Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, this is more Liberal dithering and delaying. Justice Fish’s report yesterday and Justice Deschamps’ report in 2015 clearly stated the sexual misconduct response centre had to be independent and outside of National Defence. After five years and two reports, the Liberal government now wants to rag the puck and wait for a third opinion from a third retired Supreme Court justice. Our sold…
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Mr. Speaker, let us be clear. General Vance served alongside the defence minister in Afghanistan and the Prime Minister left him as chief of the defence staff for three years after the government was told of allegations of sexual misconduct. Major-General Fortin also worked closely with General Vance and the defence minister in Afghanistan and was left in charge of our vaccine rollout for weeks af…
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Mr. Speaker, Major-General Dany Fortin, the general in charge of Canada’s COVID-19 vaccine rollout, is under investigation and has been removed from his position. The Prime Minister and his defence minister say they knew about these serious allegations weeks before he was suspended. Major-General Fortin served closely in Afghanistan alongside General Vance and the Minister of Defence. Did the Prim…
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Mr. Speaker, the claim by the Prime Minister that they take sexual misconduct in the forces seriously is a myth and that was destroyed by his deputy minister of national defence. Jody Thomas said that Justice Deschamps' report was treated as a mere checklist. The Prime Minister wrote in the defence minister's mandate letter to establish a workplace free from harassment, but we now know the Liberal…
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Madam Speaker, the farmers in my riding want the government to get out of the way. They want to eliminate the red tape. They want to get away from all the enforcement of new regulations that do nothing to enhance productivity or to allow farmers to feed the world. We need to make sure processors are there to buy and process our products so we can export them around the world. There is one thing in…
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Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Kelowna—Lake Country for her comments, and this is the one thing we are very concerned about. A lot of our seasonal businesses, especially in my riding of Selkirk—Interlake—Eastman, have a lot of people come up from the City of Winnipeg, from other places across the country and internationally, but they are not coming these days. People are taking staycations …
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Madam Speaker, I am glad to speak to the budget implementation act, and I want to congratulate my friend from Carleton for an excellent speech. It is very clear that the Liberals' so-called stimulus fund in this budget is really all about spending on Liberal pet projects and partisan priorities, not creating jobs and growing our economy. We continue to see no plan to get back to a balanced budget.…
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Madam Speaker, the member for Kingston and the Islands can pat himself on the back all he wants. The Liberals may not increase taxes in this budget, but they will. It is just a matter of time, because these massive out-of-control deficits are not sustainable. The one thing we need to remember is that the number one ask of the provinces was help with health care. We are dealing with COVID-19, and h…
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Mr. Speaker, the fact is that we investigated, and they turned a blind eye. On Friday, Katie Telford claimed she knew the Vance allegations did not pose a safety risk, while at the same time denying that she knew anything about the nature of the allegations. If she did not know the nature of the allegations, there is no way she could have been confident that there were no safety concerns. In fact,…
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Mr. Speaker, to be clear, we know that there was never an investigation even started. Katie Telford was complicit in the Vance cover-up when she decided not to tell the Prime Minister about the serious allegations against the former chief of the defence staff. She confirmed at the defence committee that she allowed the Prime Minister to personally sign off on General Vance's pay bonuses and extend…
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Madam Speaker, May is Skin Cancer Awareness Month, and with summer just around the corner, the Save Your Skin Foundation is focusing on increasing awareness and promoting treatment for skin cancer. My wife Kelly is a melanoma skin cancer survivor. While she was fortunate enough to beat it, many others have lost their battle to the stealthy disease, and many others continue fighting. It was estimat…
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Mr. Speaker, the correct answer would have been yes, he is responsible. The Toronto Star went on to say, “The Liberals would have done themselves a favour by rotating [the defence minister] into another position some time ago. But it's too late for that now.” It also said that the minister's “credibility has been so thoroughly shredded by the sexual misconduct scandals paralyzing the Canadian forc…
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Mr. Speaker, the media has been unrelenting in its criticisms of the defence minister and the Liberal government for their cover-up of the sexual misconduct allegations in the forces. The Toronto Star editorial board said, “[T]he fact remains that [the Liberals] betrayed its own feminist principles. Most of all, it let down the women who serve in Canada's military.” And “what a failure.” Through t…
