Hon. Rob Nicholson (Niagara Falls, CPC)

Mr. Speaker, we will get the answer to that eventually.

For many years the Prime Minister was in the private sector. I think it is a fair question to ask what he would do if he had a chief financial officer whose company was found guilty of kickbacks, submitting false receipts, fraud, having out of control employees and absolutely no accountability. I bet he would ask for the resignation of the CFO.

I have a suggestion for the Prime Minister. Why does he not take a close look in the mirror and see who that CFO is and I bet he will want to do the right thing and pack it in, will he not?

Hon. Scott Brison (Minister of Public Works and Government Services, Lib.)

Mr. Speaker, all last winter opposition members were attacking the Prime Minister and accusing him of being directly involved and responsible for malfeasance. The fact is Justice Gomery, in his report, has said absolutely that the Prime Minister is exonerated from blame in this affair.

They do not support Justice Gomery. They do not believe in his report because it does not fit into their narrow partisan goals. Canadians, who deserve the truth and want the answers, believe in Justice Gomery but they do not believe in the Conservative rhetoric on this issue.

Mr. Gilles Duceppe (Laurier—Sainte-Marie, BQ)

Mr. Speaker, in the aftermath of the Gomery report, the Prime Minister announced a number of measures. He has, however, refused to disclose the identities of the Liberal candidates who received dirty money from Marc-Yvan Côté. Yet those candidates profited from the kickback system denounced by Justice Gomery. It is even possible that some of those candidates are sitting in this House or are working within the government.

Why does the Prime Minister refuse to disclose their identity? Why is he covering up for people who profited from the dirty money,when he has banned from the party the people who distributed that money ?

Hon. Jean Lapierre (Minister of Transport, Lib.)

Mr. Speaker, the leader of the Bloc Québécois is starting up again on an attempted character assassination operation affecting certain people who might be sitting here or other public figures.

If the leader of the Bloc Québécois has accusations to make concerning anyone whatsoever, let him rise and name names.

Mr. Gilles Duceppe (Laurier—Sainte-Marie, BQ)

Mr. Speaker, we are asking for names. It was they who expelled people, including Marc-Yvan Côté. During the 1997 election campaign, Marc-Yvan Côté was responsible for 21 ridings in eastern Quebec. Eighteen of them received funds and some ten got cash from Marc-Yvan Côté.

By not revealing the names of the candidates, does the Prime Minister realize he is fuelling the suspicions currently swirling around all the Liberal candidates in the 1997 election?

Hon. Jean Lapierre (Minister of Transport, Lib.)

Mr. Speaker, if there is one person doing his level best to fuel suspicion, to try to damage reputations, it is once again the leader of the Bloc Québécois, who has no proof of what he is contending. If he wants to accuse somebody, he should have the courage to make the accusations in the House and outside it. Otherwise, he should be quiet.

Mr. Michel Gauthier (Roberval—Lac-Saint-Jean, BQ)

Mr. Speaker, this is not hard to understand. The Gomery report states that Marc-Yvan Côté oversaw 21 ridings and distributed money to 18.

This is our question for the government. So far the government has been against naming names. Why will it not release the names of the people at the end of the line who received money from Marc-Yvan Côté, who was suspended for doing so? Those who took the money must be just as guilty as he who handed it out.

Hon. Jean Lapierre (Minister of Transport, Lib.)

Mr. Speaker, the Bloc Québécois House leader is on another fishing expedition in an attempt to tarnish reputations. The reality is that the government does not have to comment on anything that is not in the Gomery report. We trust in Justice Gomery's findings and he blamed certain individuals.

I do not have any additional information and I have no names to disclose. If the Bloc Québécois has such information, then it should make it known and name names rather than try to tarnish the reputations of all—

Mr. Michel Gauthier (Roberval—Lac-Saint-Jean, BQ)

Mr. Speaker, something is not right here. The Gomery report we are quoting states that the money was handed out to 18 Liberals. These Liberals might be anywhere, they were not identified. They might be here or in ministers' offices. We do not know.

What we are asking the government is this. It said it wants to clean things up. Cleaning up does not mean sweeping things under the rug.

Name names so that we know who is involved.

Hon. Jean Lapierre (Minister of Transport, Lib.)

Mr. Speaker, this is a real witch hunt. The Bloc Québécois House leader is once again flinging accusations at all the hon. members on this side of the House without any evidence, without any names, and without any specific charges. This is nothing more than a smear campaign.

Ms. Libby Davies (Vancouver East, NDP)

Mr. Speaker, the Gomery report found what we know to be so true. Ottawa is suffering from a Liberal culture of entitlement. No matter where we look, it lurks.

Since the Prime Minister took office, his friends and a disgraced cabinet minister are in the Senate, a staffer is off playing ambassador, totally ignoring the votes in the House to oppose patronage.

