James Moore

[Liberal Party of Canada, June 4th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, the Liberal Party has been using a false, edited and doctored audiotape of an interview with the Prime Minister to make false criminal accusations.

According to Tom Owen and Alan Gough, two foremost forensic audio experts, the tape is incomplete, the tape has been doctored, including the insertion of a fabricated soundbite, and the doctoring occurred a number of times.

In his affidavit before the Ontario Superior Court, Mr. Owen said, “This tape has been edited and doctored to misrepresent the event as it actually occurred”.

We have said from the beginning that nothing inappropriate happened here. Dona Cadman has said that the Prime Minister's versions of the event are the truth. We have said as well that Chuck Cadman himself said that no inappropriate offer was made.

The Liberal Party has been caught using a doctored tape to make false criminal accusations against the Prime Minister of this country. It is time for the Liberals to come clean on what they know about the tape.

[Questions on the Order Paper, June 2nd, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, Public Works Government Services Canada’s reporting system, acquisition information system, does not specifically identify military equipment procured for use in Afghanistan.

[May 29th, 2008]

I do now leave the Chair for the House to go into committee of the whole.

[May 29th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, we will keep all our commitments in this regard. We certainly respect Canada’s two official languages.

I am sure that my colleague from Gatineau is very sincerely concerned about this. I can assure him that Sport Canada and our government take their official languages commitments very seriously and support policies and initiatives that promote the use of both French and English in the Canadian sports system.

I am certain that my colleague will be satisfied with the steps that Sport Canada and its partners have taken to deal with this problem. Thanks to their efforts, francophone athletes and representatives will be served in the language of their choice at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.

[May 29th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague. He is right about his question. About a month ago, or a little more than a month ago, I misheard the beginning of his question and I answered as if he had asked a question about the 2010 Olympic Games instead of the 2008 Games. That was my fault, I was wrong, but I am grateful for the chance I have here today to correct my answer and give the real answer to his question.

The answer is quite simply that he agreed. I think the origin of his question in April and again today goes back to the articles that were published in Le Droit, which expressed the concerns some people had about the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, in terms of services and respect. In fact, there was a lack of respect. Not everything had been done to show respect to athletes from Quebec and all Canadians and Quebeckers who want to see the games and listen to them in the official language of their choice.

I can assure my colleague that we are aware of the concerns or problems there are. We are in the process of fixing those problems to the satisfaction of all Canadians, of all Quebeckers, of all francophones and all anglophones, so the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing will be enjoyable for all Canadians.

[May 29th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, again, this is entirely contrary to what my colleague says. He says that there is some kind of effort here to hide information.

The Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates, of which I am a member and have been for over two and a half years, and of which that member is not, had the then president of the treasury board and now current Minister of the Environment before the committee and for two hours he availed himself to all party members of all political parties for questioning on this matter.

He was there. He answered these questions in a televised committee room. We had all the people before the committee who wanted to ask questions. It is interesting that this member apparently has an interest in this issue, and I know he is the deputy whip of the opposition so maybe he is doing this as part of his parliamentary responsibilities, but the fact is the minister made himself available.

He was at committee to answer all these questions. He answered these questions numerous times. He availed himself to his local media. He has spoken to the local city councillors and has made himself entirely open on this process from start to finish.

He has answered all these questions. As a matter of fact, if my memory serves me, at that committee meeting the Liberals ran out of questions and the meeting itself adjourned early. If the Liberals are so concerned about this, they have run out of questions and the minister has already answered all these questions.

[May 29th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, my colleague from Hull—Aylmer has actually managed something quite incredible. In such a short amount of time he has put out so much false information it is very difficult to actually respond.

First but not least of which is the fact that he just cited a meeting of the Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates and what was said there and what happened there. The member was not even there. He is not a member of the committee. He does not know what happened in the committee. He was not there for the testimony. He was not there for the questioning. He was not there for any of the information that he is now splicing and dicing, and trying to put forward as some kind of an explanation for something that in fact did not at all happen.

