Charlie Angus

[Ethics, September 20th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, I am going to ask the minister a simple question. His friend Nigel Wright, and we all know Nigel Wright is a nice guy, but he is lobbied not once, not twice, but three times by his buddies at Barrick Gold. Does the minister think this is ethical, or does he think this passes the smell test? This is a simple question and Canadians want an answer.

[Ethics, September 20th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, I think the hon. member would agree with me that there has never been a government that has set the ethical bar so low, and I will not even reference his time as a ShamWow salesman, but even with that low ethical bar, there is still an endless group of ministers and Tory staffers who are doing an endless conga line—

[Ethics, September 20th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, it is sad that he is using a maple leaf as a fig leaf to hide the ethical abuse of the government.

Let us talk about the loopholes that the government is refusing to clean up.

Let us take the example of junkets. On the one hand, we have Liberals and Conservatives, and I think even the member for Thunder Bay—Superior North, travelling on an expensive junket on the dime of a mining giant. On the other hand, an MP might take a phone call from an environmental group, for example, and yet on the lobbyist registry those very different actions are treated the same.

Therefore, it is not a question about the travel here. The question is why will they not close the loopholes for this kind of backroom dealing?

[Business of Supply, September 20th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, on a point of order, it is incumbent upon members of the House to actually speak the truth. The member is making up facts. He should apologize.

[Ethics, September 18th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, it sounds like a re-run of Fantasy Island.

I would like to take the minister at his word that the Conservatives are serious about this, but they have ignored all the clear areas where the loopholes would have been closed, and so the backroom dealing with their buddies continues to go on.

I will not make this overly complex. I just want to get a clear picture of this nudge, nudge, wink, wink response of the minister to backroom dealings.

I have simple questions. Who at Barrick lobbied Nigel Wright? What did they ask him to do? Why on two occasions did Mr. Wright not have other staffers with him when he was negotiating with Barrick Gold? Those are simple question.

[Ethics, September 18th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, let us start off with a quote that lobbyists across Ottawa are partying because of the government's refusal to close the loopholes in the Lobbying Act. Who said that? Guy Giorno, the former right hand to the Prime Minister.

It is interesting that Mr. Giorno is also fed up with the Conservatives' failure to set an ethical bar when their own present adviser to the Prime Minister is neck deep in another conflict of interest scandal.

Why did the President of the Treasury Board refuse to close the loopholes, and does he think it is okay that Nigel Wright was lobbied not once, not twice, but three times by his friends at Barrick Gold?

[Ethics, September 17th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, this issue is sticking to them like Skippy peanut butter. I would like to ask the member not to try and skip away from the ethical lapses, whether it be the slush fund in Muskoka or peddling off radio stations at basement fundraisers or having a secret bat phone for Barrick Gold into the PMO.

The Conservatives are challenged. Will they work with us to actually start cleaning up their act and bring in legislation that would stop this kind of backroom manipulation, yes or no?

[Ethics, September 17th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, enough of the fantasy, let us look at the facts.

When Barrick Gold wanted to get the ear of the Prime Minister, it called its good buddy Nigel Wright. He of all people should understand the importance of conflict of interest, but he allowed himself to be lobbied not once, not twice, but three times in a classic case of “who you know in the PMO”.

Will the government recognize that it needs to clean up its act and work with us to bring in some real legislation with real teeth to close up this kind of backroom lobbying?

[Ethics, June 19th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, with the political white noise to help me, I forgot to add in the four convictions for electoral fraud having to pay the highest fines.

What did the Prime Minister do? He took those rule breakers and he promoted them to the Senate. Even Brian Mulroney knew when to bench the bad apples. It is probably not surprising that we see the Prime Minister turning a blind eye to serious allegations of fraud, forgery and kickbacks, which are now in the court documents.

Is the Prime Minister not aware of these court documents, or this just the price of doing business for that government?

[Ethics, June 19th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister has established a reputation for being willing to win at any cost, but the costs to Canadians have been widespread unethical electoral abuse. We have the robofraud investigation. We have allegations of widespread voter intimidation in the now-invalidated Etobicoke Centre campaign, and of course we have the issue of fraud, forgery and now kickbacks in Peterborough.

Either the Prime Minister cares when one of his members steps over the line or he does not. Is this why he has refused to ask his parliamentary secretary to step down?