Mr. Speaker, once again, this is so obvious, we have come to expect it. Every time the Liberal government is attacked, a member of the NDP tries to cause a distraction to defend and protect it. It is almost a reflex. If we are where we are today—and all we have to do is think about the state of our public finances, about what is happening to Canadians standing in line at the food bank, about the ever-rising crime rate, about the people who are living in tents because they do not have a home—it is because the NDP supports, has supported and will continue to support this ineffective Liberal government.
This ineffective Liberal government has a fake in its cabinet, a fake who admits it. However, he does not have the decency or the courage to hand in his resignation. He does not have the courage or the decency to respect ministerial responsibility and resign. Why does the Prime Minister keep him on? That is what Canadians should be asking.
In closing, that is not all. There is another fib on the Minister of Official Languages' resume that is very serious for an official languages minister. The Minister of Official Languages campaigned as a successful entrepreneur. We understand why he was successful, given his ties with the government. However, he also ran as a journalist. The Minister of Official Languages claimed to be a journalist. That is true. It is not a joke. Le Devoir questioned that and took an interest in this particular situation on June 27.
According to Global News, the Minister of Official Languages apparently
“remained listed as director” of a company that sold millions of dollars' worth of protective medical equipment to the Government of Quebec during the pandemic “for more than a year” after he began his second term in office.
According to the digital archives consulted by Le Devoir, the minister ran for office in 2015 and 2019 as a former journalist and political commentator for CBC/Radio-Canada and Les Affaires.
The Fédération professionnelle des journalistes du Québec found this assertion questionable, since the Minister of Official Languages “never worked as a journalist for either of these venues”. “His name does not appear [in our system]”. That statement to Le Devoir was made by Radio-Canada spokesperson Guylaine O'Farrell.
As for the newspaper Les Affaires, its editor in chief, Marine Thomas said, “I did not know he had worked for us.” That is what the editor in chief, the person who approves all the articles, said. However, the archives contain opinion pieces signed by the Minister of Official Languages between 2005 and 2007, which he himself called columns.
In his collaborations with Les Affaires, he signed the pieces as president of Xennex Venture Catalysts and the Alberta Chambers of Commerce. He said we wanted to upend a few preconceived ideas about the province. He clearly did not want to comment on these statements either. I think it is worth quoting another statement by the president of the Fédération professionnelle des journalistes du Québec, Éric-Pierre Champagne, who said in an interview, “It is clear to me that he was not a journalist...Anyone can send an open letter to the media...That does not make them a journalist.”
For all of these reasons, that is, for the other Randy affair, for trying to assume an indigenous identity, for trying to pass himself off as a journalist and for misleading Canadians, the Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Official Languages has no choice. If he has any dignity or honour whatsoever, he will resign. If the Prime Minister has any sense of honour, respect and honesty, he will fire the minister as soon as possible, because no one can have a fake in cabinet.