Peter Kent

Mr. Speaker, after months of hiding the truth from Canadians about his corrupt conduct and fraudulent excuses, the Prime Minister himself has created an opportunity to come clean. The PM is obviously trying to intimidate the Leader of the Opposition with the threat of a lawsuit, with no intention of proceeding. Because if he did, the PM would have to present his evidence and finally testify under oath. Therefore, might I respectfully suggest that it is time for the PM to put up or shut up.

Mr. Speaker, when the Prime Minister interrupted a woman at a town hall, correcting her use of “mankind” with “peoplekind“, his mansplaining went viral. Around the world, the Prime Minister was mocked for his political correctness. The Prime Minister eventually conceded that it was a dumb joke, but his principal secretary, Gerald Butts, tweeted that any and all who criticized his boss were Nazis. The Prime Minister once said that any statement by Mr. Butts could be considered his own, and in this case?

Mr. Speaker, the Liberals embarrassed themselves yesterday when they donned Ukrainian traditional dress to praise an ally and then voted against recognition of the Soviet genocide of Crimean Tatars. Whipping MPs to cozy up to Putin is just another example of the Liberals muting Canada's principled voice on human rights this year, as with China, Iran, Cuba, Ethiopia, Syria, Congo, and the UN. When will the Liberals stand up and speak truth out loud to tyrants and despots?

Mr. Speaker, Iran today test fired two ballistic missiles that the regime said proved its ability to strike Israel. The missiles carried the words, “Israel must be wiped out”.Former Liberal MP Irwin Cotler is on record saying, “I don't know if [the Prime Minister] has an appreciation of evil”. The Prime Minister said this week that he thought Canada was sending exactly the right signals on Iran.Is this not just another example of the Prime Minister's inability to appreciate evil?

Mr. Speaker, page 3 of this first report of the new committee lays bare a process that allows the Prime Minister to censor the report not only for national security, but to prevent his embarrassment under the guise of international relations. The report was supposed to address the clumsy use of intelligence to excuse how a terrorist got on the PM's trip that sparked a diplomatic incident with India. Instead, the committee's six findings on supposed foreign interference are completely redacted.Will the Prime Minister get off his asterisks and release the findings?

Mr. Speaker, it is time for Canada to speak truth to the world's worst human rights abusers publicly, not timidly, not in private with cautious lines crafted to win eventual Security Council votes. The minister has an opportunity to deny today that secret votes were traded with rights abusers who seek false legitimacy on the Human Rights Council.Again, will the minister stop hiding the truth and tell Canadians how Canada voted on the Human Rights Council candidacies of Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, and Cuba?

Mr. Speaker, we were reminded last week that the Prime Minister offers ridiculous answers to serious questions as often in his town halls as here in the House. In one outrageous response to a citizen concerned about his plan to reintegrate ISIS terrorists returning to Canada, the PM compared these returning terrorists to refugees from post-World War II Europe and Vietnamese boat people. Where did the Prime Minister acquire his warped view of history, and when will he apologize to legitimate refugees for comparing them to terrorists?

Mr. Speaker, the Nazis killed six million Jews. People who laugh at the Prime Minister are not Nazis. Will the Prime Minister disassociate himself from his principal secretary's unacceptable language?

Mr. Speaker, the Liberal excuses clearly do not wash. This is clearly yet another case of cash for access, another shameless Liberal claim that exposure of each of these illegal donations to the Liberal Party somehow proves Liberal transparency and accountability. This is Monty Python logic, and the Liberal ethical parrot is clearly dead. Why is it so difficult for the Prime Minister to keep promises and respect the law?

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister is blaming everybody but the finance minister or himself for the scandal that is before us. The Prime Minister is all but directly blaming the Ethics Commissioner, blaming the Ethics Commissioner for the finance minister's several inexcusable lapses of judgment and for the Prime Minister's own willingness to look the other way.Why is the Prime Minister misleading Parliament about other ministers' actions? Is the Prime Minister's Office calling the Ethics Commissioner a liar?

Mr. Speaker, the Liberal government's reluctance to demand better of the United Nations is unacceptable. Whether funding terror incitement in UNRWA schools, concealing votes for human rights abusers to the Human Rights Council, ignoring the anti-Semitic denial of Jerusalem's history by UNESCO, or now downplaying the election of Saudi Arabia to the status of women, all of this makes Canada complicit in the UN's dysfunction. Is there no end to the Prime Minister's willingness to pander to rights abusers in his indecent pursuit of a Security Council seat?

Mr. Speaker, that is unacceptable. Genocide is a crime in Canada, and we incorporate the international law definition of genocide.A year ago the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights concluded that there is evidence of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. Since then, ISIS has done nothing but continue its deliberate slaughter and extermination of those who oppose it.Why are the Liberals so afraid to call this genocide?

Mr. Speaker, we need look no farther than Iran's supreme leader and official state media to get a clear and obvious handle on Iran's terrorist agenda. The regime boasts about its financial support of its terrorist proxies, its rogue missile program, and regularly proclaims the destruction of Israel a regime priority. Iran's state television this month is calling for young men to volunteer to fight in Syria, to position to invade Israel. How can the Liberals, even for an instant, consider delisting Iran as a state sponsor of terror?

Mr. Speaker, Canada has been among world leaders in acting to counter Iran's nuclear adventurism and human rights abuse. Iran continues to call for the destruction of Israel and is an open sponsor of terrorism, yet the Prime Minister has said that Canada will reopen our mission in Tehran, and that he wants to re-engage with Iran.Why would the Liberal government cosy up to Iran when it continues to sponsor terrorism, calls for the destruction of Israel, and disregards basic human rights?

Mr. Speaker, some weeks ago, former Liberal justice minister and human rights champion Irwin Cotler, among others, called on the minister to defy the UN's secretive and hypocritical tradition and make Canada's vote public. The minister refused, as he did again today.We recognize the Liberals' willingness to mute Canada's principled voice in their shameless quest for a security council seat, but will the minister, today, reconsider, demonstrate leadership on the human rights file, and tell Canadians how Canada voted on Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, and Cuba?

Mr. Speaker, a Hamas terrorist tunnel has been discovered between two Gaza schools run by the UN Relief and Works Agency, UNRWA. The agency, which teaches hate and glorifies Palestinian terrorist attacks against Israel, has responded disingenuously with shock. The reality is that UNRWA is desperate not to reform its ways but to preserve funding from increasingly skeptical democratic donor countries.When will the Liberals accept that Canada's $25 million in Palestinian aid could be delivered by better means?

Mr. Speaker, the Liberals abandoned the court of law to offer a $10.5 million settlement payoff to Omar Khadr, a confessed terrorist. The Liberals chose not to defend Omar Khadr's outrageous claim. They just wanted it all to go away. Then the Liberals tried to hide this extravagant, outrageous payoff from Canadians and Americans.Did the cabinet follow this deceitful course while knowing of Mr. Khadr's victims' outstanding court order claims against him?

Mr. Speaker, although the Prime Minister and other ministers have offered very carefully worded reassurances that Canada's commitment to the beleaguered people and Government of Ukraine is undiminished, the Liberals have been pussyfooting around official extension of Operation Unifier and a direct response to Ukraine's appeal for weaponry to better defend against the Russian-sponsored war.When will the Liberals speak up?

Mr. Speaker, first the Liberal government left mention of Jews off the National Holocaust Monument dedication plaque and muted the horrors of the extermination chambers with euphemisms, but now we learn that the Liberals, who doubled their modest deficit with their runaway $20 billion, Liberals who spent almost a quarter of a million dollars on an artsy budget cover, are economizing by not clearing snow at the National Holocaust Monument. The death camps operated year round. Why should Canada's commemoration not?

