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RCMP says it has documents at the centre of a debate bogging down the Commons
RCMP commissioner says there is an ‘investigation ongoing'
The RCMP says it has documents connected to a political debate that has brought government business in the House of Commons to a halt.
But a letter from the House law clerk suggests not all of the documents have been submitted by the government.
The governing Liberals have been unable to move forward on any legislation since Speaker Greg Fergus ruled last week that the government "clearly did not fully comply" with an order from the House to provide documents related to a now-defunct foundation responsible for doling out hundreds of millions of federal dollars for green technology projects.
That House order said the documents should be transferred to the RCMP to investigate potential criminality.
RCMP Commissioner Mike Duheme told reporters Thursday the Mounties already have the documents in question.
"We did receive the documents and there is an investigation ongoing, so I will limit my comments to that," Duheme said when asked about the debate in the House.
CBC News asked the RCMP if all the documents related to the House order. A spokesperson for the RCMP only said the police force received a batch of documents in August as a result of the House order.
"The RCMP can confirm having received the documents from the Office of the House of Commons Law Clerk relating to Sustainable Development and Technologies Canada (SDTC) which were collected in August pursuant to an Order of the House of Commons," the spokesperson said in an email.
"While the Commissioner has confirmed there is an investigation, given its ongoing status the RCMP is not in a position to provide additional details pertaining to the documents in question."
But a letter from the House law clerk to the Speaker's office suggests the RCMP may not have received all the documents the House requested.
The letter, dated Sept. 16, says that more documents from Innovation, Science and Economic Development were still forthcoming at the time. It also says that documents from the Department of Justice "were currently completely withheld."
RCMP questioned whether it could use documents
Despite the investigation, Duheme has said the RCMP had no reason to suspect criminal wrongdoing in the case.
"The RCMP has concluded that the available reports do not identify any criminal offences or evidence of criminal wrongdoing at this time," Duheme wrote in a letter to the House of Commons law clerk in July.
In the same letter, the commissioner also warned that the RCMP would not be able to use the documents in an investigation if they were obtained through the actions of the House of Commons.
"The RCMP's ability to receive and use information obtained through this production order ... in the course of a criminal investigation could give rise to concerns under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms," he wrote.
In June, the federal government abolished a $1 billion green fund in response to a report by the auditor general that pointed to "significant lapses" in its handling of federal funding.
Auditor General Karen Hogan said Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC) violated its conflict of interest policies 90 times, awarded $59 million to 10 projects that were not eligible and frequently overstated the environmental benefits of its projects.
The Liberals have raised concerns about the House interfering with the independence of the police by providing the RCMP with the documents.
Government House leader Karina Gould called the request for the documents an abuse of Parliament's power and claimed it tramples on the Charter rights of Canadians.
"Let's be very clear. This is the Conservatives trying to muck up Parliament," Gould said Thursday.
"Conservative members of Parliament are here for their own political, personal objectives and they don't care what they do to Canadians in the meantime, and that is something that should be extremely alarming to all of us."
Conservative House leader Andrew Scheer disputed that claim. He said the Charter of Rights exists "to protect the people from the government. It is not there to protect the government from accountability by the people."
"[The Liberals are] willing to have Parliament ground to a halt rather than hand over this information to the RCMP for a potential criminal investigation," Scheer told The Canadian Press on Thursday.
In his ruling last week, Fergus said it was "unprecedented" for the House to require the government to produce documents for the purpose of providing them to a third party — the RCMP, in this case.
Fergus suggested that the matter be studied at the House procedures committee. MPs have been debating how to proceed ever since. Because the matter has been ruled a question of privilege, it takes precedence over all other House business until the issue has been resolved.
Clarifications
- While the RCMP says it has received documents related to the House of Commons order, the ongoing debate in the House is about whether some documents are being withheld.Oct 04, 2024 7:09 PM ET
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With files from The Canadian Press
'Huge win for the Bloc' but a 'trap' for Justin Trudeau | Tom Mulcair
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https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/house-documents-green-poject-funds-1.7341785
Government business on pause as Conservatives demand documents on defunct green tech foundation
Documents in question relate to the foundation formerly responsible for funding green tech projects
The government has been unable to put any of its own business before the House of Commons for a full week, and the Conservatives on Thursday said that's the result of Liberal "corruption."
Conservative House leader Andrew Scheer said the governing party would rather see the House bogged down in debate than produce documents related to misspent government dollars in a program his party has dubbed the "green slush fund."
