Charlie Angus

[Justice, February 21st, 2019]

Mr. Speaker, to speak truth to power, a citizen cannot ask anything more from an elected official, yet when the former attorney general attempted to speak with her cabinet colleagues about political interference in a justice case, the Prime Minister left her sitting outside his office for two hours while he dithered about the optics of letting her into his domain. In that meeting she spoke truth to power, and he came out and said he was disappointed in her.

Canadians are disappointed in him because she is ready to speak her truth to his power. What is he so afraid of?

[Canada–Madagascar Tax Convention Implementation Act, 2018, February 21st, 2019]

Mr. Speaker, I take to heart your comment that we should be speaking about the bill, which is about Madagascar.

I have never been to Madagascar and I am probably not likely to go there, but I am concerned about the offshore tax havens that are protected by the Liberals. They may be in Madagascar but are more likely to be in the Cayman Islands and warmer climates.

In the KPMG case, in which a fraud scheme was set up so that billionaires would not pay tax, the government allowed KPMG not to be held accountable. Imagine if ordinary Canadian citizens did not pay their taxes. The government would come down on them like a ton of bricks, just as they do in going after single mothers in my riding over child tax benefits. Furthermore, not only did the government not prosecute KPMG: it picked a KPMG representative to be the treasurer of the Liberal Party. I guess Liberals just thought he did business so well.

This leads me to the question regarding SNC-Lavalin. The government wrote a get-out-of-jail card for one company and slipped it into an omnibus bill that we were not given the opportunity to properly debate. Members of Parliament were not aware that this get-out-of-jail card had been written at the behest of SNC lobbyists, but SNC lawyers were already aware that this legislation was ready to go and so they went to the independent public prosecution.

Canada is not Madagascar. We tend to think we are not a banana republic. However, this kind of shoddy backroom deal with friends certainly makes us look less than credible as a G7 country.

I would like to ask my hon. colleague what he thinks about this pattern of Liberal corruption involving lobbyists and insiders.

[Canada–Madagascar Tax Convention Implementation Act, 2018, February 21st, 2019]

Mr. Speaker, I just want to say, on behalf of the New Democratic caucus, that I have enormous respect for the work you do. I think you have a very difficult time at times, so we want to thank you for the work you are doing, and we certainly support you in most of your decisions.

[Canada–Madagascar Tax Convention Implementation Act, 2018, February 21st, 2019]

Yes, Mr. Speaker, I want to be really clear on this point of order. To hear this ridiculous attack on working-class people—

[Canada–Madagascar Tax Convention Implementation Act, 2018, February 21st, 2019]

Yes, for working-class people who take transit. My daughter has to walk. I can't believe—

[Canada–Madagascar Tax Convention Implementation Act, 2018, February 21st, 2019]

We're not wealthy like your Green Party friends.

[Indigenous Languages Act, February 20th, 2019]

Madam Speaker, I would be honoured to turn my question over to the member for Nunavut so he can finish his statement.

[Indigenous Languages Act, February 20th, 2019]

Madam Speaker, my concern with the government's comments and supposed plan for supporting indigenous languages is that it is not walking the walk and definitely not talking the talk. I will given an example.

Wawatay Radio, which serves communities across the far north in Cree, Oji-Cree and Ojibwa, is a vital service. This is a service that keeps language alive in communities like Pikangikum and Kashechewan. However, under the current government, the funding has steadily been cut to Wawatay Radio.

How is it possible for the government to make all of these wonderful promises when the one radio station that guarantees that people can talk in their own language is being undermined by this very government? If the government is willing to fund the stations that exist properly, we might believe it. However, as it stands now, it is undermining the languages of the north.

[Points of Order, February 20th, 2019]

Mr. Speaker, you made a ruling on the amendment, but I am asking you to go back and examine precedents on this matter, because the question of whether the client in an investigation is allowed to vote on a motion that would open that investigation or shut it down is a clear conflict of interest. If the solicitor is bound not to vote, then the client breached his obligations as a member of this House.

I am asking you, given the seriousness of this matter, to take it back and reflect. We have great respect for the work the Speaker's office does now and has done in the past, and this will certainly be setting a precedent. Therefore, I am asking you to look into whether this client was in a conflict of interest.

[Business of Supply, February 20th, 2019]

Mr. Speaker, certainly I have enormous respect for the member for Vancouver Granville, who understands that the issues of conflict of interest in voting are fundamental in this House. Since she is not allowed to vote, I would ask that the Prime Minister abstain as well, because he is in a conflict of interest under this matter and he should similarly respect the rules of the House that the member—