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Madam Speaker, I want to thank the deputy leader for her great opening comments and for bringing forward today's motion. We are calling the Prime Minister's bluff today, what he knew and what he did not do. First, I want to tell those who serve our country in uniform that it is very clear that there is a huge problem in the Department of National Defence and the Canadian Armed Forces with this ong…
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Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my friend from Calgary Nose Hill for her impassioned speech. She has been a true champion of fighting misogyny, fighting discrimination and fighting against this type of sexual violence. I want to thank her husband and her stepdaughter for their service in the United States armed services. I know that she lives this and understands all too well what needs to be done go…
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Mr. Speaker, maybe that defence minister would like to be the architect of some better talking points. Former ombudsman Gary Walbourne testified at the defence committee that he told this minister, face to face, that the allegations against General Vance were of inappropriate sexual behaviour, but the minister keeps denying this. Gary Walbourne just said on Twitter that he is willing to take a lie…
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Mr. Speaker, the minister had actual evidence, not just rumours, and did nothing with it. The defence minister was personally briefed by the former military ombudsman about sexual misconduct allegations against General Vance, but the defence minister refuses to say he knew it was sexual misconduct. Senior advisor to the Prime Minister Elder Marques knew it was sexual harassment, and so did the Pri…
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Madam Speaker, it is quite simple. The chief of staff to the Prime Minister is one of the most powerful people in the country, and if Katie Telford did not share this information with the Prime Minister, then she deserves to be fired because she did not fulfill her own duties, or her responsibility, to the country and the Prime Minister. If the Prime Minister did know, and he has been misleading C…
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Madam Speaker, this is about forcing the Prime Minister to play his hand and drop his cards. It is time to stop the bluff. This is about making sure the cover-up ends and that Canadians, we parliamentarians and especially those who serve in uniform know the facts around the Liberal government not acting on Jonathan Vance's misconduct, which was alleged back in March, 2018. They undermined Operatio…
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Madam Speaker, I know the member for Kingston and the Islands is very uncomfortable with this conversation. He does have a very large base and the Royal Military College in his riding, and I am sure he is getting a lot of emails, phone calls and visits from those who serve and who have served who are disappointed in the Liberal government. Really, it comes down to this: When we are dealing with th…
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Madam Speaker, I do apologize. There has been a lot of media lately and I get to use the Prime Minister's name frequently, so it is just a matter of habit these days, but I will refrain and will call him the Prime Minister. We also have to keep our eye on what is happening in the Standing Committee on National Defence, because after we learned from Elder Marques, a week and a half ago, that Katie …
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Mr. Speaker, unlike the minister, who turned a blind eye and ran for the hills, Conservatives actually investigated. Canadians are shocked to learn that a senior officer wrote a glowing recommendation to the courts in support of a soldier convicted of sexually assaulting a colleague. Appallingly, numbers show that at least 216 cases of sexual assault and harassment in the military were pleaded dow…
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Well, that was a ridiculous answer, Mr. Speaker. The defence minister has lost complete control of his department. Yesterday we learned that a private Facebook group for military police posted disgusting attacks on one of General Vance’s alleged victims. The defence minister left General Vance in charge of Operation Honour for three years despite allegations of sexual misconduct, and now we are se…
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Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister is forgetting that we have had multiple witnesses, including the ombudsman and including the clerk to the cabinet, all saying that it was sexual misconduct in nature, and they have it in emails. The Prime Minister's chief of staff and his own senior adviser, Elder Marques, exchanged emails in March 2018 discussing sexual harassment allegations against General Vance.…
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Mr. Speaker, if the Prime Minister had followed our process, he would have done as Stephen Harper did and sat down with General Vance and grilled him personally. We have again, that the Prime Minister fails to recognize that General Vance was in place during these investigations. We are calling for more accountability. The women and men who serve in uniform are calling for more accountability. We …
