Preston Manning

[Employment Insurance, September 29th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, the law on employment insurance is clear. If there is a surplus because the government has been overcharging employers and workers, then the money belongs to them and it is illegal for the Prime Minister to take that money and use it for something else.

Why does the Prime Minister not obey the law and give those excess funds back to the workers and employers to whom they belong?

[Trade, September 24th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, every day that the violations of the free trade agreement by the U.S. border states continue it hurts our farmers.

We welcome the decision by the government to take the first step toward ending this dispute through submitting it to NAFTA arbitration.

Will the minister tell the House what is the earliest possible date that a formal dispute settling panel can be set up and will he tell Canadian farmers what they are to do in the interim?

[Apec Summit, September 24th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, the RCMP Internal Complaints Commission is the only commission looking into the APEC summit event right now. That inquiry cannot investigate politicians. It cannot investigate bureaucrats. Even if the commission subpoenas documents from the Prime Minister he can withhold them if he so chooses. The commission is toothless as long as the Prime Minister continues to stonewall its activities.

Will the government commit today to personally have the Prime Minister co-operate with the commission, including the provision of all documents and appearing as a witness if called?

[Apec Summit, September 24th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, whatever happened to the concept of ministerial accountability? Whatever happened to the concept of prime ministerial acceptance of responsibility?

The Prime Minister passes the buck to the police. He passes the buck to his staff. He blames the protesters and now his spin doctors are smearing a witness.

Why does the Prime Minister continue to refuse to tell Canadians what he told the RCMP and his staff to do?

[Apec Summit, September 24th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister is stonewalling Canadians with respect to his actions at the APEC summit. Police notes continue to connect the Prime Minister with the suppression of student protesters. Now an eye witness, who was the Prime Minister's guest, claims that she saw him personally involved in directing security activities. Canadians want the truth.

Will the government now revise its position that the Prime Minister was never personally involved in police actions at the APEC summit?

[Apec Summit, September 23rd, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, Canadians are still waiting to hear precisely what was the Prime Minister's role in authorizing the special treatment of Suharto and the attack on the Canadian students.

The public complaints inquiry will not tell us that because, according to the RCMP Act, that inquiry only investigates the conduct of RCMP officers and not their political masters.

Who will be investigating the role of the Prime Minister in this whole affair? Will the Prime Minister co-operate fully?

[Apec Summit, September 23rd, 1998]

Five were arrested, Mr. Speaker. The rest were not and none of them were pepper sprayed.

Surely it is the responsibility of the Prime Minister to stand up for human rights, at least at home, and not to fluff the pillow for some foreign dictator.

What Canadians do not understand is why the Prime Minister went to such extraordinary lengths for a foreign dictator who is reviled in his own country, even suppressing the rights of Canadians in order to protect him simply from embarrassment.

The next time the government invites a brutal dictator to Canada, does the Prime Minister intend to conduct himself in the same way?

[Apec Summit, September 23rd, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, five were arrested—

[Apec Summit, September 23rd, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, the greatest security risk at the APEC summit was not from peaceful protesters, it was from armed bodyguards surrounding dictator Suharto of Indonesia.

Some of these bodyguards even talked about shooting Canadians for carrying signs. Five of them became so violent they actually had to be arrested themselves.

What does it say about the Prime Minister's priorities when foreign hit men are allowed to do their own thing on Canadian streets but Canadian students are not?

[Apec Summit, September 22nd, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, that is very interesting because that is not what the RCMP say. They say they were instructed to suppress peaceful protesters even if they were not a security risk.

RCMP memos say things like “PM's specific wish” or “PM wants the protesters out”. That PM was not me and it was not the Minister of Finance. Who was it?