House Speaker Greg Fergus ruled last Thursday that the government "clearly did not fully comply" with an order from the House to provide documents related to a now-defunct foundation responsible for doling out hundreds of millions of federal dollars for green technology projects.
The House has been seized with a debate on the issue ever since and Scheer said it will stay that way until the government agrees to hand over the documents to police.
"They're willing to have Parliament ground to a halt rather than hand over this information to the RCMP for a potential criminal investigation," Scheer said in an interview Thursday.
The RCMP told MPs this summer they likely would not be able to use the documents as part of an investigation, but Scheer said they should have access to all the information before they decide.
The Liberals claimed that ordering the production of documents to be handed over to the RCMP blurs the lines between Parliament and the judiciary, and blame Conservatives for the dysfunction in the House.
Liberal House leader Karina Gould called the request for the documents an abuse of Parliament's power that tramples on the Charter rights of Canadians.
"Let's be very clear, this is the Conservatives trying to muck up Parliament," Gould said Thursday.
"Conservative members of Parliament are here for their own political, personal objectives and they don't care what they do to Canadians in the meantime, and that is something that should be extremely alarming to all of us."
Scheer said the Charter exists "to protect the people from the government. It is not there to protect the government from accountability by the people."
A similar dispute over government documents played out when the Conservatives were on the governing side of the aisle during a minority government dispute more than a decade ago.
In 2009, the House ordered the government to disclose unredacted documents related to Canada's role in the torture of Afghan detainees.
A few weeks after opposition parties passed a motion demanding the documents be produced, then-prime minister Stephen Harper prorogued Parliament for several months, preventing the House committee from pursuing the issue.
In this case, the Liberal government abolished Sustainable Development Technology Canada after the auditor general released a scathing report about the organization's management last spring.
Of the projects she looked at, one in every six that received funding were ineligible. The auditor's report also found 90 cases where conflict-of-interest polices were violated.
A month later, the ethics commissioner concluded that the former chair of the foundation failed to recuse herself from decisions that benefited organizations to which she had ties.
'A lack of respect for democracy'
The House has been in a state of almost constant turmoil since the MPs returned to Ottawa in mid-September.
The Conservatives have made two attempts to topple the minority government with non-confidence motions. Though both attempts failed to win the support of other opposition parties, the Conservatives promise there will be more such votes to come.
Bloc Quebecois leader Yves-Francois Blanchet decried a "lack of respect for democracy" in the chamber during an unrelated press conference on Thursday in Chicoutimi, Que.
Blanchet claimed Bloc MPs are among the few in Parliament asking thoughtful questions instead of "spouting slogans and banging on the desk," like other parties in the House.
"They are proud to have repeated the same thing that they've repeated 60 times in the last 60 days," he said in French.
"Refusing to answer questions, when there are real ones, is no more respectful of voters."
Among the few votes that have gone ahead this week was a Bloc Quebecois motion to push the government to support its pension bill for seniors under the age of 75, a change that would cost more than $3 billion a year.
Though the Conservatives have criticized what they call politically motivated inflationary spending, they threw their support behind the bill.
Scheer did not respond to a question about why the party supported the motion.
The Conservative critic for seniors, Anna Roberts, said in a statement that the government's inflationary spending has "increased the cost of groceries and gas and put added strain on Canadian families and seniors on fixed incomes."
Conservatives ask for Mark Carney probe
The Conservatives have also asked Canada's lobbying commissioner to investigate whether it violates ethics rules for the prime minister to make Mark Carney a Liberal adviser.
The Liberals announced at their recent caucus retreat in Nanaimo, B.C., that Carney, the former Bank of Canada governor, had been appointed chair of a task force on economic growth.
They said Carney will help shape the party's policies for the next election, and will report to Justin Trudeau and the Liberal platform committee.
Tory ethics critic Michael Barrett said in a letter to the commissioner that Carney is not registered to lobby federally, but his corporate positions put him in several potential conflicts of interest.
"How could any ministerial staff member, member of Parliament or cabinet minister not feel a sense of obligation to Mr. Carney because of his close affiliation with the prime minister and minister of finance?" Barrett asked in his letter Thursday.
Carney is also the chair of Brookfield Asset Management, which is in talks with the government to launch a $50-billion investment fund with support from Ottawa and Canadian pensions.
When asked about Carney's potential conflict of interest in the House, Health Minister Mark Holland accused the Conservatives of trying to "smear" a Canadian who is renowned around the world.
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