Mr. Speaker, hundreds of worthy Canada summer jobs employers were denied funding for thousands of young people this year because they refused to accept the Liberals' imposed values. Now, the Islamic Humanitarian Service of Kitchener ticked the box and funding was personally approved by the Liberal House leader. Well, Sheikh Shafiq Huda of this organization now calls for genocide, the eradication of Israelis, and says, “You will leave in body bags.”Does the minister not believe those words clearly violate the Liberal values attestation?

Mr. Speaker, in Canada, the B'nai Brith and the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center oppose any new funding for UNRWA. B'nai Brith says Canadian aid for Palestinian welfare must go only to specific humanitarian programs and peaceful infrastructure projects. UN Watch has accused UNRWA staffers of using their official positions to incite Palestinian stabbing and shooting attacks against Israeli Jews.Can the Liberals not find more appropriate ways to deliver humanitarian aid than to hand it to terrorists?

Mr. Speaker, the United Nations Human Rights Council has been an embarrassment to democratic members of the world body for years.Again this year, a number of notorious human rights abusers, seeking membership, are asking for Canada's secret vote. It is clear the Liberals are working to curry favour for eventual Security Council votesIs it not time for the foreign affairs minister to stand and to declare publicly how Canada will vote on Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, and Cuba?

Mr. Speaker, the Liberals have been caught again peddling cash for access to the Prime Minister and the Minister of Innovation. In fact, it was a double violation of the Liberals' own law, because it involved a gifted ticket, illegal, given to the CEO of an American cannabis company, again, illegal access for an American who boasted online of his privileged access to pitch medical marijuana technology.If the Prime Minister cannot abide by and respect his own ethical guidelines, why will he not respect the laws of Canada?

Mr. Speaker, Canadians are well aware of China's imperfect justice system, the rigged trials, the brutal incarceration, the torture, and the executions. Our allies, the U.S., Australia, and New Zealand, do not have extradition treaties with China. The Prime Minister naively says that Canada has high standards and rigorous processes, but Canada has no control over what happens in Chinese prisons. The Chinese have many ways of killing prisoners.Why are the Liberals suddenly humouring China, given its cruel justice system?

Mr. Speaker, as the government seems blindly determined to normalize relations with the Iranian regime, I wonder whether the Minister of Foreign Affairs is aware of the latest poisonous utterances by the regime's supreme leader. Yesterday, on International Holocaust Remebrance Day, Ayatollah Khamenei posted a video on his website questioning the slaughter of six million Jews by the Nazis. Does the minister really believe he can engage in a meaningful dialogue with a regime that not only denies history but regularly calls for the destruction of Israel?

Mr. Speaker, China executes more people every year than the rest of the world combined. Due process does not exist. White collar criminals are routinely put to death, and the Chinese premier says China will not consider ending the death penalty. Therefore, why are the Liberals talking, discussing, negotiating with China on an extradition treaty?

Mr. Speaker, Canadians wonder why Canada's foreign policy initiatives with Russia must be discovered not from the minister but from the foreign affairs website of the Russian Federation. It took a diligent journalist to discover, by scouring that website, that a Canadian assistant deputy minister has just been in Moscow to discuss the situation in Ukraine.Can the minister assure Canadians and freedom-loving Ukrainians that Canada will not waver in its sanctions against Russia for its invasion and occupation of Crimea and its continuing sponsorship of terrorist activities in eastern Ukraine?

Mr. Speaker, we have heard a litany of blatantly implausible excuses for the Liberals' genocide denial. One of the early excuses was that, if Liberals acknowledged the horrifically obvious, Canada would be obliged to do something. We have not heard that excuse for a while. The minister has been hiding, until today, behind process.Is that the real reason? Have the Liberals denied genocide to avoid restoring and extending Canada's anti-Daesh combat mission?

Mr. Speaker, the Liberals rushed to restore education funding to the UN Relief and Works Agency, despite abundant evidence that UNRWA employees actively support terrorism and incite anti-Semitism.The minister assured Canadians that $25 million would teach Palestinian children tolerance and respect, but a detailed news study by UN Watch revealed 60 new examples of hate on UNRWA teacher and staff Facebook pages.Our Conservative government effectively delivered aid around UNRWA. Why can the Liberals not do so?

Mr. Speaker, the United Nations' well-tarnished reputation has been sullied yet again by the election of Saudi Arabia to the UN Commission on the Status of Women. Gender segregation forces Saudi women to submit to male guardianship for their entire lives. Women are banned from driving. Those who defy Saudi Arabia's second-class laws go to prison. Women can be stoned to death for adultery. There have been expressions of disgust and protest around the world, but Canada's self-proclaimed feminist Prime Minister has not uttered a peep. Might he be willing to explain why today?

Mr. Speaker, the member for Mississauga—Erin Mills may be willing to stand with an extremist supporter she addresses as “brother Amin”. She may be willing to praise a man who denies President Assad is a murderer and a butcher in return for support in the next federal election.Will the Prime Minister disassociate himself from this misguided tribute to extremism made by the member in the Prime Minister's name?

Mr. Speaker, Canadians are still waiting for answers on the logic and manner of Stéphane Dion's extraordinarily clumsy diplomatic appointments. Canada's professional diplomats, past and present, at headquarters and abroad, are dismayed and discouraged. Mr. Dion's status in Brussels will diminish the rank and the authority of the ambassador in place. Mr. Dion's status with Germany, as a still uninvited special advisor, is a diplomatic faux pas. For a ministerial housecleaning so long in the works, why this diplomatic train wreck?

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister blamed the member for Surrey Centre for inviting a convicted terrorist on the PM's disastrous India trip. However, one of the few lightly asterisk-redacted chapters in the committee report shows it was the PMO that put Jaspal Atwal on the guest list. As an RCMP officer belatedly observed, a google search would have identified the risk if the guest list had been provided to security. Will the Prime Minister now accept responsibility for this security breakdown?

Mr. Speaker, the Liberals are fine with saying that they are back at the United Nations, but the Liberals are back as they were before: pandering to despots, dictators, and human rights abusers.The United Nations today is not the organization it was when democracies made up the majority. The UN today has been described accurately as a broken Remington typewriter in a smart phone world.Why will the Liberals not take a tiny step towards reform and transparency and tell Canadians how Canada voted on the Human Rights Council candidacies of Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, and Cuba?

Mr. Speaker, how about something more than words.British MPs today approved legislation that will make it more difficult for international human rights abusers to hide ill-gotten wealth in the U.K. The new powers were voted unanimously, and our mother Parliament named the Magnitsky Act initiative after the Russian lawyer jailed, tortured, and murdered for his investigation of corrupt Russian government officials.This House unanimously approved a motion to implement Magnitsky-style legislation in Canada two years ago. The Liberals have dragged their feet. How long will they wait before they act?

Mr. Speaker, we have just witnessed the annual ritual of some of the world's worst human rights abusers elected to the United Nations Human Rights Council.The good news is that Russia has been denied the seat it so long took for granted. However, China, Saudi Arabia, and Cuba will be seated. The vote, as usual, was secret. However, the vote is not the minister's. It belongs to all Canadians.Will the minister tell Canadians how Canada voted on these four notorious human rights abusing nations?

Mr. Speaker, after 18 months of erratic foreign policy missteps, Canadians may be relieved the Liberals have finally accepted the need to hit the reset button. After a stroll through history, through a myopic Liberal lens today, where is the detail for example on whether the Liberal retreat from the allied coalition in Syria and Iraq will be reversed, whether the Liberals will be less submissive with China on trade and human rights, and whether the Liberals will be less secretive about votes for human rights abusers at the United Nations?

