Mr. Harper (Calgary Southwest, Alta.) was notable in his absence as the opposition was girded for its first chance to question him following the announcement on May 19 that he had accepted Nigel Wright’s resignation after learning, apparently a few days earlier, that Mr. Wright gave Sen. Duffy the money last March, allowing the Sen. Duffy to pay off $90,172 worth of questionable expenses since his 2009 appointment and initially helped avoid the same kind of publicity two other Senators faced when the official Senate reports on their expenses were tabled on May 9.
Following a brief public statement to his caucus last Tuesday, May 21, Mr. Harper has answered no questions about the chain of events other than brief responses to a limited number of questions at media appearances on his four-day official visit last week to Peru and Colombia.
Though Mr. Harper returned to Ottawa late Friday, May 24, he did not show up for Question Period Monday, prompting derision from opposition MPs and one of the feistiest Commons confrontations between government and opposition MPs since January.
“This Prime Minister’s own chief of staff gave a $90,000 payoff to silence a sitting Conservative Senator and the Prime Minister claims that he didn’t even know about it,” NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair (Outremont, Que.) said as the din in the Commons Chamber grew. “When will the Prime Minister take responsibility, show accountability and finally start answering questions?”
As Heritage Minister James Moore (Port Moody-Westwood-Port Coquitlam, B.C.) deflected the attack, the minister answering for the government, he attempted to turn the tables on the New Democrats by embarrassing revelations last week that two NDP MPs—Tyrone Benson (Jeanne-Le Ber, Que.) and Hoang Mai (Brossard-La Prairie, Que.) are paying off outstanding income taxes owed to Revenue Quebec from their employment before being elected to the Commons in 2011.
“I would like to thank the member, he’s doing a great audition for leader, but I’d like to tell him to tell the peekaboo Prime Minister to stop hiding from Canadians,” NDP MP Charlie Angus (Timmins-James Bay, Ont.) told Mr. Moore.
“He [Mr. Harper] needs to start showing some accountability,” Mr. Angus said. “It was the Prime Minister’s chief of staff who was involved in writing what may have been an illegal $90,000 cheque, and the Senator who was involved in the investigation tells us he was called by the Prime Minister’s Office and he changed the audit report.”
Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau (Papineau, Que.) also came under Conservative fire as he tried to press the government into allowing the House Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics Committee to investigate the payment to Mr. Duffy, who was initially absolved by the government in Senate reports involving inquiries into his expenses as well as those of Sen. Patrick Brazeau and Sen. Mac Harb. The accounting firm Deloitte, which conducted a forensic audit on the expense claims, is conducted a separate audit into Sen. Pamela Wallin’s expenses.
Sen. Duffy, Sen. Brazeau, and Sen. Wallin have all resigned from the Conservative Parliamentary caucus, with Sen. Wallin saying she has done so until the audit is complete on her spending. Moreover, Sen. Harb resigned from the Liberal caucus.
In response to Mr. Trudeau’s questions, Mr. Moore accused Mr. Trudeau of dividing the country with a statement he made last weekend, where he repeated earlier arguments in Quebec that the current Senate makeup is beneficial to the province because, with its constitutionally-guaranteed 24 seats, it has more clout than each of the Western Canadian provinces, which have only six seats each, with 24 for the region.
Mr. Moore also dredged up comments Mr. Trudeau made in 2010 that surfaced during the Liberal leadership race, in which he said Albertans have too much influence on national policy under Mr. Harper’s government.
Original Article
Source: hilltimes.com
Author: TIM NAUMETZ
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