Scott Brison

[Sponsorship Program, October 28th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister is quite capable of speaking of his knowledge. In fact, that is why he has volunteered from the very beginning to appear before Justice Gomery. He has no difficulty doing that.

The opposition ought to accept yes as an answer and look forward to the very diligent and important work that Justice Gomery is completing on behalf of the people of Canada, and not, instead, prejudge and interfere with that important work.

[Sponsorship Program, October 28th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister has been completely clear from the beginning that he, like all members of Parliament in this House, was aware of the sponsorship program. It was a national program after all. He was not aware of any alleged malfeasance. When he became aware of alleged malfeasance as a result of the Auditor General's report, he acted swiftly to end the sponsorship program, to establish Justice Gomery's inquiry and, furthermore, to work closely with and cooperate with Justice Gomery. We have provided over 10 million pages of documents, including cabinet documents. We are not afraid of the truth.

[Sponsorship Program, October 28th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, the agency to which the hon. member referred no longer exists. We have moved beyond to the point where we have overhauled our advertising approaches. We have an open, fair and transparent advertising process that will ensure that Canadian taxpayers get the best value. At the same time, government departments and agencies will get the high quality advertising and information they need.

[Sponsorship Program, October 28th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, I welcome the hon. member who is my critic within the Bloc Quebecois. I believe that was her first question in the House of Commons.

I have to somewhat reject the premise of her question because it is based on daily testimony before Gomery. I would urge her to once again demonstrate patience and respect for the independent judicial work of Justice Gomery.

We look forward to receiving that report. I am sure she will find it as instructive as we will.

[Sponsorship Program, October 28th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, the fact is that the Prime Minister has demonstrated complete openness, transparency and cooperation in working with Justice Gomery because he is not afraid of the truth. In fact, the Prime Minister provided those documents to which the hon. member referred.

I believe the question from the hon. member, who is a lawyer and a former attorney general, is based on his contempt for the independence of our judiciary.

He said again in 2003 that the use of the charter of rights was undermining democracy in Canada. That is what he said.

[Sponsorship Program, October 28th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, I guess I should not be surprised that the hon. member is opposed to the independence of our judiciary because in 2003 he said that there was a lot of distrust in general toward the judiciary and that it was leading a lot of people to be very fearful of giving powers to the judiciary.

We in this party are proud of our independent judiciary and proud of our Charter of Rights and Freedoms. We defend them. We are not equivocal or contemptuous of them.

[Sponsorship Program, October 28th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, once again it is quite obvious that the Prime Minister is cooperating fully by setting up the Justice Gomery inquiry and by providing over 10 million pages of documents to Justice Gomery, including cabinet documents. I would urge the hon. member to listen to the editorial board of the Chronicle-Herald which said:

It's only natural for [the Conservative Leader] to make political hay out of the scandal...[the Conservative Leader] should show patience in letting the inquiry do its probe. After all, the commission is paying the Conservatives and Bloc Quebecois a combined $775,000 for them to fulfil their observer status--

[Sponsorship Program, October 28th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, once again the hon. member, as a lawyer, ought to recognize the importance of the independence of a judicial inquiry. We have seen daily testimony contradicted by other days' testimony in front of Justice Gomery. Justice Gomery is not prematurely jumping to conclusions. He has the wisdom, as a noted legalist, to wait until all the testimony is in to make a sound decision and write a good report from which all Canadians will benefit. I wish the hon. member and her colleagues would have a little of that wisdom and respect the independence of Justice Gomery's work.

[Sponsorship Program, October 28th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, I repeat once again that this was a tendering process that was fair and it was a tendering process in which the Prime Minister did not intervene. It is curious. The hon. member opposite speaks about the sponsorship program as if only Liberals were aware of it. In fact I have a letter here from April 24, 2001, from the hon. member to the then minister of public works seeking specific funding from the sponsorship program. It was a government program. Members of Parliament from all parties were aware of the sponsorship program.

[Sponsorship Program, October 28th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, again I will not comment on day to day testimony, but I will comment when the opposition allegations are clearly false. The contract in question was selected through a tendering process in which the Prime Minister did not intervene.