Mr. Speaker, if all of the atrocities, war crimes, and crimes against humanity perpetrated by ISIS are not genocide, then what are they? We know that the UN Security Council is clearly incapable of instructing the International Criminal Court to act, but Canada should not hide behind international legal dysfunction. When will the Liberals fulfill their moral obligation to call this what it is, genocide?

Mr. Speaker, what we have here is a blatant, inexcusable endorsement of a notorious apologist for the brutal terror sponsoring, human rights abusing President of Syria, words of praise not offered by a merely misguided member of Parliament pandering for votes with an organization with a history of support for extremism and terror, but on a behalf of the Prime Minister of Canada.Will the Prime Minister distance himself from this outrageous tribute in his name?

Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Immigration tried to excuse the Liberals' refusal to rescue Yazidi refugees in Iraq by saying that his officials could not get to them because of the battle to liberate Mosul. We hope that many Yazidi prisoners will escape as ISIS retreats. There are already thousands of Yazidi women and girls in the relative, if inadequate, safety of western Iraq.Words are not enough. When will the Liberals fulfill Canada's genocide convention obligations and act?

Mr. Speaker, our Russian friends just vetoed a UN Security Council resolution against Syria.Yesterday, the international development minister tried to justify the misguided restoration of education funding to the hate-infected UN Relief and Works Agency with an undated quote of an Israeli general. She seems unaware that the general's boss, defence minister Lieberman, has just asked the United States to stop funding UNRWA because it continues to teach hate and demonize Israel.Can the Liberals not find another way to deliver aid?

Mr. Speaker, Canada is about to vote at the UN for members of the sardonically named Human Rights Council. Four notorious human rights abusers are among the candidates, again: China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Cuba.The vote is secret, but we know favours are traded in the UN process, and we recognize the Liberals' indecent appetite for Security Council votes. Will the Liberals tell Canadians and the world how Canada will vote on these four human rights abusers?

Mr. Speaker, I remind my hon. colleague that 10,000 Ukrainians have been killed, and 1.5 million Ukrainians are still displaced. While the military aggression and the illegal occupation continues, Putin is now trying to destabilize Ukraine politically with proxy candidates in local elections.Ukraine is asking Canada to maintain sanctions. Is the minister aware just how concerned Ukraine is about Canada's support? Is the government's commitment to Ukraine quietly fading?

Mr. Speaker, a sitting Liberal MP's law firm has been seized by the Law Society of British Columbia. This sitting Liberal member has been removed from the B.C. bar. This sitting Liberal MP's law firm was used by a notorious Chinese drug boss to launder money in a multi-million dollar real estate deal. When did the Prime Minister become aware of this latest Liberal scandal, and what is he going to do about it?

Mr. Speaker, the Liberal government has abandoned even a half-hearted acknowledgement of members and ministers' ethical obligations under the Conflict of Interest Act and Code. Again, there was a question asked and not answered yesterday. Will the Prime Minister and will the Liberal government, disgraced by a spectrum of ethical lapses and violations, do the right thing and clean up the mess themselves or are they leaving it, once again, to the Ethics Commissioner?

The memory lane hits keep coming, Mr. Speaker. Who can forget the Prime Minister's disastrous India trip, the many days of answers from the PM, the public safety minister and others blaming the Liberal member for Surrey Centre for inviting a convicted terrorist on that bhangra-dancing, diplomatic train wreck. In the end, we will recall the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians report revealed it was the Prime Minister's Office that put the convicted terrorist on the guest list.Can the Prime Minister tell us when he last spoke with Jaspal Atwal?

As I was about to say yesterday, Mr. Speaker, the EU's rejection of Stéphane Dion as ambassador gives rise to questions about his downsized special adviser role. What are Mr. Dion's reporting lines? Will he be backseat driving our sitting Canadian ambassador to the EU and those to individual countries?Mr. Dion said yesterday his bungled appointment was the Prime Minister's decision and the Prime Minister's alone. Does the Prime Minister recognize that his clumsy handling of compensating a removed minister has bruised Canada's reputation?

Mr. Speaker, the government is guilty of any number of lapses of judgment, but the finance minister's violation of the straightforward requirements of the Ethics Commissioner's disclosure declaration for all members of cabinet raises serious questions, not only of ethics, conflict of interest, and credibility, but of the confidence that Canadians have lost in the government.When will the minister come clean with the Ethics Commissioner and Canadians?

Mr. Speaker, the Liberals promised that cozying up to Iran would get results, even though the Iranian regime boasts about funding terrorist proxies, has a rogue ballistic missile system, and makes proclamations aimed at the destruction of Israel. That is even while Canadian resident Saeed Malekpour languishes in an Iranian prison. Now we learn the Liberals have sent diplomats to Iran perhaps to fulfill another misguided campaign promise to open an embassy our Conservative government closed because of the security risks to diplomats. Why?

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the chair of the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics. It is a crime to destroy government documents under the Access to Information Act. That crime is much more egregious if those documents have been requested in a legal proceeding. Could the chair of the committee advise the House and all Canadians if the future agenda of the committee will include the destruction of government-held documents.

Mr. Speaker, what we have here is a blatant, inexcusable endorsement of a notorious apologist for the brutal terror sponsoring, human rights abusing President of Syria, words of praise not offered by a merely misguided member of Parliament pandering for votes with an organization with a history of support for extremism and terror, but on a behalf of the Prime Minister of Canada.Will the Prime Minister distance himself from this outrageous tribute in his name?

Mr. Speaker, the Liberals abandoned the court of law to offer a $10.5 million settlement payoff to Omar Khadr, a confessed terrorist. The Liberals chose not to defend Omar Khadr's outrageous claim. They just wanted it all to go away. Then the Liberals tried to hide this extravagant, outrageous payoff from Canadians and Americans.Did the cabinet follow this deceitful course while knowing of Mr. Khadr's victims' outstanding court order claims against him?

Mr. Speaker, there have been no answers to questions coming out of the Ethics Commissioner's report.The commissioner found that among the laws the Prime Minister broke, the Prime Minister received an illegal gift. The taxpayers are also on the hook for the Prime Minister's decision to receive this illegal gift. Will the Prime Minister repay the almost quarter of a million dollars in security, staffing support, per diems, and technology generated by a holiday trip he should never have taken at the taxpayers' expense?

Mr. Speaker, returning to the Ethics Commissioner's report, titled in the Prime Minister's name, the Prime Minister has been found to have broken the law. The Prime Minister accepted an illegal gift. The Prime Minister's illegal trip and the hundreds of thousands of dollars of improperly generated costs made Canadian taxpayers complicit in the laws he broke. Why will the Prime Minister not simply repay Canadians for his illegal gift?

Mr. Speaker, Iran today test fired two ballistic missiles that the regime said proved its ability to strike Israel. The missiles carried the words, “Israel must be wiped out”.Former Liberal MP Irwin Cotler is on record saying, “I don't know if [the Prime Minister] has an appreciation of evil”. The Prime Minister said this week that he thought Canada was sending exactly the right signals on Iran.Is this not just another example of the Prime Minister's inability to appreciate evil?

Mr. Speaker, the Ethics Commissioner found that the Prime Minister violated the Conflict of Interest Act, accepting an illegal vacation seen as a gift designed to influence the PM. This past week a federal court ruled that the Lobbying Commissioner must also investigate this illegal vacation. Now the Liberals are fighting that order. Why is the government spending public money trying to cover up the Prime Minister's illegal holiday?

