Scott Brison

[Sponsorship Program, May 5th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, these are unproven allegations, like so many others. For example, it is alleged that the Parti Québécois government received inappropriate funds. Perhaps the Bloc can now agree with us that it would be a good idea to wait for the Gomery report.

[Sponsorship Program, May 5th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, the fact is Chuck Guité was hired by the previous government. Beyond that, the member for Calgary--Nose Hill is a lawyer and a member of the Law Society of Alberta. In its code of professional conduct, rule 3 says, “A lawyer must not act in a manner that might weaken public respect for the law or justice system or interfere with its fair administration”. She should resign from the bar.

[Sponsorship Program, May 5th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, the opposition presents as sacrosanct the testimony of Chuck Guité, who faces both criminal and civil fraud charges. On allegations of alleged conversations between Mr. Guité and Mr. Tremblay, who has since passed away and is not able obviously to confirm or deny those discussions, and Mr. Gagliano, the man the Prime Minister fired, I think Canadians prefer to wait for Justice Gomery's report and not to rely on testimony from the dubious about the deceased.

[Sponsorship Program, May 5th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, these are unproven allegations. Mr. Guité also made some other allegations yesterday. In fact, he said that the political interference in contracts “was worse under the previous Conservative administration. It was a cooked deal then, 150 per cent politically driven”.

Do the Conservatives agree with that part of Mr. Guité's testimony? If not, then why are they not willing to wait for Justice Gomery's report?

[Sponsorship Program, May 4th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, it is interesting to note the recent approach of opposition members to attack the mandate of Justice Gomery. They were not doing that before. Instead of that, they were sullying his work by commenting on daily testimony. That did not work, so now they are trying a new approach.

I think it is clear that they do not want Justice Gomery to succeed. They want to discredit the work of Justice Gomery because they fear his report will show to Canadians that the Prime Minister has acted honourably in his work.

[Sponsorship Program, May 4th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, the member should look more closely at Justice Gomery's mandate. His mandate clearly says, “to investigate and report on questions raised, directly or indirectly, by Chapters 3 and 4 of the of the Auditor General” and furthermore, in a second report, to provide prescriptives to prevent it from happening again.

In addition to that, there are RCMP investigations, there are criminal charges currently before the courts and there have been civil proceedings against 19 firms and individuals to recover $41 million. We are clearly taking action and we are also supporting the work of Justice Gomery to get the truth.

[Sponsorship Program, May 4th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, what is clear is that the Bloc, the separatists, would like to have an election based on unproven allegations, not on fact. Clearly, Canadians understand that what is good for the separatists is rarely good for Canada. What is good for Canada, what is good for all Canadians, is that Canadians have the truth and that they have Justice Gomery's report before an election.

Our Prime Minister is absolutely committed to ensuring that Canadians have the truth they deserve.

[Sponsorship Program, May 4th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, one thing that unites Canadians is a desire to have the truth, the whole truth, before an election. Our Prime Minister stands with Canadians in their desire to have the truth. That is why it is important for Canadians to have Justice Gomery's report and to not be making an important decision based on unproven allegations, on testimony that members opposite have in fact criticized and attacked, testimony that has been contradicted by testimony on other days.

That is why it is so important that all members of the House work together to support Justice Gomery and to support the desire of Canadians to have the truth.

[Sponsorship Program, May 4th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, I am not certain whether there was a question there, but the fact is that what is beyond question is the Prime Minister's commitment to supporting Justice Gomery, such that Canadians have the truth. We have supported Justice Gomery from the beginning. The Prime Minister appointed Justice Gomery, has provided resources to Justice Gomery, in fact about $72 million worth of resources, and has provided over 12 million pages of documents, including cabinet documents, to Justice Gomery.

We will continue to support Justice Gomery because we believe Canadians deserve to have that report and deserve to have the truth, not allegations and unproven testimony.

[Justice, May 4th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, let me quote directly from Justice Gomery's mandate:

--to investigate and report on questions raised, directly or indirectly, by Chapters 3 and 4 of the November 2003 Report of the Auditor General of Canada to the House of Commons with regard to the sponsorship program and advertising activities of the Government of Canada...to make any recommendations...to prevent mismanagement of sponsorship programs or advertising activities in the future--

That is a very broad mandate. Justice Gomery has the mandate to get to the truth for Canadians. The only reason that Conservative Party members are questioning Justice Gomery's mandate recently is because they want to discredit Justice Gomery's work. They fear that his report will demonstrate to Canadians that our Prime Minister has acted honourably.