Scott Brison

[Sponsorship Program, April 11th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, the guilty will be tried before the courts. The Prime Minister has appointed Justice Gomery, cancelled the sponsorship program, and instituted legal action against agencies to recover funds. We want Justice Gomery to complete his work.

The fact is that this Prime Minister deserves the respect of this House for working to get to the bottom of this issue. He is achieving great things on behalf of Canadians and we will get to the bottom of this issue because that is what Canadians want us to do.

[Sponsorship Program, April 11th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, let me make it clear. If anybody was operating as profiteers below the radar screen of the Liberal Party, the Liberal Party wants those people to be treated strongly and to in fact see that justice is done and they face the full extent of Canadian law and are punished.

Let us be clear. In today's National Post , David Asper says:

The melodrama of Question Period is only exacerbating all of this: Many opposition MPs want an election, which would have Canadians essentially put the government on trial...without even having the evidence at hand.

That is the point. Canadians want the evidence, the full truth, and that is why they need Justice Gomery's report.

[Sponsorship Program, April 11th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, once again those members are commenting on one individual's testimony, testimony that has in fact been contradicted by other testimony prior and since. That is the point. One day's testimony and one witness's testimony can be and in fact is contradicted on an ongoing basis.

The only person who can get to the bottom of this is the judge that Canadians trust to do exactly that. What I ask the hon. member to do is exactly what Canadians want him to do and that is to let Justice Gomery do his work.

[Sponsorship Program, April 11th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, that hon. member would be the last person in the House who should be asking questions about breaking financing laws for campaigns.

Even Bernard Landry, as the Prime Minister said earlier, does not believe that Jean Brault is credible. Yet it is interesting to hear the opposition treat one individual's testimony, Jean Brault's, as sacrosanct when the deputy leader of that party has referred to the Prime Minister's testimony as a sham.

I trust the Prime Minister of Canada more than Jean Brault. The Prime Minister has dedicated months to getting to the bottom of this issue, has taken real risks to do the right thing to get to the bottom of this issue for Canadians, and I trust him to do exactly that.

[Sponsorship Program, April 11th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, the Globe and Mail editorial on April 9 said that “the public should reserve judgment until Judge Gomery has stitched all the pieces together and weighed conflicting accounts...The Prime Minister did, after all, shut down the sponsorship program as his first order of business and appoint the Gomery inquiry early last year after the Auditor-General issued” her report.

The fact is the Globe and Mail and Canadians realize that only Justice Gomery can get to the truth. They trust Justice Gomery to do that. That is why we support Justice Gomery, because Canadians deserve the truth.

[Sponsorship Program, April 11th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, last week the NDP member for Sackville—Eastern Shore said this on CBC radio:

To be completely honest with you, what's going on in the House of Commons is nothing short of really quite sad. Everyone is just talking about the Gomery issue and everything else. We're not talking about seniors or veterans or children or families or the environment or anything else. We're just...trying to all score cheap political points on the Gomery trial and I think Canadians in general have had enough of this and we should focus on the issues that matter to Canadians and allow the Gomery process to happen.

That was from the NDP member for Sackville—Eastern Shore.

[Sponsorship Program, April 11th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, the Liberal Party acted quickly to engage two auditors, in fact, Deloitte & Touche and PricewaterhouseCoopers. Both audits found that all contributions were receipted, handled and accounted for properly. These reports are in fact posted on the Liberal Party website and have been for some time. They have also been given to the Gomery commission, as of last December.

If there were any profiteers that operated below the radar screen of the officials in the Liberal Party, the Liberal Party, the government and all Canadians want those profiteers to be punished.

[Sponsorship Program, April 11th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, it is interesting that opposition members constantly discuss the testimony of Mr. Brault. Let us be clear about this individual on whom they are basing their case. Mr. Brault and Groupaction are facing action from the Government of Canada to recover $34 million. Mr. Brault is facing criminal charges before the courts for fraud. I think that Justice Gomery has more credibility than Jean Brault. That is why Canadians want Justice Gomery to complete his work and give them the real truth, not individual testimony.

[Sponsorship Program, April 11th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, let us look at what the member for Edmonton--St. Albert, the chairman of the public accounts committee, said last week, “There are all kinds of rumours and innuendoes flying around about what is being said at Gomery. Why don't we wait until we get all the facts about what was said at the Gomery commission”.

I would urge the Leader of the Opposition to follow his advice, wait for all the facts, and wait for Justice Gomery to finish his work. Canadians can then have the truth.

[Sponsorship Program, April 7th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, once again, these are allegations. They are not facts. Repeating them over and over and over again does not transform them into facts. The only way we can get facts is if we allow Justice Gomery to analyze all the testimony and allow him to provide us with his report.

That is why we have an independent judicial commission in order to get to the bottom of this. I would urge the hon. member and all members of the House to respect Justice Gomery's work and to let him complete that report, so that Canadians can have the truth.