Charlie Angus

[Ethics, January 28th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, I do not want to school my hon. colleague, but he missed out the important part, that ministers and parliamentary secretaries are not supposed to do that. That is the simple fact. I would also point out that the parliamentary secretary did receive financial contributions from the guy that they wrote the letter on behalf of. These are more broken promises.

This is what the Prime Minister's own rule book says, and I will quote it for him: “Ministers must not intervene, or appear to intervene, with tribunals...”.

They breached the act. They broke the rules. I am asking the Prime Minister, is there any sense of accountability over there for ministers who flagrantly disregard the rules as they are trying to gut the Conflict of Interest Act?

[Ethics, January 28th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, certainly we believe in elevating the tone here, which is why I will refer to the Minister of Finance, who used his cabinet position to try and influence the CRTC on a coveted radio licence. He either did not understand the rules or did not care when he broke them, but he is not alone. The Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Health also intervened with his own letter.

I would like to ask either of those gentlemen a simple question. Did either the minister or the parliamentary secretary receive any financial considerations from the people they wrote to support? It is a simple question. Yes or no?

[Ethics, January 28th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, even when he does have his clown nose on, he still does not really make any sense. I would like to ask--

[41st General Election, December 11th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, let us get back to reality.

The Conservatives are in Federal Court once again for breaking electoral laws. They refuse to explain why their lawyer stonewalled Elections Canada for 90 days, refuse to admit that the investigation now includes over 56 ridings and refuse to say what happened to the RMG evidence. The Conservatives' CIMS database contains every voter contact, fundraising surveys, and even mail outs from the Hill and, yes, information on sending people to the wrong polling locations.

Are we really to believe that this gold mine of information just vamoosed, disappeared? Why the cover up?

[Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion, December 11th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, 2012 marks the 75th anniversary of the founding of the legendary Mackenzie-Papineau brigade. Nearly 2,000 Canadian volunteers went to defend the democratically elected government of Spain against the fascist forces of Mussolini, Franco and Hitler's Condor Legion.

I am proud to say that the fourth largest contingent came from Timmins—James Bay. They were led by Nilo Makela, who quickly became the battle leader of the Mac-Paps. Makela, along with other Finnish Canadians, formed the legendary Illka-Antikainen machine gun company, and his death in 1938 devastated the Mac-Paps.

Nearly 50% of the Canadians who fought never returned from the battlefields or the firing squads of Franco's Spain. Those who came back were often treated as enemies, but not in Timmins, where they were rightfully recognized as heroes.

On this anniversary we say, from the mines of South Porcupine to the barricades of Barcelona: No pasarán!

[41st General Election, December 10th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, I do not know where those guys are coming from. They are facing Federal Court for voter fraud and they have the little guy from Nepean, who has his book of conspiracy theories, to throw one out there.

We know that in Nipissing—Timiskaming, where the Conservatives won by 13 votes, there was widespread voter fraud. We know that. We know that Guelph was not an isolated incident. We know investigations are going on in 56 ridings and that the calls have been traced back to the Conservative Party headquarters.

Who are the Conservatives covering up for? Someone on that side knows who was involved at Conservative Party headquarters, and he or she should come clean.

[41st General Election, December 10th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, speaking of illegalities, the Conservative Party is in Federal Court today. Instead of doing the make-believe thing, maybe it should try an honest answer for a change.

Here are some actual facts. The Conservatives provided scripts and the call list to RMG, whose operators then directed voters to go to poll locations, sometimes kilometres away, without ever saying that they were working for the Conservative Party. Also, RMG's data has been purged. The evidence has been destroyed.

Rather than a cover-up, when will the Conservatives start coming clean with Canadians? Who are they covering up for at Conservative Party headquarters?

[Minister of State for Small Business and Tourism, December 5th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, what we have seen from this cabinet is a Prime Minister who has established no standards for the ethical accountability of his ministers.

Enter exhibit A, the member for Beauce. He has already been bounced out of cabinet once for losing sensitive documents, and we now find that when he goes jogging, he leaves the keys to a minister's car on top of the car, and he does it on international television.

For God's sake, will the Prime Minister at least appoint a ministerial nanny to keep him from getting into any more trouble?

[41st General Election, December 3rd, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, the member needs to update his Rolodex of sleazy excuses.

The Conservatives claim that the issue in Guelph involved one kid. We are talking about 56 ridings and the fact that they refuse to answer to Elections Canada.

Speaking of that, the Labrador minister has refused to come clean about his breaking of election laws. He has refused to explain why he hid free flights and refused to explain why he and his campaign manager were promoted by the Prime Minister after they broke the rules.

Since it has worked out so well for him, I would like to ask the member for Labrador, does he take the issue of election crime seriously, yes or no?

[41st General Election, December 3rd, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, I am sorry, but we are talking about an investigation into voter fraud. I do not know if the member understands that. Maybe he does not understand that 56 ridings are now being investigated. The Conservatives' claims that they are co-operating do not add up because we have found out that Conservative Party lawyers delayed responding to Elections Canada for 90 days. That is not co-operation; it is called stalling for time.

Since the numbers have been traced back to the Conservative Party's headquarters, when is the government going to get serious about holding itself to account? Whom are the Conservatives covering up for?