Liberals renew filibuster of finance committee as WE scandal continues to percolate in parliament
OTTAWA — The confidence vote drama may have receded for now, but a committee standoff over WE documents and an ongoing ethics commissioner investigation are a reminder that the issues that nearly triggered an election last week are still alive and percolating in Parliament.
The Liberals have once again filibustered the House of Commons finance committee over the issue of redactions applied to the government’s WE Charity documents, dragging out the meeting for eight hours on Wednesday. The chair, Liberal MP Wayne Easter, suspended the proceedings that night due to “health and safety reasons.”
The meeting resumed late Thursday afternoon but the first part of it was conducted in camera, which blocks the public from viewing the discussions.
Thursday also brought news that Ethics Commissioner Mario Dion is dropping his investigation into whether the WE Charity trips taken by former Finance Minister Bill Morneau were an improper gift. As first reported by CBC, Dion has now informed Morneau that he accepts Morneau “genuinely believed” he’d reimbursed the 2017 travel taken in Ecuador and Kenya by himself and his family.
Morneau hastily wrote a $41,000 cheque to WE in July after informing the finance committee he’d just realized he’d never paid back the expenses. Morneau resigned as finance minister and as an MP a few weeks later, saying he wanted to run to be secretary of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.
However, the ethics commissioner is still investigating Morneau for not recusing himself from cabinet discussions on having WE Charity administer the $900-million Canada Student Service Grant program, despite the fact one of Morneau’s daughters worked for WE and another had spoken at WE Day events.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is also being examined by Dion for not recusing himself despite his own family’s payments for speaking at WE events. It is not yet known when Dion will release his report, but it could arrive later this year.
Regardless, the opposition parties are determined to continue with their own study into the matter. At issue in the finance committee are the thousands of pages of government documents related to the WE scandal that were disclosed to the committee in the summer.
The documents were redacted by public servants before being handed over; the opposition parties have protested that this was a breach of their parliamentary privilege, as their motion had directed the redactions be done by the independent House of Commons law clerk.
The Liberals are attempting to address the complaint by having the Privy Council Clerk Ian Shugart appear at the committee to explain the redactions.
“Conservatives, Bloc and NDP are ready to find public servants guilty of breaching privileges of MPs without even giving them a chance to explain their actions,” said a statement by Government House Leader Pablo Rodriguez on Wednesday. “Liberals believe in due process. The opposition should do the right thing and let the Clerk of the Privy Council and his non-partisan public servants explain themselves.”
Conservative MP Pierre Poilievre told the National Post that the Liberals’ proposal does not address the opposition’s complaints.
“The Conservatives propose a compromise: the government should give all of the WE scandal documents unredacted to the neutral parliamentary law clerk so that he can report back to Parliament within a week on whether any of the documents have been improperly withheld,” he said.
“Mr. Shugart is a fine man, but he is hired and fired by the prime minister. He is dependent on the prime minister for his job. No one who the prime minister can fire should be in charge of determining what documents are released about the prime minister’s scandal.”
As of Thursday, there is no end in sight to the standoff, which is preventing the finance committee from doing its usual work of pre-budget consultations.
Meanwhile, the Commons health committee is preparing its sweeping investigation into the government’s COVID-19 response, an investigation that will eventually be supported by a trove of government documents ordered to be produced by the end of November by a Conservative motion passed earlier this week. The committee is scheduled to meet Monday to begin preparing a witness list and a timeline for meetings.
The Liberals have warned that the investigation risks exposing commercial information and thus threatens the government’s ability to procure vaccines, personal protective equipment, and other pandemic-related supplies. The Conservatives say this concern is overblown and that redactions can be made to protect commercial sensitivity.
Although the Liberals had previously deemed a Conservative motion on the WE affair to be a confidence matter, they ultimately decided not to make the COVID-19 motion a confidence vote. That means the investigation is taking place without the risk of triggering an election — at least for now. The Liberals always retain the option of calling an election on their own, regardless of whether a confidence vote has taken place.
• Email: bplatt@postmedia.com | Twitter: btaplatt