Charlie Angus

[Ethics, February 6th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, we did not—

[Electoral Boundaries, February 6th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, the point about these robocalls is that the Conservatives first denied trying to interfere with Saskatchewan voters, and then they were caught red-handed with these harassing calls. That is the fact.

What is more, the Conservatives used Matt Meier, whose company was previously hired by Pierre Poutine. Remember him, the person who misdirected thousands of people with fraudulent voter calls?

What a small world. It looks like Matt Meier and the Conservatives have been caught red-handed this time. Will the government urge the Conservative Party to stop interfering with the non-partisan boundary commission? Will it stop trying to gerrymander?

[Ethics, February 5th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, what happened to those Reform Party zealots who promised that they would clean up Ottawa? They sit obediently behind the Conservative House leader who has been doing back-flips trying to cover up the fact that the Minister of Finance broke the law and is trying to pass off Mike Duffy as a constituency rep. This is absurd. This is a guy who was caught falsifying facts and sticking his hand in the taxpayer's pocket.

Do we really believe that the Conservative cronies in the Senate are going to make him pay the money back? No one believes that. The question is whether they are going to show some sense of accountability and make this guy pay back the $30,000-plus. Yes or no?

[Ethics, February 5th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, if someone attempted to receive EI they were not eligible for, the government would come down on them like a tonne of bricks. But when Conservative Senator Mike Duffy attempted to procure a health card in a province he does not live in, so that he could hit up the taxpayer for a $30,000 housing allowance he is not entitled to, the government calls him a loyal Conservative. Ordinary Canadians might consider this fraud, but the Conservative government is a government where cronies can do no wrong.

Why the double standard? Why will the Conservatives not hold their cronies in the Senate to account for ripping off the taxpayer?

[Ethics, February 4th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, speaking of lack of accountability, the Conflict of Interest Commissioner ruled that the Minister of Finance broke the law when he wrote letters to the CRTC. This is because he breached section 9 of the Conflict of Interest Act, which lays out the behaviour for cabinet ministers.

Conservative MPs from Wetaskiwin, Leeds—Grenville and Northumberland—Quinte West also wrote letters to the CRTC, but they did not break the law because they, like me, are not covered under the code that covers cabinet ministers.

I know they are tired of being in cabinet and might want to have a change, but why do they not just fess up and admit that the minister broke the law? Are there going to be consequences--

[Ethics, February 4th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, Mike Duffy is being investigated for dinging the taxpayer for $30,000 a year on a dubious claim that he needs his residence in Ottawa because he is a senator from Prince Edward Island. However, he has been registered in Kanata for years and has been around Ottawa forever.

Once the investigation started, he was scrambling to get himself a P.E.I. health card to cover his tracks.

Nobody believes that the Senate will investigate its cronies. The government put him there. What promises will it make that he will pay the money back to the taxpayer when found guilty?

[Ethics, January 31st, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, why is he doing it in secret?

No wonder the Ethics Commissioner is fed up with those guys over here. There is a minister who was found guilty of breaking section 9 of the Conflict of Interest Act, but rather than coming clean, the Conservatives have been hiding behind loopholes. They have trolling the letters of opposition members to obscure the fact that he was found guilty. No wonder the Ethics Commissioner wants the power to fine cabinet ministers.

Will the Conservatives support the Ethics Commissioner in her desire to strengthen the rules or will they try to gut the act to cover up for those insiders who continually break the law? It is a simple question.

[Ethics, January 31st, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, let us get this straight. The Conservatives have set up a $20 million slush fund so that unnamed businesses can get secret loans without any public accountability. The problem with these sweetheart deals is that we are talking about taxpayers' dollars. This is not some Conservative pork fund to give out from the back of the car.

Have they not learned their lesson? This is how boondoggles are born. Where is the commitment to public transparency for taxpayers' money?

[Business of Supply, January 31st, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, with all due respect to my honoured colleague, I worked with the Algonquin Nation in Quebec under the Liberal government. I can tell members that what I am hearing now sounds more like fiction than the historical record. If on the very first day their cabinet met and said that they would be judged by their legacy to first nations and then they waited until a week before the election to suddenly come up with their deathbed conversion, the intervening 13 years was a big, long dry period.

I say to my hon. colleague that they had the opportunity. They failed. In fact, let us not just blame the Martin government. This goes back to the 20th century. Who was there, year after year, as the situation got worse and worse? It was the Liberal government.

I love deathbed confessions. I know they are sincere, but let us not pretend that it is anything other than that.

[Business of Supply, January 31st, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, it is not business as usual anymore. The time has come to recognize the legitimate issues that are out there. They have to be dealt with on a nation-to-nation basis and with respect. The Conservatives cannot pick and choose. They cannot just pick the one thing they want to bring forward and ignore the rest. It is about restoring the relationship.

In my communities I have seen the enormous potential for change, the enormous potential and the enormous amount of goodwill that exists within the first nation communities. However, the time for respect is here. The current government and the next government have to say that there will be commitments to fix the shortfalls so that the communities can get up to speed. Then the communities need to take that freedom and move forward to build the kind of economies that we need in the 21st century.