Ethics

Ms. Libby Davies (Vancouver East, NDP): Mr. Speaker, Emanuel Montenegrino is the Prime Minister's lawyer. He is also now registered to lobby the Conservatives to approve the sale of RADARSAT technology to an American weapons maker.

Considering Mr. Montenegrino’s regular contributions to the Prime Minister’s Conservative campaigns, would the government not want to keep its promise of openness and accountability and tell the Prime Minister’s counsel to stick to practising law and not political lobbying?

Ms. Libby Davies (Vancouver East, NDP): Mr. Speaker, only the arrogance of these Liberals, perfected over so many years, could express pride and righteousness even as they are awash in scandal and corruption.

In my riding of Vancouver East, as across the country, people are disgusted by the Prime Minister and the government's record. People are still breathing the smoggy air. They still lack affordable housing. They still cannot afford for their kids to go to school.

Ms. Libby Davies (Vancouver East, NDP): Mr. Speaker, today two people were arrested and charged with fraud, representing just 2% of the $100 million at the heart of the Liberal sponsorship scandal. Clearly there is more to come given the rush of Liberal members who want to shut down the Public Accounts Committee so the Prime Minister can go to the polls before his hypocrisy on almost every issue becomes clear to the voters.

Is it not true that the Liberals want to shut down the Committee because they know that today's arrests are just the tip of the iceberg of Liberal corruption? Is that not what is really going on?

Hon. Anne McLellan (Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, far from shutting down the Public Accounts Committee, it was the government that asked that Committee to sit early. It is the government that has been encouraging that Committee to get on with its work. I want to thank the Members who have been working very hard.

I think it is appropriate to have an interim report, if that is the decision of the Committee this week. I think it is appropriate to let Canadians know about the dozens of witnesses who have been heard and the state of the investigation by the Committee to this point.

However let me reassure the hon. Member and the House that it was the Prime Minister and the government that said we would get to the bottom of this matter.

Ms. Libby Davies (Vancouver East, NDP): Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister wants us to believe he is getting to the bottom of all these Liberal scandals but Canadians are way ahead of him. They know that Liberal corporate cronies and backroom boys have seen the public purse as a branch plant for their corrupt party.