Senator Batters: Senator Gold, as Interim Ethics Commissioner, Ms. Richard will be paid $338,000, a full $100,000 more than the next Ethics Commissioner. Perhaps that’s the Trudeau friends-and-family rate. Minister LeBlanc said he recused himself from the Trudeau cabinet vote to appoint his sister-in-law on March 28, but the order-in-council appointing Ms. Richard had already been signed the previous day. The government knew this appointment wouldn’t pass the smell test. That’s why they released news of Ms. Richard’s appointment on the afternoon of budget day, when most national reporters were cloistered away inside the budget lock-up without internet access.

Senator Gold, you’re ineligible to win the Tim Hortons’ Roll Up The Rim contest if you’re a family member of an employee. This is Ethics 101. So as I said in 2019, in what world is it appropriate that the sister-in-law of a senior Trudeau minister can snag this plum government appointment to judge the ethical infractions of her brother-in-law’s closest circle?

Hon. Denise Batters: Senator Gold, in April 2019 I asked then-government leader Harder a question about Martine Richard, the sister-in-law of senior Trudeau government minister Dominic LeBlanc, as she was being named the director of investigations in the Ethics Commissioner’s office in the middle of the SNC-Lavalin scandal.

Four years later, yet another Trudeau scandal, and guess who is being promoted? Amid the Beijing interference and Trudeau Foundation scandals, the Trudeau cabinet has appointed Minister LeBlanc’s sister-in-law, this time, as the Interim Ethics Commissioner. Since it’s an interim position, the appointment does not require House of Commons approval.

Yet Ms. Richard could hold this role for many months or even years. Dominic LeBlanc is a senior Trudeau government minister. He is a long-time close Trudeau family friend. My goodness, he used to babysit the Prime Minister. Senator Gold, the entire cabinet is in conflict from this association. Why is the sister-in-law of this senior Trudeau cabinet minister now in charge of investigating any Trudeau government minister or Prime Minister Justin Trudeau?

Hon. Denise Batters: Senator Tannas, I appreciate the wording and the comments you made about this, but, given the question that I asked Senator Gold yesterday, it appears to me that this is yet another way for the Trudeau government to say they’re making a promise that user-generated content would not be subject to Bill C-11 — without actually putting it in the substance of the bill. This is simply a message. It’s not a part of the bill or the provision that would actually govern the bill.

You indicated, senator, the wise words — always — of Senator Baker about how courts look to the Senate and our debates, but what the courts also, of course, look to is the actual provisions of the bill.

Wouldn’t you agree that if the government wanted to make it crystal clear, what your constituents in Alberta and, certainly, mine in Saskatchewan want is for user-generated content to actually be out of Bill C-11? Wouldn’t that be the way to make it the most crystal clear for the courts, for Canadians and for everyone?