House Hansard - 261

44th Parl. 1st Sess.

December 4, 2023 11:00AM

Mr. Michael Cooper (St. Albert—Edmonton, CPC)

Dec/4/23 1:48:49 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I rise on a question of privilege, having given the appropriate notice pursuant to Standing Order 48(2). It pertains to a breach of a committee order of the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs for the production of documents regarding the incident in the galleries on September 22, during the address by the Ukrainian president. That incident, of course, involved the recognition by the Speaker of a former soldier of the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS. It is an incident that brought enormous shame on this House. It caused significant international embarrassment and enormous hurt to Jewish Canadians and, indeed, Jews around the world. It showed a total lack of respect for the men and women of the Canadian Armed Forces, who fought valiantly in World War II, including 45,000 Canadians who gave their lives to secure freedom and to defeat the evil Nazis. It demonstrated disrespect to the memory of six million Jews who were murdered at the hands of the Nazis during the Holocaust. This incident in the galleries constituted perhaps the greatest in a long list of international embarrassments caused by the Prime Minister, who is himself an international embarrassment. In order to get to the bottom of this egregious incident that happened under the watch of the Prime Minister on September 22, I moved a motion at the procedure and House affairs committee. For some context, I will read the relevant parts of the motion. It called for the production of documents. More specifically, at paragraph (B), it provided as follows: ...an order do issue for all e-mails, memoranda or other documents transmitted between the Speaker’s Office or the House of Commons Administration, on the one part, and any government department or agency, including the Prime Minister’s Office or any other minister’s office, as well as the House Leaders of all recognized parties and their offices, on the other part, in relation to the Address of the President of Ukraine, including but not limited to reference to the name “Yaroslav Hunka”, and the arrangements concerning it, provided that these shall be deposited with the clerk of the committee, in both official languages and without redaction, within ten days.... That motion was adopted after considerable obstruction by the Liberals on the procedure and House affairs committee, no doubt to shield the Prime Minister from accountability for this embarrassing incident. It was adopted nonetheless, at the end of November. I do not have the date, but I can assure the Speaker that the deadline, the 10-day period for documents to be produced, including from the Privy Council Office and the Prime Minister's Office, came and went as of December 1. Conservatives complied with the motion—

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Context: House Hansard - 261 - Dec/4/23

Mr. Michael Cooper

Dec/4/23 1:54:41 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, to your point about exceptional circumstances, that is consistent with a ruling of Speaker Fraser on March 26, 1990. I would submit that if there ever were an instance in which there are exceptional circumstances, it is in regard to this matter. This, after all, goes to the heart of the administration of the House and protocols that were breached, causing enormous embarrassment to all members. On that basis, I would submit that the failure of the Prime Minister's Office and the PCO and other relevant departments controlled by the Prime Minister to turn over documents within the 10 days is a matter that is quite appropriately raised in the House in the absence of a committee report. An extraordinary set of circumstances led to the commencement of this study in the first place. Moreover, I would remind you, Mr. Speaker, that this resulted in the resignation of the former speaker, indeed, underscoring the degree to which this matter is extraordinary. Before I was interrupted by the parliamentary secretary to the government House leader, I would note that the power—

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House Hansard - 261