Mr. Speaker, a Hamas terrorist tunnel has been discovered between two Gaza schools run by the UN Relief and Works Agency, UNRWA. The agency, which teaches hate and glorifies Palestinian terrorist attacks against Israel, has responded disingenuously with shock. The reality is that UNRWA is desperate not to reform its ways but to preserve funding from increasingly skeptical democratic donor countries.When will the Liberals accept that Canada's $25 million in Palestinian aid could be delivered by better means?

Mr. Speaker, the public safety minister claims Canada's security agencies did their job on the Prime Minister's disastrous India trip. The fact is our security experts were not allowed to do their job because the PMO did not show the guest list to the RCMP or CSIS for screening. Now we know that India's security agencies did ask to see the guest list, where they would have detected the notorious, convicted, attempted assassin, but were refused access. It is time for the minister and the Prime Minister to explain this unacceptable security failure.

Mr. Speaker, we were reminded last week that the Prime Minister offers ridiculous answers to serious questions as often in his town halls as here in the House. In one outrageous response to a citizen concerned about his plan to reintegrate ISIS terrorists returning to Canada, the PM compared these returning terrorists to refugees from post-World War II Europe and Vietnamese boat people. Where did the Prime Minister acquire his warped view of history, and when will he apologize to legitimate refugees for comparing them to terrorists?

Mr. Speaker, there is yet another example of the Hamas terrorist regime in Gaza using a school, run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, to provide cover for a terrorist tunnel to use Palestinian children as human shields, though UNRWA claims it closed the school when the tunnel was discovered. The Conservative government delivered humanitarian aid to Palestinians around UNRWA, but the Liberals insist on handing UNRWA millions, despite the risk to children, despite the curriculum of hate and terror still taught to children in UNRWA schools. Why?

Mr. Speaker, I would invite the member to ask the journalists above to give a thumbs up or a thumbs down on this outrageous program.Another item in the Liberal election year stacked deck is found in the pre-writ advertising limits imposed on opposition parties while the Liberals will blow government resources on ministerial campaign-style events. The Liberals also refuse to commit government departments to not releasing research or reports that may influence public opinion during the summer pre-writ period. We know that these Liberals are increasingly anxious about October 21, but have they no shame attempting to rig the election?

Mr. Speaker, this is not the first example of the government looking the other way when Liberal MPs seek electoral support and funding from groups associated with extremism and terror. Government funding of Palestine House was cut by our previous Conservative government six years ago for just these reasons.Again, will the Prime Minister distance himself from this outrageous tribute made in his name?

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister's Office forced a non-partisan public servant, the national security adviser, to plant unattributed stories in the mainstream media to try to influence and redirect stories about the Prime Minister's embarrassingly disastrous trip to India.Does the Prime Minister have any evidence at all of this conspiracy theory, or was this tale concocted to protect the Prime Minister's political interests?

Mr. Speaker, Canadians have learned that the mayor of Montreal travelled to Iran to meet with the mayor of Tehran, a key player in that country's terrorist-sponsoring and human-rights abusing regime. Denis Coderre signed a co-operation agreement with Mohammad Qalibaf, a senior figure in Iran's revolutionary guard, which directs the brutal theocracy's horrific domestic and foreign agenda. Was the minister aware of his former Liberal colleague's ill-advised misadventure? Or, is this part of the Liberal government's misguided quest to normalize relations?

Mr. Speaker, it was illegal, not inappropriate. Earlier today I wrote to the RCMP commissioner suggesting an investigation of the Liberal leader's illegal vacation to the Aga Khan's island. Recent confirmation of the RCMP's deep involvement in the planning of the vacation, as well as lingering questions involving the Liberal leader's behaviour in the SNC corruption scandal, underscore the need to assure Canadians that there is only one law that must be followed by all Canadians.Will the Prime Minister cooperate in any belated criminal investigation into his illegal vacation?

Mr. Speaker, Vladimir Putin is playing the long game in Russia's illegal occupation of Ukraine. Putin is trying to convince the world that the crisis in Ukraine is over, but as Andriy Parubiy, the deputy first chair of the Ukrainian parliament reminded MPs here yesterday, Ukrainian soldiers and Ukrainian civilians are still dying every day.Sanctions are keeping pressure on the Russian leadership. Why are the Liberals so desperate to normalize relations with Putin?

Mr. Speaker, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency was established in 1949 to support Palestinian refugees, but for years, UNRWA has been manipulated by Gaza's corrupt Hamas government in flagrant contradiction of the UN stated policy of neutrality. Human rights organizations in Canada and abroad cite unacceptable redirection of aid funds and materiel, storage of weapons, and incitement to violence against Israel in UNRWA-operated schools. Why is the government committing new funds to this flawed UN agency?

Mr. Speaker, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, UNRWA, was established in 1949 to support Palestinian refugees, but for years UNRWA has been politicized by the corrupt Hamas government in Gaza, in flagrant contradiction of the UN's stated goal of neutrality. Human rights organizations in Canada and abroad cite unacceptable redirection of aid funds and material, and storage of weapons, and incitement to violence against Israel in UNRWA-operated schools. Why is the government considering new funding to this flawed UN agency?

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister has shut down every parliamentary opportunity to examine fully his attempted interference in the SNC-Lavalin corruption trial. By threatening a lawsuit, he suddenly seems to favour litigating details of his scandal under oath in a public court—well, not really. We know it is just a desperate ruse. However, there is another opportunity this afternoon. Will the Prime Minister encourage the Liberal members of the ethics committee to support my motion to invite him and 11 other witnesses to speak without constraint about this sorry affair?

Mr. Speaker, last week, Dafna Meir, a 38-year-old Israeli mother, was stabbed to death in her home in front of her three children. This week, 23-year-old Shlomit Krigman was stabbed to death while visiting her grandparents.The U.S. State Department has condemned the wave of deadly attacks against Israeli civilians, driven by the Palestinian leadership. However, yesterday, the Minister of Foreign Affairs said that a suggestion that he condemn the incitement was partisan politics.Could he explain this unfortunate remark?

Mr. Speaker, it is time for the government to clarify its foreign policy positions, given the confusion and contradictions coming from the Liberals. On the one hand, the foreign minister has said that Canada will break from our Conservative government's principled positions on Russia and its illegal occupation of Ukraine. On the other hand, the Liberal MP for Etobicoke Centre said in Kiev this week that there is no change in Canadian policy on Ukraine.Exactly who speaks on behalf of Liberal foreign policy?

Mr. Speaker, Iran has a long history as a bad actor in the Middle East. Iran provides military assistance to the Assad regime in Syria. Iran's supreme leader routinely threatens the destruction of Israel. Reopening our Canadian mission in Tehran would put Canadian foreign service workers at risk.Will the government abandon plans to normalize relations with Iran and keep sanctions in place?

Mr. Speaker, much has transpired since the Ethics Commissioner found the Liberal leader violated four sections of the Conflict of Interest Act in accepting an illegal vacation from a lobbyist. A federal court has now ordered the Commissioner of Lobbying to reopen investigation of that lavish and illegal gift. I have asked the RCMP commissioner that, on the basis of original and new evidence, she consider a criminal investigation. Has the Prime Minister been contacted by either the Commissioner of Lobbying or the RCMP in regard to that illegal gift?

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister blamed the member for Surrey Centre for inviting a convicted terrorist on the PM's disastrous India trip. However, one of the few lightly asterisk-redacted chapters in the committee report shows it was the PMO that put Jaspal Atwal on the guest list. As an RCMP officer belatedly observed, a google search would have identified the risk if the guest list had been provided to security. Will the Prime Minister now accept responsibility for this security breakdown?

