Nycole Turmel

[International Women's Day, March 8th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, International Women's Day is a remarkable time when the world stops to remember and celebrate.

I have spent my life defending women's right to pay equity, maternity leave and work-life balance. That is why I am so proud to be leading a party that fights every day for gender equality. I am proud that the NDP caucus has the largest proportion of women in Canadian history. Together, the New Democrats fight for justice, fairness, equal opportunity and the freedom to live without fear. There is still work to be done.

One by one, the Conservatives are erasing the victories won by women.

Canada has fallen to 20th position on the UN gender inequality index, but there is hope. We have come far; we must go further. New Democrats will continue to fight for women's rights. Together we can get it done.

[41st General Election, March 7th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, the NDP has already confirmed that it will submit all the necessary documents.

Last week, the Prime Minister said that the Conservatives never used U.S. based call centres, that only the Liberals had. Perhaps the Liberals used U.S. companies but we now know that his own parliamentary secretary also did in the last election.

I will give the Prime Minister another chance. Does he really stick to his line that only the Liberals used U.S. companies?

[41st General Election, March 7th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, Elections Canada's investigation now extends to Kingston and other areas. The Conservatives can no longer claim that what happened in Guelph was an isolated incident. We know that they have a very centralized structure, that they have close ties with RMG and that decisions are not made randomly but that everything is systematic.

Is the Prime Minister at all worried about what his people did on his behalf?

[41st General Election, March 7th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, for over a week now, the Prime Minister has been denying that his party had any involvement in the robocall scandal. What is worse is that he is blaming others. Tomorrow, members of Parliament will debate an NDP motion to strengthen Elections Canada's authority so that it can obtain all the necessary documents and exert better control over contact with voters.

We want to know whether the Prime Minister supports this NDP initiative and whether he will help us to help Elections Canada.

[41st General Election, March 6th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, I do not think that 35,000 contacts to Elections Canada is a frame.

A Conservative MP blamed Elections Canada for illegal calling. The Prime Minister's very own parliamentary secretary says that all calls were from the Liberals. RMG, Campaign Research, RackNine, are these Liberal companies?

The Conservative Party paid them, even though the bills have not been reported. RackNine also got a cheque from the Government of Canada. Does the Prime Minister know why? Can he answer this—

[41st General Election, March 6th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister also said that the calls in question were made by the Conservative Party to its supporters. It makes no sense that the party would have called its supporters to notify them of phantom location changes.

And were the bills for those calls also phantom bills? They were not even declared.

[41st General Election, March 6th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, last week, when I asked the Prime Minister questions about fraudulent calls, he said, “...only the Liberal Party made such calls from the United States” via American companies. We know that this is not true and that the Conservative Party also used American companies.

Will the Prime Minister admit that he was wrong? Will he admit that the Conservatives made fraudulent calls?

[41st General Election, March 5th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, the reality is that the Conservatives said they never used U.S. companies, but that is not true and we know it now. Calls were made telling voters about polling station changes in ridings where there were none. Thirty-one thousand individuals contacted Elections Canada. That is the reality.

Now Conservative MPs are blaming Elections Canada for this mess. Does the government realize Canadians are losing confidence in this process? Do you care?

[41st General Election, March 5th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, this government must stop blaming others, take responsibility for once and shed some light on this scandal.

The Prime Minister said that the calls in question were calls that the Conservative Party of Canada made to its supporters, calls to inform people of changes in polling stations. However, there were no changes in polling stations in most of the ridings.

Can the Prime Minister and his government explain this today?

[41st General Election, March 5th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to give this government the opportunity to set the record straight with regard to the fraudulent phone calls. Last week, the Prime Minister stated that only the Liberal Party made such calls from the United States. Now, we have learned that the Conservative Party also made calls from the United States and that it used American companies.

Will the Prime Minister and the government apologize for misleading Canadians?