to me personally.

In addition to that comment, I want to refer to an issue that I mentioned to her colleague related to Conservative donations. Part of the argument that has been made over the last few days by the Conservatives is that Ms. Verschuren, who was the chair of SDTC and gave herself millions of dollars, is a Liberal insider. As much as I agree, throughout her entire time as the chair of SDTC, she donated the maximum amounts to the Conservative Party, in addition to the Liberal Party.

It would be more fair to suggest that she is a Liberal and Conservative insider. Would the member agree?

[Privilege, October 10th, 2024]

Madam Speaker, I spoke about this issue before. The member is accusing Ms. Verschuren, who is the person in conflict of interest, of awarding her own company millions of dollars. She also happened, at the same time, to be donating money to the Conservative Party.

How can the member square the circle of this accusation that she is a Liberal partisan when the truth is she is actually a Liberal and Conservative partisan? She was donating to the Conservative Party as early as 2013 and, just recently, in the last tax year.