Mr. Speaker, opposition members of the ethics committee today unanimously supported a motion to call the Clerk of the Privy Council to discuss accumulating questions about the former Liberal member for Brampton East, questions involving gambling, wiretaps, money laundering, terrorist funding, outside employment, the embarrassing India trip, and an RCMP investigation. Unfortunately, the Liberal majority on committee voted to defeat our motion. What are the Liberals hiding from Canadians?

Mr. Speaker, a big part of the $200,000 wasted on the Prime Minister's illegal trip was generated by the security detail that must accompany him wherever he chooses to go. Canadians accept that for working trips to the UN, the G7, or perhaps even the Davos celebrity fest. However, after the Prime Minister dragged his security detail along on his illegal vacation, and it had no choice but to accompany, the Prime Minister owns those wasted dollars. Therefore, why will he not do the right thing and pay it back?

Mr. Speaker, Canadians know that the Liberals practise a very quiet diplomacy when it comes to human rights abuse in China or with China's military expansionism in the South China Sea, but it is time for the government to stand up against China's thuggish behaviour in Canada.It is bad enough that the Liberals did not protest when China blocked Taiwan's usual observer role at the civil aviation meeting in Montreal, but how could the government remain silent when China blocked a Canadian citizen, a journalist, from covering that meeting, in Canada?

Mr. Speaker, here is another question on the Liberals' wastage of hard-earned tax dollars in trying to cover up political problems. There was $10 million in an attempted secret payoff to Omar Khadr, millions to fight indigenous children and women in court, and almost half a million dollars to a defeated Liberal candidate for a PR campaign to fight a tribunal ruling in favour of indigenous children.Why is the Prime Minister robbing the middle class to pay for Liberal profligacy?

Mr. Speaker, diplomatic news conferences are usually the stuff of deflected questions and high-level platitudes. However, yesterday, the Chinese foreign minister furiously dressed down a journalist who dared ask about human rights abuse and the imprisonment of Canadian Kevin Garratt for unsubstantiated charges of spying. The Minister of Foreign Affairs stood by quietly and said that he raised these same issues behind closed doors. Can the minister tell us if the Chinese foreign minister was as angry, condescending, and disingenuous in his denials there, and how the minister responded?

Mr. Speaker, last December, the foreign affairs minister stated: We’re seeing a lot of countries around the world that are starting to play fast and loose with...rule of law. The minister promised: Canada is not going to be one of those countries. That promise came three months into the Prime Minister's incessant campaign to corrupt the rule of law to help a corrupt corporation avoid criminal justice. Does the Prime Minister not owe that minister, as well the former attorney general and all Canadians, an apology and a resignation?

Mr. Speaker, Canadians are still waiting for answers on the logic and manner of Stéphane Dion's extraordinarily clumsy diplomatic appointments. Canada's professional diplomats, past and present, at headquarters and abroad, are dismayed and discouraged. Mr. Dion's status in Brussels will diminish the rank and the authority of the ambassador in place. Mr. Dion's status with Germany, as a still uninvited special advisor, is a diplomatic faux pas. For a ministerial housecleaning so long in the works, why this diplomatic train wreck?

Mr. Speaker, the boycott, divest, and sanctions campaigners claim it to be a human rights movement. In fact, it is nothing more than a thinly disguised multi-dimensional hate campaign. It targets the economy and the citizens of the only democracy in the Middle East. Last week during the debate, the Liberals were all over the place on this issue. Can the minister assure the House that when our motion passes, his government will take it seriously?

Mr. Speaker, no one was surprised that the Liberals continue to attempt to minimize and trivialize the seriousness of the Liberal leader's guilt, chronic ethical lapses and disrespect for the law, but from the illegal vacation to his actions and reactions in the SNC-Lavalin corruption scandal, and half a dozen lesser scandals in between, he has shaken Canadians' confidence in the integrity of government and the administration of justice. Again, will the Prime Minister co-operate with a criminal investigation by the RCMP or the Ontario Provincial Police?

Mr. Speaker, we have just witnessed the annual ritual of some of the world's worst human rights abusers elected to the United Nations Human Rights Council.The good news is that Russia has been denied the seat it so long took for granted. However, China, Saudi Arabia, and Cuba will be seated. The vote, as usual, was secret. However, the vote is not the minister's. It belongs to all Canadians.Will the minister tell Canadians how Canada voted on these four notorious human rights abusing nations?

Mr. Speaker, when Canadians are illegally detained and abused by countries like Iran and China, the Liberals cite “privacy” as a reason to remain silent. When Canadians are eventually released, if they survive, like the Garratts from China or Professor Hoodfar from Iran, the Liberals have been similarly mute.When will the Liberals reset this unacceptable foreign policy and condemn publicly, on behalf of all Canadians, the past and present abuse of Canadians in China and Iran?

Mr. Speaker, Canada has contributed billions of dollars to the Palestinian Authority over the years: humanitarian aid, justice building, policing, and education. This week, the Palestinian education ministry held a memorial ceremony for an 18-year-old terrorist who was killed after an attack on an Israeli border guard. Palestinian official media gave the event wide coverage. Will the minister publicly condemn the Palestinian Authority for its continuing incitement of deadly attacks on Israelis?

Mr. Speaker, our Russian friends just vetoed a UN Security Council resolution against Syria.Yesterday, the international development minister tried to justify the misguided restoration of education funding to the hate-infected UN Relief and Works Agency with an undated quote of an Israeli general. She seems unaware that the general's boss, defence minister Lieberman, has just asked the United States to stop funding UNRWA because it continues to teach hate and demonize Israel.Can the Liberals not find another way to deliver aid?

Mr. Speaker, Canadians are well aware of China's imperfect justice system, the rigged trials, the brutal incarceration, the torture, and the executions. Our allies, the U.S., Australia, and New Zealand, do not have extradition treaties with China. The Prime Minister naively says that Canada has high standards and rigorous processes, but Canada has no control over what happens in Chinese prisons. The Chinese have many ways of killing prisoners.Why are the Liberals suddenly humouring China, given its cruel justice system?

Mr. Speaker, it is time for Canada to speak truth to the world's worst human rights abusers publicly, not timidly, not in private with cautious lines crafted to win eventual Security Council votes. The minister has an opportunity to deny today that secret votes were traded with rights abusers who seek false legitimacy on the Human Rights Council.Again, will the minister stop hiding the truth and tell Canadians how Canada voted on the Human Rights Council candidacies of Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, and Cuba?

Mr. Speaker, that is unacceptable. Genocide is a crime in Canada, and we incorporate the international law definition of genocide.A year ago the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights concluded that there is evidence of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. Since then, ISIS has done nothing but continue its deliberate slaughter and extermination of those who oppose it.Why are the Liberals so afraid to call this genocide?

Mr. Speaker, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization has, for decades, been a petri dish of corruption, financial mismanagement, and political bias. Instead of honouring education, science, and history, UNESCO has denied Jewish history on Temple Mount and across Jerusalem and outrageously proclaimed Hebron's Tomb of the Patriarchs to be a Palestinian world heritage site. The United States is withdrawing from UNESCO, as is Israel. When will Canada and the Liberals take a stand?

Mr. Speaker, we have heard a litany of blatantly implausible excuses for the Liberals' genocide denial. One of the early excuses was that, if Liberals acknowledged the horrifically obvious, Canada would be obliged to do something. We have not heard that excuse for a while. The minister has been hiding, until today, behind process.Is that the real reason? Have the Liberals denied genocide to avoid restoring and extending Canada's anti-Daesh combat mission?

Mr. Speaker, Canada is about to vote at the UN for members of the sardonically named Human Rights Council. Four notorious human rights abusers are among the candidates, again: China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Cuba.The vote is secret, but we know favours are traded in the UN process, and we recognize the Liberals' indecent appetite for Security Council votes. Will the Liberals tell Canadians and the world how Canada will vote on these four human rights abusers?