This is not unusual. It is not original. We know that the Liberals have been putting forward, led by the member for Ajax—Pickering, a bunch of falsehoods on this file. The other day the member for Ajax--Pickering, in fact, said:

I am worried that politics is being boiled down to irrelevance--to splashy conflicts--

Yet, he gets up in the House day after day and all the time under the cover of parliamentary privilege and immunity and takes some of the most outrageous shots and smears at staffers of cabinet ministers and cabinet ministers themselves.

The fact of the matter is, and this is the central fact that I would ask my hon. colleague from Hull to understand. The central fact is that Treasury Board, under the current Minister of the Environment, the member for Ottawa West--Nepean, approved funding for the light rail project, but it was the democratically elected Ottawa City Council that voted against the light rail contract. Treasury Board approved the money and it was the city council, elected by the people of Ottawa, that voted against the light rail contract.

As for the contract the member opposite knows that it was five former Liberal party candidates who voted against the previous light rail project at the Ottawa City Council.

I want to return for a second to the member for Ajax—Pickering who has led the charge on this issue. He filed a frivolous complaint on this subject with the Ontario Civilian Commission on Police Services. What did it do? It threw his complaint out completely. It threw it out. It was so frivolous that it would not even listen to him.

As a matter of fact, OPP Commissioner Julian Fantino was interviewed on CFRA radio about this very same issue earlier this week. He confirmed that the Ontario Civilian Commission on Police Services had completely dismissed baseless complaints from the Liberal member for Ajax—Pickering. He also said that it was interesting that the member for Ajax--Pickering was making these complaints because that very own member's office was calling up the OPP on several occasions.

It gets better. Commissioner Julian Fantino said what he thought of these Liberal claims. He called them “ludicrous, frivolous, vexatious” and an “attempt to interfere with due process”. He also said the following about the accusations by that Liberal member. He said, “I don't know how anybody other than those of feeble mind could ever jump to these conclusions. Absolutely it's preposterous”.

The only thing left to do on this subject, other than leave it behind as a non-scandal, another one of these Liberal non-scandals where they throw mud and try to make something after the fact, is for the members of the Liberal Party, the member for Ajax—Pickering and unfortunately now my friend from Hull—Aylmer, to withdraw these ridiculous attacks, recognize that what they have alleged here is entirely wrong, and that what happened here was the appropriate due course of action.

Again, as I said, Treasury Board approved the money. The democratically elected council of the City of Ottawa voted it down. It took the action on behalf of its constituents and the City of Ottawa does not need the member of Parliament from Hull getting in its face and telling it what it did democratically was inappropriate.

[Government Procurement, May 16th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, yes, it is true that yesterday the Minister of Public Works and the President of the Treasury Board announced the official appointment of Mr. Shahid Minto as the government's first Procurement Ombudsman and that the office is now up and running.

The announcement is a final step in the implementation of the Federal Accountability Act which our government brought forward after the last election campaign to strengthen accountability, fairness and transparency in all areas of parliamentary and public service and to improve opportunities for small and medium size businesses and enterprises when it comes to government procurement.

The Procurement Ombudsman will examine departmental practices in acquiring materials and services as well as make any appropriate recommendations to the relevant department for the improvement of these practices.

This is what we promised to do and we have gotten it done.

[Sport, May 16th, 2008]

Again, Mr. Speaker, I agree with the sentiment of what my colleague is saying, but I do not think it is fair in any Parliament to say, “Either it is my solution or there is no other solution”. There are other solutions. We believe in supporting, as I said, local sports organizations. Also, we support young kids getting involved in amateur sports. That is why we have the $500 per child amateur sport tax credit, so that kids can get more involved in amateur sport.

We believe in reaching out and supporting local organizations, the volunteer organizations at the grassroots in communities across the country that are helping young kids get involved in amateur sport, to participate in ways that are sportsmanlike and build camaraderie, to become young athletes with the kind of character that we know makes Canada very strong.

[Sport, May 16th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, I noted the press conference my colleague had this morning on this issue. I think all members of the House from all parties agree with the sentiment of what he has just said. We just happen to disagree with the solution that he has proposed.

I think local amateur sporting organizations can take care of some of these things. I think local solutions to some of these local problems are how these problems are best handled. We saw that in fact with the Quebec junior hockey league when there was that violent incident that we all remember seeing on television.

We agree with the sentiment of what the member has proposed, but I think solutions are best found locally.