Would the Deputy Prime Minister answer this? How do government members reconcile their rhetoric on ethics with the glee and arrogance with which they practice patronage and cronyism in everything that they do, every day in every decision they make?

Hon. Anne McLellan (Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, Lib.)

Mr. Speaker, let us look at the record of the Prime Minister and this government. He cancelled the sponsorship program the very first day he became Prime Minister. He put in place an independent commission of inquiry, Judge Gomery. He introduced new ethical guidelines for ministers, senior staff and crown appointees. He established a fully independent Ethics Commissioner who reports to Parliament, the House of Commons and the Senate. He ordered the re-establishment of the Office of the Comptroller General.

In the history of our country, no prime minister and no government have done more.

Hon. Bill Blaikie (Elmwood—Transcona, NDP)

Mr. Speaker, the Deputy Prime Minister's capacity for self-congratulation seems to know no end. The Liberals continue to be ethically challenged with respect to their own behaviour, but I would hope against hope that they are not ethically challenged when it comes to something like torture.

Given the recent revelations about secret CIA prisons on top of what we already know about Guantanamo Bay, could the Minister of National Defence or the Deputy Prime Minister tell us whether the government is reconsidering its policy of uncritically handing over those captured by Canadian Forces to the American forces?

Hon. Keith Martin (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of National Defence, Lib.)

Mr. Speaker, when our Canadian Forces apprehend members from Afghanistan, those people are questioned, some are released, some are handed over to U.S. troops and some are handed over to Afghanistan authorities. For all of them, we notify the Red Cross about their whereabouts and the conditions upon which they were released. All are treated under the Geneva Convention. We feel utterly confident that our Canadian Forces members are treating those people in full accordance with humanitarian law.

Mr. Tom Lukiwski (Regina—Lumsden—Lake Centre, CPC)

Mr. Speaker, Justice Gomery's report indicates that there was widespread corruption and criminal activity within the Liberal Party of Canada. Simply put, the Liberals owe the Canadian taxpayer over $40 million and it is the government's responsibility to recover that money.

Will the Prime Minister commit today to launch a lawsuit against the Liberal Party of Canada to recover the millions of dollars that were stolen from Canadian taxpayers?

Hon. Scott Brison (Minister of Public Works and Government Services, Lib.)

Mr. Speaker, I have already answered that question and the Liberal Party has responded as well.

It is interesting to note that the leader of the Conservative Party operated for four years as an unregistered lobbyist. He failed to register under the Lobbyists Registration Act. Furthermore, during that period of time, the National Citizens Coalition that he led, that right-wing organization that fights against health care, that fights against child care and that fights against Canadian institutions, was charged six times with violations of Canada's Elections Act. They break the rules. They do not follow them.

Mr. James Bezan (Selkirk—Interlake, CPC)

Mr. Speaker, that was complete nonsense. On Page 438, Justice Gomery describes the sponsorship scandal as:

--inappropriate political interference in administrative matters...excessive concentration of power in the Prime Minister's Office, carelessness and incompetence and blatant disregard of Treasury Board policies, greed and venality. The public trust in its system of government was subverted and betrayed, and Canadians were outraged, not only because public funds were wasted and misappropriated, but also because no one was held responsible or punished for his misconduct.

The Prime Minister has been aware of this for a long time. Why have no Liberals gone to jail yet?

Hon. Scott Brison (Minister of Public Works and Government Services, Lib.)

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister has never been charged with violating the Canada Elections Act. However, the organization that the leader of the Conservative Party led for four years, during which he failed to register under the Lobbyists Registration Act, did break the rules, was convicted once under the Canada Elections Act and, furthermore, was charged six times. He is now trying to create the impression that he believes in the rules when the organization he led broke the rules, and he knew it.

Mr. Pierre Poilievre (Nepean—Carleton, CPC)

Mr. Speaker, here is another one. What does a well connected Liberal company run by Jean Chrétien's son-in-law do when it has a mouldy, leaky, toxically dangerous building that no one wants? The answer is: sell it to the Liberal government. Never mind that the building needs $80 million in repairs and that it would have been cheaper to buy a new one of the same size and quality. As long as Power Corp., the Prime Minister's old company, gets its money, taxpayers can clean up the mess.

Why did the Liberal government reward the Prime Minister's old company and hit taxpayers with an $80 million cleanup bill?

Hon. Scott Brison (Minister of Public Works and Government Services, Lib.)

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member ought to realize that we, as a department in our real estate dealings, always seek the best possible value for the Canadian taxpayer. The purchase of the former Nortel building was consistent with that. In the real estate markets it was being sold far below the actual value. The investments to upgrade it to an appropriate status for public servants has been made. This deal does meet the requirements of best possible value for the Canadian taxpayer.