Mr. Speaker, Canadians learned yesterday that the Liberals' ill-advised quest to normalize relations with Iran has notched up now to the ministerial level. The minister tweeted that in his first meeting with the regime's foreign minister at the UN, bilateral issues were discussed in the context of the Middle East. As an afterthought, the tweet said they “Discussed consular cases”.There was not a word about Canada's concern over the illegal detention, isolation, and abuse of Canadian Professor Hoodfar in Tehran's Evin prison. Why not?

Mr. Speaker, six weeks ago, the Prime Minister denied that he attempted to interfere in a criminal trial. His excuses have evolved as evidence of political interference has accumulated, despite sycophantic stonewalling by Liberal members of the justice committee. Now the Prime Minister and senior staffers have lawyered up, on the public dime, in apparent anticipation of criminal investigation and possible prosecution.We are looking at unvarnished corruption here. Will the Prime Minister direct Liberal MPs to stop the cover-up at the justice committee tomorrow?

Mr. Speaker, the Liberal excuses clearly do not wash. This is clearly yet another case of cash for access, another shameless Liberal claim that exposure of each of these illegal donations to the Liberal Party somehow proves Liberal transparency and accountability. This is Monty Python logic, and the Liberal ethical parrot is clearly dead. Why is it so difficult for the Prime Minister to keep promises and respect the law?

Mr. Speaker, as we continue in a few moments with debate on the opposition day motion calling on the finance minister to apologize for failing to live up to the Prime Minister's mandate letter's ethical standards and for breaking trust with Canadians, there are a couple of still unanswered questions, again.When did the finance minister advise the Prime Minister that he was neither establishing a blind trust nor divesting his stock holdings? Again, has the finance minister been served notice by the Ethics Commissioner of his violation of the Conflict of Interest Act?

Mr. Speaker, Canadians know that from the day the Liberals took office, from the Prime Minister down, the proclaimed ethical standards and the “go-beyond-the-letter-of-the law” ministerial mandate letters were simply window dressing, empty words. Every violation exposed by the Ethics Commissioner was sloughed off with, “The PM is working with the commissioner.”Today's revelations of alleged corruption in the highest office in Canada, attempted interference in criminal justice and punishment of a minister who resisted demand answers and accountability now.

Mr. Speaker, the Liberals have dithered on developing meaningful measures to prevent foreign and domestic interference in Canada's democratic electoral process. They confected deeply deficient legislation to stack the deck in their favour. Now the minister fears that it will not be enough. She is afraid of voices she cannot control, so she is threatening to shut down Twitter during the election. Do the Liberals realize they are walking in the basic footsteps of the Chinese, Iranian and North Korean dictatorships?

Mr. Speaker, that is hardly reassuring given that the Liberals have now twice toyed with data mining to tilt the democratic process. We are reassured the Privacy Commissioner has launched an investigation into the possible violation of Canadians' privacy through manipulation of their social media behaviour. As well, the ethics committee is moving toward an investigation of the developing Facebook scandal.However, will the Prime Minister's Office and the minister explain to Canadians what the Liberal caucus research bureau was planning with Mr. Wylie in 2016?

Mr. Speaker, the Ethics Commissioner released the Trudeau report a week after the House rose in December, finding that he broke the—

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister claimed he had a better way of doing accountability and transparency and ministerial independence, but the PM did not miss a beat pre-empting a transparent investigation by the revenue minister regarding questions raised by the paradise papers about offshore tax avoidance, tax evasion, and links to chief Liberal bagman Stephen Bronfman. The PM said he is satisfied with his bagman's explanation, so can the Prime Minister or the minister confirm that Mr. Bronfman is not under investigation?

Mr. Speaker, Canada must not forget Palestinian refugees. We should also not forget the Palestinian leadership that is keeping them refugees, holding them hostage, refusing to peacefully co-exist with Israel.There is abundant evidence that misdirected UNRWA aid is part of the problem. Our Conservative government successfully delivered more than $70 million in aid to Palestinians by other means than UNRWA.Why will the Liberals not guarantee that all aid gets to the refugees?

Mr. Speaker, as the Ethics Commissioner gets into his formal investigation of the fisheries minister, he is going to find very clear evidence, in the minister's own handwriting, of his interference in the bidding process for a very lucrative clam harvesting licence. This is a confected company with close Liberal Party and family connections that did not meet the bid criteria, that did not even own a boat, and was awarded a very valuable quota by the minister. Will the Prime Minister remove the minister from this tainted file and restart the bid process?

Mr. Speaker, in the war on terror, Canada most often follows the United States in designation of terrorist entities, such as al-Qaeda or successor groupings. The latest incarnation, Hay'at Tahrir Al-Sham, is not on the U.S. list because it absorbed a U.S. sponsored guerrilla body in Syria's multi-dimensional civil war. However, Canada by also not listing this clearly terrorist composite group is creating challenges for prosecution of terrorist funding or recruitment of Canadians by this group. Why will the government not act and designate?

Mr. Speaker, as you know, the sanctions imposed against Russia by our Conservative government have been very effective, so effective in fact that the foreign minister of Russia is appealing now for the normalization of relations between Canada and Putin's regime. Could the Minister of Foreign Affairs tell us today if his government intends to drop sanctions against Russia in the middle of the night, as it did with Iran?

Mr. Speaker, we know the Prime Minister believes he can pick and choose how to interpret the laws and regulations that members of this House are sworn to respect.We have seen the PM and members of cabinet ignore, actually break, his own ethics guidelines and his promises.Is that why, after a year and a half in majority government, the PM has yet to fill vacant watchdog positions that govern elections, official languages, lobbying, and ethics.Does the PM believe it is more important to get his appointments secretary a parachuted seat in Parliament than appointing watchdogs who might call him to account?

Mr. Speaker, the clock continues to tick on three important investigations by the Ethics Commissioner: two of the Prime Minister's conflict of interest holiday violations and, of course, the most recent of several involving the finance minister. However, as Canadians wait patiently for the commissioner to report, her spokesperson says that if these reports are not completed before she leaves office in the coming weeks, it will be up to her unnamed successor to continue, restart, or abandon those investigations.Will the Prime Minister commit to appointing someone who will continue these important investigations?

Mr. Speaker, it is time for the Liberals to come clean on the Statistics Canada file.The minister himself this week admitted that StatsCan kept him and the cabinet in the dark about the demand to Canada's banks to hand over more than a million Canadians' most personal financial information without consent.When will the Liberals get their heads around new realities in the digital world, accept that Canadians should own their own data, and should have a right to decide with whom they share it, or not?

Mr. Speaker, all Conservative contributions are disclosed on the Elections Canada website.Let us get back though to the Liberal Brampton $600,000 undisclosed. Who attended the fundraiser? Were ministers there? Were lobbyists in attendance under the Liberals sneaky Laurier Club dispensation? Where did the funds go, the bumptiously claimed $600,000? How many cheques were unacceptable under Elections Canada regulations? Who are the Liberals protecting? What are they hiding?

Mr. Speaker, the question now is when was the Prime Minister made aware that Liberal partisans and the minister's family would benefit from this lucrative rigged contract?

Mr. Speaker, the fisheries minister is now officially under investigation by the Ethics Commissioner over the awarding of a very lucrative clam harvesting licence to a group with both close Liberal and family ties. Will the Prime Minister do the right thing, remove the minister from the file, and restart the process?

