Liberals dodge Opposition questions on 'green slush fund' scandal

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OTTAWA — Attempts by the Conservatives to get the government to explain why the Trudeau Liberals continue to block access to thousands of documents related to the “green slush fund” scandal were roundly ignored during question period.

In the Opposition’s first question on Wednesday, deputy leader Melissa Lantsman asked the Liberals to explain why they’re refusing to co-operate with the production order, a stalemate that has triggered an ongoing Tory privilege motion and paralyzed the House of Commons for weeks.

“Mr. Speaker, you yourself ruled that the NDP-Liberals have violated a House order to turn over evidence to the police for a criminal investigation into their corruption,” she said.

“They’re defying your ruling and they’ve ground this place to a halt. The auditor said that there’s 400 million tax dollars and 186 conflicts of interest in question. Canadians can get accountability today if they hand over the documents to the police. So what’s in those documents and how bad is it?”

In June, the Conservatives successfully tabled a motion ordering the production of thousands of government documents with the intention of turning them over to the RCMP, but when numerous key documents were either heavily redacted or missing altogether, House Speaker Greg Fergus ruled a violation of parliamentary privilege had taken place, triggering the current standoff.

Rather than offer a response, Justice Minister Arif Virani opted instead to denounce anti-Israel protesters burning Canadian flags in Vancouver during a recent protest.

“I’m glad they finally found the courage to condemn something in this House,” Lantsman noted dryly.

“But whatever is in those documents, back to the matter at hand that I asked about, must be really bad if they’re willing to hide their corruption.”

This time, Liberal House leader Karina Gould read the speaker’s original ruling on the matter, reiterating the government’s stance that the documents should be turned over to the Procedure and House Affairs Committee rather than the police.

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Lantsman pointed out that Gould skipped over parts of the Speaker’s remarks where he ruled the Liberals were in contempt of House rules by refusing to release the documents.

“If there is nothing to hide in those documents, then they should be able to hand them over,” Lantsman said.

Gould once again ignored Lantsman’s question, maintaining that the issue should be dealt with in committee.

The quagmire was triggered by a Conservative privilege motion over the government’s refusal to hand over unredacted documents related to the now-defunct Sustainable Development Technology Canada’s billion-dollar “green slush fund.”

The contentious program was abolished earlier this year after Auditor General Karen Hogan found scores of conflicts of interest and that it had awarded over $400 million in lucrative government contracts to projects that not only weren’t eligible for funding, but in some cases had nothing to do with green technology.

bpassifiume@postmedia.com
X: @bryanpassifiume