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Decentralized Democracy

Michael Cooper

  • Member of Parliament
  • Member of the Joint Interparliamentary Council
  • Conservative
  • St. Albert—Edmonton
  • Alberta
  • Voting Attendance: 68%
  • Expenses Last Quarter: $119,185.60

  • Government Page
  • May/23/24 6:46:32 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I rise to follow up on a straightforward question that the Minister of Employment refuses to answer. How much has the minister been paid by Navis Group since the minister was appointed to cabinet? The minister's dealings with Navis Group raise serious ethical questions, including whether the minister broke the law by contravening the Conflict of Interest Act. Navis Group is owned by the minister's business partner. The minister was receiving, and continues to receive, payments from Navis Group. As the minister was receiving these payments, Navis Group was lobbying the minister's own department and managed to secure $110 million in federal contracts for its client. This has all the markings of self-dealing, conflict of interest and corruption. When the Minister of Employment appeared at committee on the estimates, I asked him about his shady arrangement with Navis Group. The minister effectively said that there was nothing to see here, and that it was all above board. The minister claimed it had been approved by the Ethics Commissioner. However, the minister's statement at committee was patently false. It was patently false because, in fact, the minister actively concealed from the Ethics Commissioner his connection to Navis Group. More specifically, the minister's disclosure to the Ethics Commissioner conveniently hid behind a numbered company without disclosing that the numbered company was Navis Group. A statement from the Office of the Ethics Commissioner confirms that the Ethics Commissioner was unaware of the minister's connection with Navis Group. Therefore, the Ethics Commissioner was unaware that the company that was paying the minister was simultaneously lobbying the minister's department and successfully securing $110 million in grants for its client. What we have is a shady deal, a shady arrangement, that the minister actively concealed from the Ethics Commissioner. When the minister got caught, he attempted to misdirect by peddling the falsehood that it had been approved by the Ethics Commissioner, raising additional questions about the minister's fitness for office. Since this scandal broke, the minister has not had the guts to stand in the House once and answer questions. Instead, the minister has been shielded by other ministers in the government who have dodged and deflected on the minister's behalf. On behalf of Canadian taxpayers, who have footed the $110 million bill to Navis Group, how much did the minister pocket from Navis Group? I just need a number.
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  • May/3/24 11:58:51 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the minister is clearly in full cover-up mode, because it gets worse. The minister's business partner was lobbying the minister's own department as cheques were being cut from the lobbying firm to the minister. If that does not smell of self-dealing and corruption, I do not know what does. Once again, how much has the minister pocketed from the lobbying firm since he was appointed to cabinet?
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  • May/2/24 3:07:38 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the sole Liberal minister from Alberta is at the centre of two corruption scandals. It has been reported that the minister is tied to a lobbyist who received a staggering $110 million in federal contracts, and the minister is the director of the company that received a further $8 million of government contracts and is engulfed in allegations of fraud and wire fraud. How much money did the minister and his companies receive from these shady contracts?
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  • Mar/22/24 11:11:24 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, waste, fraud and corruption: That is arrive scam and that is what we get after eight years under the Prime Minister. There was 60 million taxpayer dollars wasted and stolen, and for what? It was for an app that was not needed, that did not work and that caused chaos at our borders. A scandalous 76% of arrive scam contractors did no work, including a two-person basement company that ran away with 20 million taxpayer dollars for nothing. Now the RCMP has launched multiple criminal investigations. After overseeing all the waste and all the corruption, the Prime Minister has done nothing whatsoever to get taxpayers their money back. After eight years, the Prime Minister is not worth the cost or the corruption. Taxpayers deserve a refund and they deserve it now.
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  • Feb/16/24 11:30:00 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, 60 million taxpayer dollars wasted, fraud, forgery and corruption; that is arrive scam and the Liberals have tried to cover up the scandal every step of the way. They obstructed parliamentary committees, they attempted to obstruct an investigation by the Auditor General and now they are obstructing an RCMP criminal investigation. When will the Liberals stop the obstruction and turn over the documents to the RCMP?
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  • Feb/16/24 11:28:46 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, the arrive scam app is just like the Prime Minister: not worth the cost and not worth the corruption. The Auditor General revealed that an app that did not work cost taxpayers a staggering $60 million, including $20 million that went to a two-person company that did no work. Now the RCMP have launched a criminal investigation, but are being obstructed by the Liberals, who are hiding documents. Will the Prime Minister stop the obstruction and turn over the documents today?
