Statement made on 13 April 2010 by Senator Joseph Day
Hon. Joseph A. Day:
Honourable senators, my question is for the Leader of the Government in the Senate.
Canadians believed the campaigning Stephen Harper when he promised to stand up for accountability, but as soon as he was elected, he put in place the Conflict of Interest Act that was replete with loopholes.
The Harper Conflict of Interest Act allows the Prime Minister to receive secret reports on the conduct of his cabinet ministers and other public office-holders and to keep those reports secret even if the Ethics Commissioner found that the minister had violated the act. Canadians would not even find out that the report had been issued, let alone that one of the government's cabinet ministers had violated the act.
Honourable senators tried to amend this legislation when it was before the Senate, but the Harper government rejected our amendments. Prime Minister Harper was determined to receive the report secretly and then decide whether or not to let the public in on the truth about his cabinet ministers.
The Prime Minister has now asked the Ethics Commissioner to investigate the conduct of the former Minister of State for the Status of Women. As that request came directly from the Prime Minister, the Ethics Commissioner, under the act, will report secretly and directly to the Prime Minister on the results.
Will the leader undertake to this chamber that this report on the conduct of former Minister Guergis will not go secretly to the Prime Minister but will instead immediately be made public in its entirety?
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