Ralph Goodale

[Ethics, December 5th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, Gerstein's scheme with Runia to mess with an audit was not an isolated transgression. According to sworn police evidence, Gerstein also agreed to pay Duffy with Conservative Party money as long as it was only $30,000. That would be against the law, but Gerstein's concern was not about principles, just the price.

Yesterday, in a blatant conflict of interest, he himself ruled on a conflict complaint about his own conduct. If Gerstein cannot tell right from wrong, why does he still have the Prime Minister's full confidence?

[Ethics, December 5th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, according to sworn police documents, the Prime Minister's Office conspired with Senator Gerstein to mess with Deloitte's audit of Mike Duffy. Nigel Wright asked Gerstein personally to intervene. Another PMO staffer, Patrick Rogers, pressed Gerstein to get Deloitte “locked in”, and Gerstein tried. Through senior partner Mike Runia, he tried to breach Deloitte's ethical walls, contrary to the most sacred principles of the auditing profession, so why is Gerstein still the Prime Minister's hand-picked chair of the Senate banking committee?

[Ethics, December 3rd, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, when the PMO ethics scandal exploded in the public domain in May, the PMO and PCO surely knew it was serious, serious enough for Nigel Wright to lose his job. Ethical issues, even criminal matters, could be involved.

Ben Perrin was named early on by the media as a central participant. That was confirmed by police way back in July. His paper trail is crucial.

If the government cared more about truth than cover-up, how could it take six months and three specific demands from the Mounties before it coughed up the evidence?

[Ethics, December 3rd, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, in June I asked for all Ben Perrin's emails. The PCO told me it conducted a thorough search, but there were none.

Now we know that was untrue. It does not matter why the files were retained, the fact is that they were. Parliament was told a falsehood, while a case of bribery, fraud and breach of trust was emerging.

Who ordered the retention of Perrin's files? Who had custody of them? Has that person been unconscious for the past six months? What is being done by the clerk of the Privy Council and the Department of Justice to ensure no more evidence is contaminated?

[Ethics, November 29th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, corruption in the PMO is destroying a great many people. Former business leaders like Wright and Gerstein, lawyers like Perrin, Hamilton and others, now auditors like Runia, are all bending to the will of one man, the Prime Minister, who demands cult-like obedience.

The fraud squad in the PMO drank the Kool-Aid, it broke every rule in the book and the police are closing in. Will the Prime Minister show some respect for the office he holds and allow Runia and Gerstein to testify to this Parliament under oath?

[Ethics, November 29th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, in an email on March 8, Patrick Rogers in the PMO wrote this about Senator Gerstein, “The stage we're at now is waiting for the Senator's Contact”, that would be Mike Runia, “to get the actual Deloitte auditor on the file to agree. The Senator will call back once we have Deloitte locked in”. That is attempted tampering.

Before Mr. Runia has to face the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario on a professional complaint, will the Prime Minister give him the chance to testify to this Parliament under oath?

[Ethics, November 29th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, in its cover-up scheme, the fraud squad in the PMO tried to corrupt a forensic audit that Deloitte was conducting on Mike Duffy: Wright instructed Rogers; Rogers enlisted Gerstein; Gerstein pressured Runia, the senior partner in a venerable firm.

Runia should have told Gerstein to get stuffed, but instead he meddled with auditors actually doing the work and attempted to breach the ethical walls.

Does the Prime Minister want to know how this corruption came about on his watch? Why does he not?

[Ethics, November 28th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, quite apart from Deloitte, the issue here is Senator Gerstein, and with him, the fraud squad in the PMO who pulled his strings. The Prime Minister needs to tell Canadians this: Does he condone attempted manipulation of a forensic audit, or tampering with evidence, or obstructing justice?

The Prime Minister says, if only he had known back in the spring what he knows now, all this bad stuff would not have happened. But Senator Gerstein knew. Indeed, he participated. Why does he still represent the government as chair of the Senate banking committee?

[Ethics, November 28th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, the Conservative cover-up continues. Today, Senators LeBreton, Tkachuk, and others voted to block any examination of Senator Gerstein and Mike Runia, of Deloitte. Police allege conversations between these two were aimed at stopping Deloitte's audit of Mike Duffy. That is tantamount to tampering with evidence and obstructing justice.

In the language used by the fraud squad in the PMO, Gerstein was sent to get “Deloitte locked in”. Exactly what does that mean, and why is the Prime Minister blocking Gerstein and Runia from defending themselves?

[Ethics, November 22nd, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, one answer in six months.

Police documents show there were conversations between Nigel Wright and the Prime Minister about the Duffy arrangement. If that arrangement did not get a “good to go” from the Prime Minister, is it then the government's position that Nigel Wright lied? Then, what about Chris Woodcock? Did he lie? Did Ben Perrin lie? Did Patrick Rogers? Arthur Hamilton? van Hemmen? Novak? Byrne? MacDougall? Hilton?

Did the entire Conservative fraud squad lie to the Prime Minister? Is that the government's position?