Mr. Speaker, the allied coalition battle for the liberation of Mosul will, we hope, see the liberation of more Yazidi women and girls who have been enslaved and brutalized by the ISIS death cult, but the villages, towns, and cities that have been freed are largely uninhabitable. Any Yazidis freed will have only inadequate sanctuary in the Kurdish region of Iraq, unrecognized as refugees by the UN. Why will Canada not fulfill its genocide convention obligations and circumvent unworkable UNHCR protocols?

Mr. Speaker, we know the Prime Minister broke with standard diplomatic process by announcing Stéphane Dion's dual diplomatic assignments to Europe before consulting the intended hosts. While dual responsibilities do occur occasionally, the Berlin and Brussels postings are among the most important relationships Canada has to manage. Could the Prime Minister explain the logic of Mr. Dion's twofer appointment?

Mr. Speaker, delay is the deadliest form of denial. Canadians can clearly see, by the Liberals' unacceptable delay in appointing a new Ethics Commissioner and the PM's flippant disregard of the ethics laws and regulations fundamental to the House, that ethical practices are discretionary for Liberals.Canadians deserve rulings on the ethical lapses of the Prime Minister and his finance minister. Will he commit to appointing a new Ethics Commissioner who will continue these important investigations?

Mr. Speaker, Kevin Garratt, a Canadian citizen who for years has assisted humanitarian programs into North Korea from his café in Dandong, China, has been imprisoned in China since 2014, indicted on phoney and unsubstantiated charges of spying.While our previous Conservative government spoke out strongly on Mr. Garratt's behalf, protesting the lack of evidence, the Liberals have only expressed concern.Why is an innocent Canadian being abandoned so the Prime Minister can pursue his fresh start with China?

Mr. Speaker, the Liberal House leader, answering for the Prime Minister, says that he accepts the Ethics Commissioner's report. The Liberal House leader asks why the opposition does not accept the report. We fully accept the commissioner's findings that the Prime Minister broke the law. What we do not accept is that the Prime Minister is attempting to dodge the consequences.Other ministers have repaid taxpayers for their ethical lapses, why will he not?

Mr. Speaker, Jerry Dias, the head of the union representing thousands of Canadian journalists, confirmed in a tweet last week that his union will campaign aggressively to help the Liberals in the next election. The very same day, he was quoted in the Toronto Star asking the Liberals for more money. Now Canadians learn the Liberals plan to cave in to this demand with a major cash infusion for media outlets.Does the minister not see that this bailout could be easily perceived as an attempt to buy off the media in an election year?

Mr. Speaker, Elections Canada is keeping secret the names of its social media influencers: musicians, celebrities, athletes and YouTube producers. These folk become influencers because they have strong opinions. How can Elections Canada ensure that these influencers have never expressed political opinions?The Chief Electoral Officer concedes that this unprecedented campaign is politically sensitive. Should Elections Canada not simply focus on administering a fair election?

Mr. Speaker, the Liberal government has abandoned even a half-hearted acknowledgement of members and ministers' ethical obligations under the Conflict of Interest Act and Code. Again, there was a question asked and not answered yesterday. Will the Prime Minister and will the Liberal government, disgraced by a spectrum of ethical lapses and violations, do the right thing and clean up the mess themselves or are they leaving it, once again, to the Ethics Commissioner?

And they got a contract, Mr. Speaker, without a boat.The Liberal government is keeping the Ethics Commissioner hopping. We now know the Liberal member for Brampton East is officially under investigation for bringing his private employer on the Prime Minister's India trip. Why does the PM continue to allow this kind of unacceptable outside work by members of the Liberal caucus, which is, in this case, so clearly just another form of crony cash for access?

Mr. Speaker, the member for Mississauga—Erin Mills may be willing to stand with an extremist supporter she addresses as “brother Amin”. She may be willing to praise a man who denies President Assad is a murderer and a butcher in return for support in the next federal election.Will the Prime Minister disassociate himself from this misguided tribute to extremism made by the member in the Prime Minister's name?

Mr. Speaker, the Liberal government's reluctance to demand better of the United Nations is unacceptable. Whether funding terror incitement in UNRWA schools, concealing votes for human rights abusers to the Human Rights Council, ignoring the anti-Semitic denial of Jerusalem's history by UNESCO, or now downplaying the election of Saudi Arabia to the status of women, all of this makes Canada complicit in the UN's dysfunction. Is there no end to the Prime Minister's willingness to pander to rights abusers in his indecent pursuit of a Security Council seat?

Mr. Speaker, the Liberals brushed off the concerns of two former CSIS directors and a former ambassador to China regarding the slapdash sunny-ways sale of Canadian defence technology to a communist dictatorship. While the Liberals may be willing to jeopardize our security interests selling Norsat for a trade deal with China, they have clumsily put at risk relations with our best friend, trade partner, and protector. Now that a congressional committee is urging the Pentagon to review this risky deal, will the Liberals order a formal national security review?

Mr. Speaker, ethical lapses have become the hallmark of the current government. The Liberals seem determined now, in their final year in office, to set a new record in the number of simultaneous police investigations into Liberal-member activities. With regard to the most recent investigation, involving the member for Brampton East, the Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development, and a suspect real estate deal, can the Prime Minister confirm whether law enforcement has been in touch with his or the minister's office?

Mr. Speaker, the fisheries minister attempts to excuse his interference in the bid process that gifted a clam harvesting quota worth hundreds of millions of dollars to a shell company because of after-the-fact involvement of minority indigenous partners. However, the rigged process also happened to involve the brother of a sitting Liberal MP, a former Liberal MP, and a cousin of the minister's wife, who is a former federal fisheries official.Again, will the Prime Minister remove the minister from this file and restart the process?

Mr. Speaker, during the special immigration committee study of the Yazidi genocide, a Liberal member suggested that, because of the Yazidi refugees' ancient culture, they might not integrate well into Canadian society. That suggestion was properly rejected by genocide survivor, Nadia Murad, and Canadians of Yazidi origin. There are many Canadians, including descendants of the Holocaust and other genocides, offering private sponsorship of Yazidis, particularly widows and girls. Why is the minister and the Liberal government ignoring them?

Mr. Speaker, major ethical lapses are a hallmark of the Liberal government. Today, we learned that Raj Grewal, the former member for Brampton East, has been under RCMP investigation for months in connection with millions of dollars in gambling activity using suspect funds, this at the same time the Ethics Commissioner has been investigating the MP's extra-parliamentary employment and for greasing the way for that employer to attend a prime ministerial event in India.Again, I will ask a question that has been asked so many times in the last three years: When did the Prime Minister become aware of this RCMP investigation?

Mr. Speaker, the Liberals rushed to restore education funding to the UN Relief and Works Agency, despite abundant evidence that UNRWA employees actively support terrorism and incite anti-Semitism.The minister assured Canadians that $25 million would teach Palestinian children tolerance and respect, but a detailed news study by UN Watch revealed 60 new examples of hate on UNRWA teacher and staff Facebook pages.Our Conservative government effectively delivered aid around UNRWA. Why can the Liberals not do so?

Mr. Speaker, a question through you to the Minister of Finance, though we know the Prime Minister is speaking for the Minister of Finance again today. It is a simple question, which I hope the Minister of Finance will make himself available to the House to answer, sooner than later.When did the Minister of Finance advise the Prime Minister—when did the Prime Minister learn that Canada's chief financial officer so deliberately offended the spirit of the ethics law?

Mr. Speaker, hundreds of worthy Canada summer jobs employers were denied funding for thousands of young people this year because they refused to accept the Liberals' imposed values. Now, the Islamic Humanitarian Service of Kitchener ticked the box and funding was personally approved by the Liberal House leader. Well, Sheikh Shafiq Huda of this organization now calls for genocide, the eradication of Israelis, and says, “You will leave in body bags.”Does the minister not believe those words clearly violate the Liberal values attestation?

