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A Legacy of Scandal and Cover Up

Parliament is paralyzed. The business of Canada has been set aside. Why? Because Parliament voted, and the Speaker ruled, that the government must turn over unredacted documents pertaining to the RCMP investigation in Sustainable Technology Development Canada (the “green slush fund”) and their spending of $400 million without regard to rules of eligibility, laws concerning conflict of interest, and without the Minister’s supervision of their actions.

I gave a speech in two parts this week examining the government’s pattern of scandal and coverup.

In the first segment, I noted that this government consistently prioritizes political expediency over integrity.

I mentioned the treatment of Jody Wilson-Raybould, the Winnipeg labs, the WE charity scandal, and ArriveSCAM as illustrations of the lengths this government will go to in order to resist releasing information about this bad behaviour.

No organization is above the law, or above the scrutiny of Parliament.

This “green slush fund” scandal involves distributing $400 million in funds that the Auditor General has found broke rules about eligibility, laws about government conflict of interest of the board and other insiders, and expected supervisory responsibility from the Minister.

This is a governing body holding onto the last shreds of power. It is behaviour more usually attributed to gangsters. Liberal insiders are stuffing their pockets with taxpayers’ cash, and the government is doing all it can to make sure Canadians don’t know the details.

My speech continued after the break by reminding us that a previous Liberal government fell due to a mere $4 million sponsorship scandal. $4 million – compared to the $400 million scandal we are debating today, and dozens more in this government’s nine-year life like ArriveSCAM, like the WE Charity.

This government has gone to extraordinary measures to refuse to release information on their spending scandals, including taking the Speaker to Court, and now, provoking a multi-day debate that is setting aside all of the business of Parliament in order to defy the ruling from Parliament and from the Speaker.

They believe they are above the law. They believe they can spend Canadians’ money without constraints or accountability. They believe it is OK to direct money to Liberal insiders. It is OK for Ministers not to oversee the business of government, and then claim ignorance.

Was the “green slush fund” spending criminal? We don’t know. The RCMP is investigating.

But the government won’t release unredacted documents that could inform that investigation, and also tell Canadians what they should know about their government.

Is the government’s filibuster a cover-up of criminality?

Related Material

See the transcript of the two speeches, and the Questions and Answers after the second segment, in Hansard Segment 1 and in Hansard Segment 2.