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Mr. Speaker, that is true unless the person is a woman in uniform in the Canadian Armed Forces. The Prime Minister ignores those complaints. The Prime Minister claims to be a feminist, claims to believe all women and claims to have zero tolerance for sexual misconduct, but he took zero action and left General Vance in charge of our military and in charge of Operation Honour for years after these a…
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Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister cannot keep his story straight. First he said he learned of the allegations of sexual misconduct against General Vance in the media; then he said he just did not know the specific details. Now he is saying it was a #MeToo complaint, even though the senior staff in his office, including the Prime Minister's chief of staff, were using the term “sexual harassment”. Mr.…
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Mr. Speaker, the minister has no tolerance, but he has taken no action. The Prime Minister's stories keep changing on when he was aware of these allegations against General Vance, but the Clerk of the Privy Council knew, the Prime Minister's Office knew, the defence minister knew, the defence minister's office knew and the Prime Minister's chief of staff knew. It is impossible to believe that ever…
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With regard to Canada-Chinese military cooperation, since January 1, 2017: (a) how many joint exercises or training activities have occurred involving the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) and the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) of the People’s Republic of China; (b) what was the date of these exercises or training activities; (c) what was the nature of these exercises or training activities; (d) what wa…
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Mr. Speaker, on Friday, the former senior adviser to the Prime Minister, Elder Marques, told the defence committee that the Prime Minister's chief of staff was directly aware of the allegations against General Vance three years ago. It was Katie Telford who directed Mr. Marques to contact the defence minister's office and report back to her on multiple occasions. The Liberals cannot seriously expe…
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Mr. Speaker, the minister has to stop misleading Canadians. The military officer who came forward with sexual misconduct allegations against General Vance said that this was “a political appointment...so it is a political issue.” She wanted the minister to actually see the evidence so “the defence minister's accountability could be reflected.” The defence minister failed to protect our troops from…
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Mr. Speaker, as the vice-chair of the Standing Committee on National Defence, I want to thank the member for Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill for her strong and sincere leadership on this file. I share her disgust with the contemptuous Liberal actions at and the disgraceful obstruction of the defence committee. The member for Kanata—Carleton in particular is preventing us from investigating sexual …
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Mr. Speaker, we know that the minister and the government could be given an award for having the most phoney feminist credentials. David Mulroney, Canada's former ambassador to China, said the Liberals' move was “A national disgrace. Canada's Feminist Foreign Policy has no room for one of the most courageous, principled and seriously threatened women on the planet.” Will the defence minister guara…
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Mr. Speaker, that is what we call part of the Liberal cover-up. Media are reporting that the defence minister was appeasing China when he threatened to yank funding from the Halifax security forum if organizers did not torpedo the John McCain award to Ms. Tsai Ing-wen, the President of Taiwan. John McCain’s daughter Meghan called it “Absolutely pathetic”, describing the Liberal government as “a bu…
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Mr. Speaker, the minister never did accept any responsibility. In fact, that is again another attempt on his behalf to cover up the sexual misconduct allegations he hid for three years. The Liberals say that they want answers, but they shut down the very committee investigation that was trying to get to the bottom of them. If the government truly cared about our women and men in uniform, they woul…
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Mr. Speaker, the Liberals at the defence committee just shut down the investigation into sexual misconduct allegations against General Vance. The Liberals are preventing key witnesses from appearing before committee and they are covering up what the defence minister knew about these serious allegations three years ago. The self-proclaimed feminist Liberal government wants to bury the truth rather …
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With regard to the former Ombudsman for the Department of National Defence and the Canadian Armed Forces, Mr. Gary Walbourne: (a) on what dates between January 1, 2018, and October 31, 2018, did he meet with the Minister of National Defence; and (b) on what dates between January 1, 2018, and October 31, 2018, did he hold a scheduled or unscheduled (i) phone call, (ii) video chat (Zoom, Microsoft T…
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With regard to the Minister of National Defence: (a) on what dates between January 1, 2018, and October 31, 2018, did the Minister of National Defence meet with the former Ombudsman for the Department of National Defence and the Canadian Armed Forces, Mr. Gary Walbourne; and (b) on what dates between January 1, 2018, and October 31, 2018, did the Minister of National Defence hold a scheduled or un…
