Senator Carignan: Leader, the problem is that he lied to the House of Commons and to Canadians. What is more, Canada is seeing a record number of police officers killed in the line of duty, shootings in the middle of the day, senseless killings on public transportation, in parks and on the streets, a record number of femicides and a rising crime rate. What is the minister doing? He is just shrugging his shoulders. We have a minister who lied to the House of Commons, who is lying to Canadians and who has also shown that he is incompetent. What is the Prime Minister waiting for? When will he dismiss the minister?

The Hon. the Speaker: Senator Carignan, you have 17 seconds.

Hon. Claude Carignan: Leader, I have tracked down more than 11 statements in which Minister Mendicino told the Canadian public that he invoked the Emergencies Act on the advice and at the request of law enforcement.

For example, on February 28, 2022, during question period in the House of Commons, he said, “. . . we had to invoke the Emergencies Act, and we did so on the basis of non-partisan, professional advice from law enforcement.” He also stated, on May 3, 2022, “We invoked the Emergencies Act after we received advice from law enforcement.” On April 26, 2022, at the joint committee, he said the same thing. However, the Commissioner of the Ontario Provincial Police said the following:

I can tell you that I am telling you the absolute truth, sir. At no point did I provide or request that the Emergencies Act be invoked.

RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki wrote the same thing. The commissioner wrote that she felt the police had not yet exhausted all the tools at their disposal. The former Ottawa police chief said they had never sought recourse.

The former chief superintendent of the Ontario Provincial Police said the same.

I have run out of things to say about Minister Mendicino’s contradictory messages. I don’t necessarily want to use the same words as Senator Housakos. Is this a case of incompetence? Has the minister really lied to the public so many times?

Either this is starting to look like bad faith, or the minister has lied. Shouldn’t he resign?

Hon. Claude Carignan: Madam Speaker, look, we have a constitutional right, as parliamentarians, to speak the truth, to say things, and to denounce what needs to be denounced. That is our duty.

I have 11 statements from an individual who keeps saying the same thing over and over but is being contradicted by everyone who is supposed to advise him — all the leaders and police chiefs — and this has been proven. I think it’s our role to say when people are being misled. I completely understand the purpose of the concept of unparliamentary language, but a spade is a spade, and we need to call it a spade.

If we are limited in our power to speak out, in our freedom of expression, in our right to denounce what is false, I think it will diminish our responsibility and do a disservice to democracy. We must have the right to express our opinions and our judgments. In fact, we have a duty to do so.

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