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  • Feb/15/24 6:57:22 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, respectfully, the minister is wilfully blind to the facts. The facts include that $40 million of taxpayer money from the fund was funnelled to the companies of board members. The parliamentary secretary spoke about due diligence. The minister's officials sat in on meetings in which tens of millions of taxpayer dollars were inappropriately funnelled from the fund to the companies of board members. The minister knew about it. He had to have known about it, or he is completely incompetent. Either way, why will he not, at the very least, fire the board? Who is he protecting? I would submit that it begs the question: To what extent is he himself involved in this corruption?
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  • Feb/15/24 6:51:34 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I rise to follow up on a question I posed to the Minister of Industry in question period last November, namely which Liberal insiders the minister is protecting at the Liberals' corrupt green slush fund. The level of corruption, conflict of interest and self-dealing at the fund is staggering. According to whistle-blowers, more than $150 million of taxpayers' money has been misappropriated by Liberal insiders at the fund. An independent fact-finding report revealed that board members of the fund funnelled tens of millions of taxpayer dollars from the fund to their own companies; talk about self-dealing and corruption. The minister has the authority to fire the corrupt green slush fund board, but incredibly, the minister refuses to do so. Why does he? When the scandal broke, the minister claimed he was unaware of corruption at the green slush fund, but the minister's claims are contradicted by the facts. Here is a fact: As early as 2019, the minister's predecessor, the Liberal industry minister at the time, Navdeep Bains, was informed that the Liberal-appointed chair was in a major conflict of interest because her company was receiving millions of dollars from none other than the fund. Not only that, but the minister sent his officials to each and every green slush fund board meeting, including the very meetings in which decisions were made to inappropriately and perhaps illegally funnel money from the fund to board members' companies. According to whistle-blowers, the minister and his department are engaged in a coordinated campaign to cover up corruption at the fund, and the minister is more interested in damage control than in getting to the truth. With these things taken together, it is evident the minister knew of corruption at the green slush fund, did nothing about it and turned a blind eye to it, thus enabling Liberal insiders to get rich. When the corruption was revealed, the minister continued to stand behind the green slush fund board. Again, why is he protecting corrupt Liberal insiders?
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  • Feb/2/24 11:59:25 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, after eight years the NDP-Liberal government is not worth the cost or the corruption. The Minister of Industry conveniently claims that until recently he had no idea about corruption and self-dealing at the Liberals' billion-dollar green slush fund. We now know that his predecessor, Navdeep Bains, was informed as early as 2019 that the company of the Liberal-appointed chair had received millions from the fund in a blatant conflict of interest. In the face of that, how is it possible that the minister had no idea?
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  • Feb/1/24 2:13:56 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, yesterday at the industry committee, the former CEO of the Liberals' billion-dollar green slush fund revealed that the Liberals were aware of corruption and self-dealing at the fund for years. As early as 2019, the then industry minister, Navdeep Bains, was informed that the company of the Liberal-appointed chair was receiving millions of dollars from the fund. Despite this outrageous conflict of interest, the Liberals allowed the chair to remain in charge. This new evidence completely shreds the credibility of the current minister, who claims that the Liberals only recently learned of corruption at the fund, corruption involving the misappropriation of tens of millions of taxpayers' dollars. The minister knew about the corruption. He turned a blind eye to it, and when he got caught, he tried to cover it up. It speaks to the utter rot and corruption on the part of the Liberals. Canadians deserve so much better.
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  • Nov/29/23 7:39:39 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I am glad the parliamentary secretary confirmed that the resignation of the chair of SDTC was a personal decision that she did not make at the direction of the minister. This was the same chair who funnelled $220,000 into her own company and then transferred $120,000 of that into her personal bank account. That is corruption, yet it did not meet the level for the minister to call on her to resign. If that level of corruption does not suffice calling for a resignation, what does?
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  • Nov/29/23 7:32:18 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I rise to follow up on a question that I posed to the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, a question that he conveniently refused to answer concerning corruption at the Liberals' billion-dollar green slush fund known as SDTC. An independent, fact-finding report reveals a cloud of mismanagement, conflicts of interest and self-dealing at SDTC. The report found, among other things, that the board improperly paid out nearly $40 million in so-called COVID relief payments, including funnelling millions of dollars to companies that board members had an interest in. The chair of SDTC, during questioning before the ethics committee, was forced to admit that she funnelled $220,000 to her own company, and then funnelled $120,000 of that into her own personal bank account. She even moved the motion at the board. Incredibly, she claimed it was all okay because she and the board had received legal advice. It turns out that the lawyer who provided that legal advice is none other than a member of the SDTC council. In other words, the lawyer was providing legal advice about conflicts of interest when he, himself, had a conflict of interest. In providing that advice and being paid for that advice by SDTC, as he was, the law was broken, because section 16 of the SDTC act prohibits any member of the SDTC council from profiting from SDTC. Yesterday, we learned that another board member at SDTC had funnelled a staggering $42.5 million of taxpayers' money into four companies that she had an interest in. She enriched herself to the tune of $42.5 million. It is unbelievable. It appears that this only scratches the surface of corruption and mismanagement at SDTC, because according to whistle-blowers, the level of corruption and self-dealing exceeds $150 million of taxpayers' money squandered. Despite the well-documented corruption and mismanagement involving tens upon tens of millions of dollars of taxpayers' money, no one has been held accountable. The chair resigned but not at the request of the minister, and the minister continues to stand behind the corrupt SDTC board. Why? Why is the minister more interested in protecting Liberal insiders who got rich improperly at the expense of taxpayers rather than rooting out the rot and corruption at the Liberals' green slush fund?
