Charlie Angus

[Ethics, April 4th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, talk about investigation, we have the lobbying commissioner, the ethics commissioner, the RCMP and the OPP. When we think about the Conservative Party and Bruce Carson, this man is like a one-man stimulus package for the police and at the centre of it is his office and the fact that Bruce Carson and his girlfriend were going to head up a whole bunch of impoverished first nation communities.

Why is he trying to hide from Mr. Bruce Carson? What does he know and what is his involvement with the Bruce Carson gang?

[Ethics, April 4th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, how a four time convicted fraudster gets an all-access pass into the Prime Minister's office remains a mystery. However, we know that wherever Bruce Carson goes, he leaves a lot of ethical violations and unanswered questions.

Speaking of unanswered questions, the Minister of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development has been ducking some fundamental questions about his relationship with Bruce Carson. He would know that his office was at the centre of the Bruce Carson scandal.

Would the minister stop hiding behind his staffers and stand and tell the House what he is hiding about his relationship with Bruce Carson?

[Ethics, March 29th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, I think the record is clear. The guy got busted last week and the government says, “Hey, that's not a problem because he is one of ours”.

Let us look at what has been also going on. He is being investigated for shenanigans in Thetford Mines. Now, in this famous moose scandal, his only defence is that he was sleeping snug as a bug in his little sleeping bag, while talk of millions of dollars worth of deals went down around him.

Is there nobody on that side willing to drag him out of his ministerial sleeping bag and hold him to account, or are they going to just keep cheering him on as he tries to break the record for ethical lapses in judgment?

[Ethics, March 29th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, he has been focused on the fact that last week he got busted by the ethics commissioner for giving preferential treatment to his buddy Rahim Jaffer. That is the guy who, ever since he showed up in Ottawa, just cannot seem to keep his hands clean.

Let us go through the latest one. He is being investigated for moving an entire government department to a relative's place. He says that there is nothing wrong with this, that it is just part of his ongoing education.

If he gets busted a second or a third time by the ethics commissioner, will the government do the right thing and kick him out of cabinet?

[Ethics, March 28th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, that is not the end of the story, because the minister has already been busted once and the Conservatives are looking after him for two other investigations. Conservatives just do not seem to understand that there is actually an ethical guide that ministers must meet.

To help him, I would like to read a simple quote:

Does the minister not understand why the right thing to do is to resign?

Who said that? It was the Prime Minister when was he was in opposition, when he had very strong views on the old Liberal gang breaking the rules.

When did they decide it is okay for Conservative ministers to act like the old sponsorship gang and blow ethical accountability out the window?

[Ethics, March 28th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, when did the Conservatives turn into everything that they used to hate?

We are really trying to help this Minister of Industry crawl out from his sleeping bag and face the brand new day. He was caught red-handed accepting a trip to an exclusive lodge while being lobbied for millions of dollars.

His excuse that “Hey, I brought my own bag of marshmallows with me” just does not cut it. Is this the new ethical standard for Conservatives, that they can be lobbied by millionaires as long as they bring their own sleeping bag?

It is not okay. He has been busted once. Why is he still in cabinet?

[Ethics, March 27th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, sure, he picked up his sleeping bag at Canadian Tire.

It is kind of hard to follow his logic because he says that getting busted for Rahim Jaffer is part of his ethical education. So was his hunting trip part of his summer camp experience? How about moving all those government offices over to his father-in-law's building? Is that about a family togetherness exercise?

There is not a rule the Conservative government is not willing to break. When is it going to teach him a proper lesson and kick him out of cabinet?

[Ethics, March 27th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, it is clear that the Conservatives do not understand about the issue of fraud just as they do not seem to understand the issue of ethics. Let us look at our beleaguered Minister of Industry. Last week he was found guilty of giving preferential treatment to his buddy Rahim Jaffer. Now this week he is having trouble getting his story straight about that 2009 hunting trip with Marcel Aubut, who just happened to be lobbying Ottawa for $400 million to help build a hockey arena. Does the minister not see that there is a problem partying with a man who is hitting up the government for taxpayers' dollars? Does he need some kind of help, like some kind of ethical watch dog, to help him get through these basic issues?

[Protecting Canada's Immigration System Act, March 26th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, I listened with great interest to my hon. colleague. I am deeply concerned about the pattern I see from the Conservatives. They are talking about people who come here as refugees as illegal immigrants, as though they are all criminal, they are all guilty, they are all up to something and so they need to be locked up, handled and separated.

We see the movement in Europe where families with children are put into detention centres, basically, prison camps for children. My hon. colleagues talked about the situation in Australia, where families fleeing from dangerous situations are treated as criminals and are put into detention centres, without any sort of due course regarding a fair review of what their situation is, whether they have proper refugee status or whether they do not deserve to be there.

Is my hon. colleague concerned about this ideological attack that seems to be so much in keeping with so many of the other countries that we see going down this same road?

[Ethics, March 26th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, instead of trying to hip-hop over the issue, why do we not deal with the real gangster rap, which is the growing rap sheet of ethical violations under the Conservative government? Step forward, industry minister. He broke the rules. The Prime Minister promised he was going to drain the ethical swamp in Ottawa. Instead, the swamp is up around the cabinet table.

When are the Conservatives going to boot that guy out of caucus and do the right thing for Canadians?