Charlie Angus

Mr. Speaker, in 15 years I have dealt with all manner of Indian affairs ministers, but the member for Markham—Stouffville was one who got things done. I worked with her on the health and suicide crisis in the north. She committed to the relocation of Kashechewan and we battled to instill Jordan's principle as a legal right.To see the Liberal caucus publicly trash the member's reputation with words like “traitor” and “repugnant” and “joined at the hip” with her colleague is just not acceptable. She deserves better than this.Does the Prime Minister not understand that?

Mr. Speaker, then the Prime Minister should lift the privilege. The poor Liberals are without Gerry Butts to write their lines for them. Yesterday the former justice minister stood in the House not once, but twice, and told her colleagues and every member of the House that she is being silenced in her ability by the Prime Minister. His treatment of her is not just spiteful, not just pusillanimous; this is about the exercise of power and protecting his friends and his insiders. One woman with integrity is standing in his path. What is he afraid of? He should let her speak her truth and her power to him.

Mr. Speaker, the first promise that the Prime Minister made in the election was to first nation children. Fast-forward a year, and we see the Liberals trying to stonewall the PBO, pretending that documents on the underfunding of first nation children do not exist. We find the blacked out financial documents on clawing $800 million back from the election promise. In these documents, one of the minister's staff explains their attitude, which states, “number crunching is for suckers.” No. Keeping an election promise on funding education is not about suckers; it is about children and our responsibility to them. Why the stonewalling from her department?

Mr. Speaker, international Human Rights Watch has called out the government for the systemic water crisis on indigenous reserves. Not only are families getting sick or suffering bacterial infections, we have had youth die from mercury poisoning at sites like Grassy Narrows that should have been cleaned up years ago.The Prime Minister made a personal commitment to have clean drinking water in every single community within five years, but government documents show it will not get close to that target because it is shortchanging the commitment by billions. Why is the government continuing this shameful legacy of leaving indigenous families at risk?

Mr. Speaker, we would have to look very long and hard to find a joke so dissonant and disconnected as the Prime Minister's decision to ridicule the people of Grassy Narrows. I was speaking with Chief Rudy Turtle and he said that nobody from the Prime Minister's Office has even bothered to call to apologize. When a leader does something so snide and so smug to such a marginalized community, the decent thing to do is to pick up the phone and say sorry. That is leader to leader, nation to nation.Will the Prime Minister make this right and commit in the House that he will personally call Chief Turtle and apologize?

Mr. Speaker, we lost another young person in Moose Factory this week. That brings the number to over 600 young people who have killed themselves or tried to kill themselves in the northern part of my riding since 2009, and requests for suicide and depression counselling are regularly turned down by government. This week Mushkegowuk Nishnawbe Aski Nation declared a state of emergency. It needs action now.I am asking the government, will it meet with the leaders Jonathan Solomon, Isadore Day, and Alvin Fiddler, and commit to a comprehensive plan to end this systemic discrimination?

Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Health has yet to explain why it is okay for her officials to interfere with doctor treatments for indigenous patients. We have a brutal suicide crisis across this country, yet her department routinely denies psychiatric prescriptions for new drugs to deal with depression, anti-psychotic behaviour, and suicide. In fact, the department will force patients to go through two failed trial periods with out-of-date drugs before they will accept the doctor's diagnosis. It is putting people's lives at risk. Will the minister take responsibility for her office, and end this discriminatory and dangerous practice?

Mr. Speaker, we can tell a lot about a man by what he thinks is funny: witness the Prime Minister using Grassy Narrows to be the butt of his jokes for his rich friends at the Laurier Club.Mercury poisoning is a nightmare. I have seen the effects of Minamata disease on children in Grassy Narrows. Grassy Narrows survivors had to pay top dollar to the Liberal Party to even get close to getting to the Prime Minister, and he thinks this is funny.Does the Prime Minister understand that he has shown a fundamental lack of moral compassion and leadership?

Mr. Speaker, I was back home talking with people about job and pension insecurity, talking with Kashechewan evacuees facing another year of devastating floods and broken promises. Everyone asked me to explain why the Prime Minister gave $12 million to Galen Weston to fix his fridges. This is a guy who lives in a gated community in Florida and fought against a living wage for his employees. It is the disconnect of the government that offends people. Why is the Prime Minister preferring to act like a head butler for the uber-rich and the lobbyists rather than stand up for the interests of working-class Canadians?

Mr. Speaker, last week, the Prime Minister stood in Parliament and agreed to immediately flow the $155-million shortfall in child welfare, but Cindy Blackstock is already saying she may have to take the government to court because it is stonewalling. Meanwhile, there are communities that are struggling with serious allegations of sexual abuse. Without the resources on the ground, there is no way to protect these children. This is money that is urgently needed. This is about the credibility of the Prime Minister's word.Is he going to flow that money or is this going to be just another in a long line of broken promises to indigenous kids in Canada?

Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for the answer, but a nation-to-nation relationship needs a commitment by the leadership to meet. Ever since the government of Paul Martin, everyone in Ontario has received an annual 6% increase in health transfer payments, and first nations got nothing like that. What they do have are the highest rheumatic fever rates in the world, hep C, a suicide pandemic, and children with parasitic bacterial infections.I am asking the government, what commitment will it make to close that gap in the coming budget for health care and why will it not meet with the leadership now and commit to ending this discrimination once and for all?