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Mr. Speaker, the Liberals are all talk and no action. A case in point is that in 2018, we passed Bill C-77, which would have brought a victims bill of rights to National Defence, and protected the privacy and security of victims and witnesses in proceedings involving certain sexual offences. Three years after the fact, the Liberals have not even brought that bill into force, and they did nothing t…
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Mr. Speaker, my thanks to the member for Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes for bringing this motion to the floor. I think it is important that we demonstrate to Canadians that the Liberals are blocking the work of parliamentary committees, and that they are stopping us from getting to the bottom of some very serious scandals within the Liberal government, including the WE scandal a…
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Mr. Speaker, I know the member for Winnipeg North often has trouble understanding how investigations work, how national defence works, and for that matter, the roles and responsibilities of Parliament. Ray Novak, the former chief of staff to former prime minister Stephen Harper, was actually very candid in his comments about how we investigated General Vance. When we contrast that to the Liberals …
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Mr. Speaker, back in 2015, I was the parliamentary secretary to the then minister of national defence. We thoroughly investigated the rumour and the allegations of fraternization when General Vance was posted in NATO at Naples. Based upon the investigation and all the advice we received, no evidence could be found of wrongdoing. Essentially, the person he was investigated about in Naples was his f…
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Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister's cover-up continues, so let us look at the Prime Minister's actions. One the one hand, the Prime Minister very publicly speculated about and directed the RCMP to charge Vice-Admiral Mark Norman in March 2018, but, on the other hand, the Prime Minister claims he could not politically interfere in starting an investigation into the allegations against General Vance, …
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Mr. Speaker, some would call that a failure. Whether it is Vice-Admiral Norman, SNC-Lavalin, the WE scandal or General Vance, the Liberal playbook is so predictable: first, cover up the issue and pretend to be shocked when it becomes public; then throw money at the problem, in this case, a big, fat raise for the general accused of sexual misconduct; and, finally, when all else fails, blame the Con…
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Mr. Speaker, we know from the testimony today that, unlike the defence minister who pushed away and refused to take evidence and do anything with it, and participated in a cover-up, our government took that evidence and fully investigated it. The defence minister and the Prime Minister knew about allegations of sexual misconduct against Canada's top generals back in 2018 and refused to investigate…
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Mr. Speaker, the minister says that as the Liberals are filibustering at the defence committee on calling Zita Astravas. We know that the defence minister's chief of staff briefed the Prime Minister's Office regarding serious allegations of sexual misconduct by General Vance back in 2018. The Prime Minister admitted he learned of these allegations before he signed off on a pay increase for the acc…
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Mr. Speaker, nobody is buying what the Prime Minister is trying sell. Let us go over what everybody knew three years ago about these serious allegations against General Vance. The Minister of National Defence knew; his chief of staff knew; the Clerk of the Privy Council knew; the deputy secretary to cabinet knew; Elder Marques, a senior adviser to the Prime Minister knew; yet the Prime Minister th…
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Mr. Speaker, when speaking last week at the defence committee on the 2018 allegations of sexual misconduct by General Vance, former ombudsman Gary Walbourne said, “The only thing I ever wanted the minister to do was his job.” However, rather than doing his job, the minister hid from the evidence. It is clear that the minister misled the defence committee since he knew about this three years ago, a…
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Mr. Speaker, the Minister of National Defence refused the evidence of sexual misconduct offered by the former military ombudsman. Then he hid behind the non-existent investigation by PCO. Instead of doing his duty and convening a board of inquiry into General Vance, he did absolutely nothing. Yesterday, the minister said he used his police skills to tackle the problem. What kind of police officer …
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Mr. Speaker, the defence minister has repeated over and over that he informed all proper authorities about the serious allegations of sexual misconduct by the former chief of the defence staff, but the minister refuses to tell Canadians who those authorities are or even acknowledge that he received the complaint back in 2018, as reported by media. Was the Prime Minister briefed by the defence mini…
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