Evidence of meeting #133 for Procedure and House Affairs in the 44th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was documents.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Liberal
Ryan Turnbull Liberal Whitby, ON
Can we at least apologize to the witnesses for the Conservatives' attempt to filibuster their own motion here and say we're really sorry for their spending time coming here to testify and then be totally disrespected in terms of their time?
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ben Carr
Colleagues, I'll say a couple of things.
The first is that I will take the opportunity, Mr. Turnbull, given the point that you raised, to let the witnesses know, as I believe the clerk has informed them already, that, unfortunately, we will not have the opportunity today to hear from them.
I'm not going to offer my opinion subjectively as to why that is. I'm simply sorry that we haven't had the opportunity to get to you.
I do ask colleagues and anyone in the room to take conversations outside, as we are in the middle of a proceeding. I would appreciate that.
Again, we are moving forward with the proceeding as is, and we'll return the floor to Mr. Cooper.
Conservative
Michael Cooper Conservative St. Albert—Edmonton, AB
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I think what's disrespectful is a government that continues to defy an order of this committee to turn over documents three months after the deadline has passed. I think that is disrespectful. I think what's disrespectful is a government that has failed to produce documents ordered by the House related to the green slush fund and not only to fail to turn over those documents involving a massive scandal of the misuse of $400 million taxpayer, but also for the government House leader to go on CBC and lie to Canadians, as she did yesterday, that the government was in compliance, when we heard today from the law clerk that no, in fact, the government is not in compliance with the order of the House.
I'll tell you what is not only disrespectful but also quite a bit worse. The Prime Minister, who was briefed that one of his candidates had been assisted by the Beijing regime, turned a blind eye to it, allowed that candidate to stand and kept the voters and Canadians in the dark. It speaks to a Prime Minister who then turns around and lectures the Leader of the Opposition about foreign interference, when he's the one who's compromised and turned a blind eye to foreign interference. It never ceases to amaze me.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ben Carr
Mr. Cooper, I do have a point of order.
Of course, Mr. Turnbull, at any point, a member does have the right; however, the chair needs to determine whether or not that point of order is relevant. I can't determine that, of course, until I hear what the point of order is.
Liberal
Ryan Turnbull Liberal Whitby, ON
I know Mr. Cooper has his little misinformation propellers going pretty quickly, but maybe he could explain, while he's pontificating, why PRC officials allegedly interfered in the leadership races of the Conservative Party of Canada.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ben Carr
Mr. Turnbull, that is not, unfortunately, a relevant point of order. You are veering into debate.
With that, Mr. Cooper, I return the floor to you.
Conservative
Michael Cooper Conservative St. Albert—Edmonton, AB
With the Prime Minister, it's projection all the time. Everything that—
Liberal
Ryan Turnbull Liberal Whitby, ON
I have a point of order again, Chair.
I'm sorry to interrupt, Mr. Cooper.
Liberal
Ryan Turnbull Liberal Whitby, ON
My point of order is on relevance, Chair, and relevance is definitely a point of order in the green procedural manual.
Liberal
Ryan Turnbull Liberal Whitby, ON
Mr. Cooper is speaking to a number of other instances that he's speculating about that have nothing to do with his notice of motion. The motion that he's moved says, “That, in relation to its Order of Reference of Thursday, May 9, 2024, regarding the prima facie contempt concerning the People's Republic of China's cyber attack against members of Parliament”.... It refers specifically to a cyber-attack. Mr. Cooper now is not speaking about a cyber-attack. He's speaking of other instances of potential foreign interference that he is citing. It has nothing to do with the cyber-attack. How is this relevant at all?
It seems clear that Mr. Cooper's intention here is to waste the committee's valuable time when witnesses were asked to come to this committee to answer questions on another matter. He is now just wasting the committee's time with irrelevant arguments.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ben Carr
Thank you for your insight, Mr. Turnbull. I will keep my ear open to whether or not I believe the speaker is remaining relevant to the motion at hand, which is what we are debating.
Mr. Cooper, the floor is yours.
Conservative
Conservative
Luc Berthold Conservative Mégantic—L'Érable, QC
I just wanted to mention to my colleague Mr. Turnbull that he read only a small part of the motion that was moved. He could read it in full so that we may better understand its relevance.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ben Carr
Thank you, Mr. Berthold. I know you may want to allow your colleague to have a little break, but if we determined that it wasn't really a point of order in the previous instance, we have to do the same here.
Thank you.
Mr. Cooper, the floor is yours.
Conservative
Michael Cooper Conservative St. Albert—Edmonton, AB
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I have to say that when it comes to trusting this Prime Minister to be straight with Canadians about foreign interference and what he knows and so on, I would submit that he has a track record of not being trusted when he covers things up, when he doesn't come forward to be truthful, when he denies things until he's caught and when he appoints his former ski buddy David Johnston as his fake rapporteur then selectively gives that fake rapporteur only certain documents to look at about Beijing's interference so that he could get a predetermined outcome to his report, a report that was ultimately torn to shreds.
It's no wonder that the Leader of the Opposition isn't going to say to this Prime Minister, who is a proven liar, “I'm going to trust you to present—