SoVote

Context: House Hansard - 212 - Jun/13/23

Mr. Frank Caputo (Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, CPC)

Jun/13/23 3:11:04 p.m.
Watch

Mr. Speaker, the Liberals are at it again, trying to silence those who disagree. Because I clapped in support of a public inquiry, the Attorney General sent an email from his official account. The email outlined that he was the Minister of Justice and Attorney General. It clearly threatened my legal reputation and my professional future. However, we as Conservatives will not be silenced. Does the Attorney General think it is acceptable to intimidate an MP and threaten his reputation because the MP supports an inquiry?

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Context: House Hansard - 212 - Jun/13/23

Mr. Frank Caputo

Jun/13/23 3:19:35 p.m.
Watch

Mr. Speaker, the member for Kingston and the Islands just said something unparliamentary to me about having a thin skin and about being offended given what the Minister of Justice did, which was to threaten my professional future and threaten my legal reputation. This is not funny. He should be apologizing and withdrawing that comment forthwith.

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Context: House Hansard - 212 - Jun/13/23

Mr. Frank Caputo

Jun/13/23 6:27:45 p.m.
Watch

Mr. Speaker, I am rising to deal with the question of privilege response that was given by my—

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Context: House Hansard - 212 - Jun/13/23

Mr. Frank Caputo (Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, CPC)

Jun/13/23 6:28:11 p.m.
Watch

That is fair enough, Mr. Speaker. I want to address what the member for Winnipeg North said in his response, because in my view, he blatantly misstated things and, frankly, should be withdrawing some of his comments. I do not have an exact quote here, but the member said the question that I applauded to, asked by the member for Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, was basically a sullying of his reputation. However, there was no such thing in that question whatsoever. This is what the member for Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes said in part when he referenced Justice Iacobucci: We have the Prime Minister, who hired his friend, paying him $1,500 a day. That friend then hired Liberals. He hired Frank Iacobucci, from the Trudeau Foundation. He hired Liberal insiders, such as Sheila Block, and now we have this rapporteur.... That was the end. That was not the way it was conveyed by the member for Winnipeg North, and he should be ashamed for the framing of this. Furthermore, he talked about this being about the Italian community and not the legal community, and this was not necessarily raised yesterday when I spoke. The reality is—

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Context: House Hansard - 212 - Jun/13/23

Mr. Frank Caputo

Jun/13/23 6:29:52 p.m.
Watch

Mr. Speaker, when I raised my question of privilege, the Minister of Justice had not gone to the media, and the member for Winnipeg North had not spoken. This is not about impugning somebody's reputation in the legal community. It is about impugning their reputation in the Italian community. A member's privilege is fettered when they are intimidated from speaking based on something like clapping. In my respectful view, it should be a foregone conclusion that damaging or sullying someone's reputation in their cultural community is as bad as, if not worse than, sullying their reputation in the legal community. However, we have the member for Winnipeg North reading something, presumably from the PMO, that does just that and justifies it. The Liberals are victim blaming in this case in what is an obvious overstep by the Attorney General. I will end with this. The member deliberately used the term “thin skin”. I would have challenged him or the member for Kingston and the Islands, who said it to me earlier, to come to work with me for one week when I was prosecuting sexual offences against children to see if they could last. That was a completely inappropriate comment. He should retract it and he should apologize. He should not be doing this to hon. members in this House, because it is dishonourable conduct.

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