Ralph Goodale

[Ethics, June 6th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, rarely does a government try to take the spotlight off of one of its scandals by highlighting another. That is exactly what it tried to do this week. It produced a sworn affidavit from Dona Cadman, the Conservative candidate in Surrey North who said, “on May 17, 2005 my husband told me that earlier that day two Conservative Party representatives had offered him a $1 million insurance policy”. This is a sworn affidavit just two weeks ago.

Is it the government's position that Mrs. Cadman has committed perjury?

[Business of the House, June 5th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, I have two points I would like to make.

With respect to the details for next Wednesday, the government House leader has provided for the first time a bit of detail. I wonder if he could provide to the House leaders of all parties a written description of how he sees that day unfold so that we can all have it clearly on paper to be able to decide the appropriate response.

Second, with respect to that same event on Wednesday, I hope the government would reconsider the point about where aboriginal people are placed in this chamber on that day. There is precedent for inviting persons to join us on the floor of the House as a gesture of respect and inclusion. I hope that the government will take that into account. This is a solemn occasion and it should be treated as such. I think aboriginal Canadians should join with us on the floor of the House rather than being somewhere else.

[Business of the House, June 5th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, with respect to the government's plan for the business of the House going forward, I would note that there are now two weeks left before the regular summer adjournment and to date, the government House leader has given no precise indication of any priorities among the various items of business that are now notionally on the order paper. They are all lumped together in one continuous stream, one incoherent gob. Will the government House leader say which are the three top priorities from that list that the government would want to see concluded before the adjournment on June 20?

Second, with respect to the residential school apology that is planned for Wednesday, June 11, unfortunately, despite questions in this House, there are no meaningful details about what exactly is planned for that day. Could the government House leader tell us what consultation has in fact been had with Assembly of First Nations National Chief Phil Fontaine? What advice has the national chief offered? Will the national chief and the appropriate elders and others be invited onto the floor of this House to hear and receive the apology directly and to respond in person?

There is precedent for that, Mr. Speaker, as you know. The aboriginal people of this country should not be assigned to the gallery or left outside. They should be right here on that occasion with us. I wonder if the government House leader could give us the assurance that they will be.

[Points of Order, June 3rd, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. There were some serious errors committed today during question period having to do with the interpretation of the Canada Elections Act. It is important for the House to know that today is not any deadline for repaying leadership loans. It is a date upon which leadership loans and repayment arrangements must be reported to Elections Canada.

Therefore, I would seek the consent of the House to table for the information of members section 435.29 of the Canada Elections Act, and I would ask the Conservative Party to disclose all of the donations to the Prime Minister's leadership campaign, including those from climate change deniers and United States Republicans.

[Foreign Affairs, May 30th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, secret documents went missing for more than seven weeks. They were finally repossessed by the Government of Canada last Sunday afternoon. The deputy minister at foreign affairs, the government's security services, the Clerk of the Privy Council and the Prime Minister's Office all would be alerted immediately, but the Prime Minister said no one told him until 24 hours later, at 5 p.m. on the Monday.

Was all of this a calamitous failure on the part of the PMO and literally all of Canada's senior public servants or are they being forced to hide the truth?

[Foreign Affairs, May 30th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, the last known whereabouts of the ex-foreign minister's secret documents was at the NATO summit in Bucharest on April 3. The missing papers then turned up in a Montreal television studio last Sunday, May 25.

April 3 to May 25: that is more than seven weeks. But the Prime Minister says “don't worry, be happy”, nothing happened in the meantime. In the absence of any comprehensive, independent investigation, how would he know what happened to those documents for seven weeks?

[Business of the House, May 29th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, I would be interested in the government's agenda for tomorrow and next week. In the course of the House leader's answer, I wonder if he could indicate when he intends to designate the last of the opposition days that would apply to this particular supply period.

Second, on this special Day of Action with respect to first nations and aboriginal people, I would like to ask the government House leader what his plans are for the special day of apology with respect to the victims of Indian residential schools. That day is scheduled, as I understand it, for June 11. I wonder if the government House leader could indicate the state of his planning for that particular day. Will the opposition parties be consulted with respect to this matter? Will we be making, for example, special arrangements to bring national chief, Phil Fontaine, and other appropriate aboriginal leaders and elders onto the floor of the House of Commons so they might receive that apology in person? Will all party leaders have an opportunity to speak briefly following the Prime Minister to ensure that the apology is truly comprehensive on behalf of all Canadians? Will the Chief Justice, the Senate and the Governor General be involved because of the important relationship between aboriginal people and the Crown?

[Canada-United States Relations, May 27th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, has Canada's national security been breached?

The Prime Minister said that he did not take it seriously. He called the opposition leader a busybody.

Canadians cannot trust the Prime Minister, not on security, not on PMO leaks to Republicans, not on illegal election spending, not on Afghan detainees, not on climate change, not on untendered contracts, not on ministerial expenses, and not on the environment minister calling the OPP.

The Conservative government's credibility is in tatters. The Conservatives need to answer the questions. Why do they only take things seriously after they get caught?

[Canada-United States Relations, May 27th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, we asked very respectfully for the simple assurance that there was no security leak pertaining to the former minister of foreign affairs. The government House leader replied:

This is a question that should not be answered here. It should not be asked now. It should not be dealt with ever....

His judgment, however, was wrong and the government will be accountable for the security breaches, for PMO leaks to Republican cronies in the U.S. and for illegal Conservative campaign spending.

Why can the government not tell the truth about anything?

[Points of Order, May 26th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, the minister responsible for the Canadian International Development Agency said in this House a few moments ago that the government's matching of private donations for Burma would be retroactive to the date of the disaster, May 2, but in fact CIDA's website says right at this moment that the start date is May 15, not May 2.

Obviously the government got caught making up policy as the minister goes along. I wonder if there would be unanimous consent to table a copy of the CIDA website which indicates that the information the minister gave is in fact not correct.