Charlie Angus

[Privilege, March 3rd, 2014]

Laughing at you.

[Privilege, March 3rd, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, I listened with great interest to my hon. colleague. It is indeed a sad day.

The decision that will be made by this committee will be studied, and it will have an impact in the Westminster systems around the world. That is how the parliamentary system works.

Contempt of Parliament is about the interference and obstruction in the making of laws in a country. In Australia, that is a crime. If members obstruct Parliament in their duty, they go to jail.

I would like to ask my hon. colleague a question. Even though we have a Conservative-dominated committee, and because we are part of a much larger system of parliamentary democracy that goes back centuries, what does he think about the importance of the decision that will be made on this deliberate interference and undermining of the creation of a law in Canada? What significance will it have to the overall credibility of the parliamentary system worldwide?

[Ethics, March 3rd, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, I think the right thing would be to find out whether or not a crime was committed in the Prime Minister's boardroom. Dan Leger's book has now moved the issue of these conspirators right into the Prime Minister's private boardroom. Even after the scandal became public, are we to believe the Prime Minister was not briefed about what happened in those two days?

Mike Duffy states that if he faces trial, he will bring down high-ranking members of the Conservative government. Will the government tell us today, who are those high-ranking Conservatives?

[Ethics, March 3rd, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, Conservatives insist that the Prime Minister was not aware of the meetings between Mike Duffy and Nigel Wright, but we now learn that those meetings did not take place in some dark corner. No, they took place in the Prime Minister's own “private high-security boardroom”.

Will the Prime Minister tell us whether or not he was aware that, on February 11 and 12, 2013, his private boardroom was being used by the four conspirators: Mike Duffy, Nigel Wright, David Tkachuk, and Irving Gerstein?

[Ethics, February 27th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, there is more news on the government's interference in a Senate audit.

On March 25, Senator Tkachuk contacted Deloitte and asked what would be said in the audit if Mike Duffy refused to co-operate. That very same day, Nigel Wright in the Prime Minister's Office gave Mike Duffy $90,000, and the very next day Mike Duffy told the audit he was refusing to co-operate.

Does the Prime Minister really expect Canadians to believe that Senator Tkachuk's interference in the Deloitte audit was just a coincidence?

[Government Accountability, February 26th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, while Canadians are having to chew down on the fact that the Prime Minister charged them $7,000 for a pizza party in his office, it is little wonder that the Canadian Taxpayers Federation came out with its highest pork award today. Guess who the award went to? It went to the Conservatives sitting right across the way, for billions spent advertising a program that does not exist and millions spent on their cronies in the Senate.

Canadians know New Democrats will defend the taxpayer, but they want to know what happened to the Reformers across the way who spend all their days defending their entitlements.

[Prime Minister's Office, February 26th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, yesterday, the high spending President of the Treasury Board seemed pretty cavalier about the fact that the Prime Minister's staffers have been charging taxpayers for huge meal bills, in violation of the department's guidelines. That was when we thought the bill was $68,000. Now we find that it is $130,000, and he is still not blushing.

It cost $7,000 for one pizza party in the Prime Minister's Office. Would they put the chicken brochette platter aside for one minute and tell us why they think it is okay for the Prime Minister's staff to break rules that are in place to protect the taxpayers?

[Prime Minister’s Office, February 25th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, the government can tell its seniors and veterans that the cupboard is bare, but now we find out that the Prime Minister's staffers mooched $68,000 in free lunches off the taxpayer in clear violation of the Treasury Board guidelines.

When an average Canadian family goes out for pizza, they do not expect their neighbours to pick up the tab. The rules are there to protect the taxpayer. Why does the Prime Minister think that he and his staff are somehow above the rules?

[Ethics, February 14th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, it is Valentine's Day. I would like to think that the Conservatives would give a bit of love to Canadian taxpayers instead of giving “huggy hugs” to the crooks over in the Senate. That is what has been going on with this party.

Yesterday, we find out that a Liberal crony at the Federal Bridge Corporation had $1.5 million moved to a Swiss bank account while he was managing a large federal account for the Jacques Cartier Bridge with SNC-Lavalin. This is a company that has been under numerous investigations. Let us just look at the Prime Minister's personal friend Arthur Porter now hanging out in a Panama jail.

Will the government open an inquiry into this contract to ensure that no taxpayers' money was illegally sent into the pockets of Liberal cronies?

[Ethics, February 14th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, the fraud and breach of trust charges laid against the senators are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the abuse of taxpayers by the unelected Senate. We now find that unelected and unaccountable senators are stonewalling the Auditor General's investigation of how the Senate abuses taxpayers' money. This is unconscionable.

What steps will the government take to protect taxpayers and ensure there will actually be penalties for senators who are not willing to be compliant with the work of the Auditor General?