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  • Nov/21/23 3:05:53 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the independent report revealed that multiple board members voted to funnel money from the fund to companies they had an interest in. This is scandalous. In the face of evidence of self-dealing and corruption, the minister has not seen fit to fire anyone. Why? Which Liberal insiders is he protecting?
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  • Nov/21/23 3:04:28 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, after eight years, the NDP-Liberal government is not worth the cost. The Liberal-appointed chair of the green slush fund resigned in disgrace after it was revealed that she funnelled more than $200,000 of taxpayer money into her company. An independent report reveals that this just scratches the surface of corruption at the foundation. How many more Liberal insiders have used the green slush fund to line their pockets?
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  • Nov/1/23 7:56:10 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I rise to pose a follow-up question to a question I had asked in question period: What does the Prime Minister have to hide? What does the Prime Minister have to hide now that it has been revealed that the Prime Minister obstructed an RCMP criminal investigation into his wrongdoing during the SNC-Lavalin scandal? The Prime Minister's obstruction of a criminal investigation into himself is another chapter in the Prime Minister's sordid and corrupt conduct surrounding SNC-Lavalin. This is a Prime Minister who obstructed justice by politically interfering in the criminal prosecution of SNC-Lavalin, which was facing a raft of bribery and corruption charges, by putting pressure on his then attorney general to resolve the charges by way of a deferred prosecution agreement. In other words, the Prime Minister attacked the independence of his attorney general, and when his then attorney general, Jody Wilson-Raybould, stood up to him, spoke truth to power and refused to acquiesce to the Prime Minister's corrupt demands, what did the Prime Minister do? He fired her and then threw her out of the Liberal caucus. That is what happens to people with integrity who stand up to the corrupt Prime Minister. They get thrown out, thrown under the bus. The Ethics Commissioner launched an investigation into the Prime Minister's scandalous conduct and found that the Prime Minister had breached ethics laws in relation to his political interference. This marked the second time that the Prime Minister had been found guilty of breaching ethics laws. He is the first Prime Minister in Canadian history to have been found guilty of breaking ethics laws. That is the record of the Prime Minister. The RCMP launched its own criminal investigation into the Prime Minister, which did not make progress. We now know why it did not make progress, and that is because the Prime Minister obstructed the investigation by refusing to turn over documents requested by the RCMP, hiding behind cabinet confidence. Last Monday, the RCMP commissioner was set to appear before the ethics committee to testify about the Prime Minister's obstruction, but before the RCMP commissioner could utter a word, the Prime Minister ordered Liberal and NDP MPs to shut down the committee to silence the RCMP commissioner. The Prime Minister's brazen effort to silence the RCMP commissioner demonstrates that the Prime Minister has something to hide, and it must be bad. It must be really bad. What incriminating evidence is contained in those cabinet documents that the Prime Minister refused to turn over to the RCMP? What is the Prime Minister afraid the RCMP commissioner would say about his obstruction, which he wants to keep the lid on? Again, it is a simple question: What does the Prime Minister have to hide?
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  • Oct/24/23 2:18:09 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, after eight years, the NDP-Liberal government will stop at nothing to cover up its corruption. Yesterday, in a brazen effort to shield the Prime Minister, Liberal and NDP MPs voted to shut down committee to block the RCMP commissioner from answering questions about the Prime Minister's obstruction of an RCMP criminal investigation into his conduct during the SNC-Lavalin scandal. This is the same Prime Minister who obstructed justice to protect SNC-Lavalin and when his former attorney general stood up to him, he fired her. This is the same Prime Minister who has been found guilty of multiple ethical violations. Now we learn that this is the same Prime Minister who thwarted a criminal investigation into his own wrongdoing. The record of the Prime Minister is one of corruption and cover-up. After eight years he is not worth the cost.
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