Madam Speaker, the Conflict of Interest Act says, “a public office holder is in a conflict of interest when he or she exercises an official power, duty or function that provides an opportunity...to improperly further another person’s private interests.”We know ministers often hire journalists for their communications skills to promote government policies. This seems to be the first time a journalist has been hired to block his communications skills to shut him up.Therefore, the date is important. When did the minister hire Mr. Cudmore and give him a job?

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the chair of the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics. It is a crime to destroy government documents under the Access to Information Act. That crime is much more egregious if those documents have been requested in a legal proceeding. Could the chair of the committee advise the House and all Canadians if the future agenda of the committee will include the destruction of government-held documents.

Mr. Speaker, this is not the way to set up convincing foreign policy. A month ago, the immigration minister said Canada would never negotiate an extradition treaty with China while China maintains the death penalty. The Prime Minister then acknowledged that discussions on exactly that topic have begun. The foreign minister denied it, and then he pleaded with journalists to stop reporting the facts of the matter.What is going on here? Who is in charge?

Mr. Speaker, the Liberals have been dragging their feet on the Magnitsky sanctions for a year and a half.The Prime Minister's ever-shifting position on the Syrian conflict goes back for years. In 2015, he said that the Conservative government's desire to expand Canada's presence into Syria was a worrying trend. That was when Canada's CF-18s were flying targeted missions against Daesh in Syria.Now the Prime Minister seems to be calling for a full-scale regime change in Syria. What exactly is he proposing? What will he think tomorrow?

Mr. Speaker, we have seen that Iran is very selective in the way it protects foreign diplomatic missions.I am wondering whether the Minister of Foreign Affairs is more willing today than yesterday to explicitly condemn the incitement by Palestinian leaders for deadly attacks against Israeli civilians. I wonder whether the minister's reluctance has anything to do with his stated intention that Canada return to be an honest broker in the Middle East, a return to the discredited Liberal philosophy of moral equivalence of Palestinian terrorists and Israeli victims.Will the minister stand today and condemn the incitement?

Mr. Speaker, we have learned through media reports that the Liberals are considering a bailout package for Canada's struggling news industry in this week's fall economic statement. We hope this is merely a trial balloon because a healthy democracy relies on a free and independent press. It would be unacceptable for the Liberals to even appear to be trying to influence favour with the media.Will the minister confirm that the Liberals will not attempt to buy off the media in an election year?

Mr. Speaker, government bailout investment has no place in an independent Canadian news industry. How independent can thousands of journalists at struggling news organizations across the country be if their employers' survival is dependent on government subsidies, slush-fund tax relief or direct cash bailouts? Again, and I do not want to hear about millions more for the CBC, why can the Liberals not understand that a media bailout in an election year is simply unacceptable?

Mr. Speaker, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Fisheries said in an answer in the House that our Conservative government never had a plan to include indigenous partners in the clam harvesting fishery. I would like to table a release made by Fisheries and Oceans Canada in early 2015 that shows exactly the opposite.

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister's threatened lawsuit is a classic SLAPP suit, a strategic lawsuit against public participation. The Prime Minister is clearly attempting to censor, silence and intimate, without intending to proceed. However, if he actually does, the Prime Minister should proceed quickly. The Leader of the Opposition has invited him to “Bring it on.”Could the Prime Minister assure the House that he has ordered retention of all documents related to the SNC-Lavalin corruption scandal?

Mr. Speaker, well, it is not happening. Canada has urged Venezuela's repressive president to release political prisoners. Lilian Tintori, the wife of Leopoldo Lopez, Venezuela's leading political prisoner, has met OAS Secretary General Almagro, President Trump, the UN high commissioner for human rights, the presidents of Mexico and Argentina, even the Pope, but for some reason, Senora Tintori cannot get a meeting with the Prime Minister. Why will the Prime Minister not take a meeting and send a strong message to President Maduro?

Mr. Speaker, that is another example that when faced with tough policy decisions, at home or abroad, the government favours procrastination over principled decision-making. When Liberals play honest broker, they prefer bafflegab to straight talk. During the election campaign Liberal MPs made strong commitments to match our Conservative government's support and defence of Ukraine, so why, after more than three months in office, can the government not actually denounce the Russian invasion and call it an illegal occupation?

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister needs to wake up and understand that Canadians reject the government's support of Statistics Canada's harvest of deeply personal financial data without asking for permission. Canadians realize that Europeans this year have new privacy laws that prohibit this sort of privacy exposure without the specific consent of clients.Why will the Prime Minister not accept that Canadians own all of their personal information, financial or otherwise, and that they should decide whether that data is shared or not?

Mr. Speaker, I was going to ask about powerful new evidence that Canada's sanctions monitoring, compliance, and enforcement of criminal financial activity is dysfunctional, and the Liberals foot-dragging in accepting the foreign affairs committee's unanimous Magnitsky recommendations to get tough on corruption, but I think more relevant is the Prime Minister's dysfunctional performance in question period. Just how many times has he met the Ethics Commissioner?

Mr. Speaker, a Canadian citizen, Sun Qian, has been imprisoned in Beijing for her belief in truth, compassion, and tolerance.Canada's new ambassador to China refused to publicly protest this latest case of Chinese extrajudicial detention, but by muting content on the plight of dual citizens unjustly held in China, Iran, Turkey, or any other undemocratic country, Canada is treating these citizens as second-class citizens.Why are the Liberals prioritizing trade and muting Canada's principled voice on the rule of law?

Mr. Speaker, for years Canada's intelligence services have warned that China is trying to steal Canadian advanced technology.In 2015, our Conservative government ordered Chinese divestment of ITF, a Quebec high-tech company, on national security grounds. Three months ago, as the Liberals rushed to satisfy Chinese demands at every level, coincidental with the Prime Minister's cash-for-access events and the Chinese billionaires' shopping spree, the Liberals cancelled the Conservative cabinet's divestment order. Why?

Mr. Speaker, for years, federal government departments have been hacked by a network of Chinese hackers.Recently released documents reveal that China's hack of the National Research Council, in 2014 alone, cost hundreds of millions of dollars. Now the Liberals have approved the sale of this Montreal company and its sensitive defence-related technology.Why are the Liberals spending many millions of dollars to protect our secrets from the Chinese, and at the same time they are selling our secrets to the Chinese?

Mr. Speaker, today's UN report is unequivocal, that genocide against Yazidis has occurred and is ongoing and, as important, that there must be no impunity for these crimes.The Liberals have spent months, until today, making excuses for refusing to recognize this as genocide, but every state—and this includes Canada—has an obligation to act to prevent and to punish genocide.Now that the minister has finally spoken the word, will Canada restore the combat mission?

Mr. Speaker, it has been obvious for some time that the foreign affairs minister is out of touch with Canadians on a range of issues, but it is now clear that he is not even on the Prime Minister's wavelength. The minister's emotional denial that Canada is discussing an extradition treaty with China was surprising given the PM's admission and the Chinese premier's urging.Is the minister simply not paying attention, or is there division in cabinet?

Mr. Speaker, even the British prime minister appears before a committee.As the Liberal House leader recites the Prime Minister's empty lines, the message is “Case closed, nothing going on here, the PM promises to consult the Ethics Commissioner about future vacations.” However, there are other important findings in the commissioner's report. For example, evidence of the PM's bizarre, unethical attitude regarding lobbying. He thinks he can break conflict and lobby laws, because he is just relationship building. His interaction is ceremonial.When will the Prime Minister do the right thing?