Mr. Speaker, I spoke with the chief this morning. He said the government has done “squat”. We have houses that are so toxic that 75% of this community needs to be demolished. We just had a child medevaced out to London because of mould contamination. The officials in his department have ignored the crisis at Cat Lake for years, so sending him up to put on a Band-Aid solution is not going to cut it.What is it going to be? Are we going to see leadership from the minister, more jargon from Indian Affairs or an admission that his department has failed the people of Cat Lake, that he is going to take responsibility and he is going to make sure that action happens, yes or no?

Oh, God, Mr. Speaker, that is their idea of a priority: no money for Grassy Narrows, but hey, lots of money for the billionaire Irvings. Speaking of which, when the media asked the government if it gave $40 million to the Irvings to make French fries in Lethbridge as part of an Arctic shipbuilding contract, what did the Liberals do? They tipped off the Irvings, who then threatened The Globe and Mail with a lawsuit. Think about that: a government snitch line for billionaires to target journalists over the spending of taxpayers' money. What is the Prime Minister trying to do: turn Canada into some kind of two-bit potato republic for his friends?

Mr. Speaker, the Liberals fought the Human Rights Tribunal over four non-compliance orders, ignored an order of Parliament to flow funds to the underfunded child welfare system, and the price of that delay was the death of 12 children in the broken foster care system in Ontario. I encourage the government to read that report. It is a damning indictment of children being disappeared into a gulag of hopelessness. The report shows that indigenous children are still suffering systemic negligence from underfunded education, lack of mental health services and even lack of protection from abuse.Does the government not understand that the primary responsibility of a nation is to protect its children?

Mr. Speaker, the night that Colten Boushie was killed, the RCMP raided the home of his grieving mother and treated her as if she were an accomplice. They left his body lying in a field in the rain for two days. They handcuffed his friends and took them on a high-speed police chase. This is not how to treat victims of crime, so no one should say that race was not a huge part of this tragedy. Will the Prime Minister agree to an independent investigation into the RCMP's handling of the Boushie killing, and tell the House that the RCMP in Saskatchewan will finally be brought under an independent review process to deal with police complaints?

Mr. Speaker, yes, we do trust them to put the interests of Canada ahead of protecting the Prime Minister's political interest. The fact is that he has met numerous times with Mr. Atwal. Why? Because he is useful to political insider politics in the Liberal Party. However, he is also accused of trying to beat Ujjal Dosanjh to death with an iron pipe. What is this? Fargo? I served with Mr. Dosanjh in Parliament. It is incumbent upon all parliamentarians across political lines to put the interests of our nation ahead of partisan pork-barrel politics. Does the Prime Minister not understand that principle?

Mr. Speaker, I refer him to his notes about being paternalistic and inadequate. I am very pleased that the Premiers of British Columbia and Alberta tabled the question as to why they were deliberately excluding indigenous Canadians. That is the question. The Liberals are asking Canadians to assume the financial risks for Kinder Morgan, but there is also a significant social risk.Just how far are the Liberals willing to go to run roughshod over indigenous rights to do the work of a Texas-based oil company?

Mr. Speaker, our thoughts today are with the family of Colten Boushie. It is incumbent upon us to say that this Canada will not be a nation where the senseless killing of indigenous youth is considered okay, that Canada will not be a nation defined by racial suspicion, a failed judicial process or 150 years of broken promises. Platitudes are not enough. My question is for the Prime Minister. What steps will he take to reassure the Boushie family and indigenous youth across the country that justice will be made real for Colten Boushie?

Mr. Speaker, with the government responding to the crisis in Attawapiskat, we are hearing from indigenous youth in other regions who are saying “Where are the resources for our community?” The crisis is extreme across this country, and band-aids will not work. The youth want action now, yet there were zero dollars in this budget to deal with the suicide crisis and zero new dollars to deal with indigenous mental health. The current government has the power to act. The only thing missing is political will. Will it commit today to augment the funds to ensure that we can end the mental health crisis in all of the communities across this country?

Mr. Speaker, Doug Ford and the Conservative Party have shown their ignorance of the Franco-Ontarian community's history of resistance and its struggle for rights. Their attack on the French-language university in Toronto is an attack on francophone rights across Canada.Will the Prime Minister call Doug Ford personally to stand up for this institution and guarantee federal funding to build a French-language university in Ontario?

Mr. Speaker, I am deeply concerned that the justice minister is going to ground on her obligation on the duty to consult and whether or not she believes the government is running roughshod over aboriginal rights with Site C. Her silence suggests that either she, as the justice minister of Canada, like the Liberal member for Winnipeg Centre, does not agree with her own government or she has changed her mind. Either way, it is her duty, as justice minister, to stand in this House and tell us, if she has done the due diligence, whether or not that Site C dam runs roughshod over aboriginal rights and the duty to consult. It is a simple question.

Mr. Speaker, on this 10th anniversary of the residential school apology, the Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs continues to fight the survivors of St. Anne's. She has instructed her officials to target their lawyer, Fay Brunning, the lawyer who exposed how justice officials suppressed evidence and had cases of child rape and torture thrown out of the hearings. Here is the thing. I was in the meeting when the minister promised to their faces that she would end those intimidation tactics. She gave her word. I am asking her this. Will she tell the House why she told Angela Shisheesh that she would end these tactics, and yet she continues to attack the lawyers and representatives of survivors?

Mr. Speaker, the eyes of the children are on Parliament as they look to us to see how we are going to end the policies that have led to too many indigenous families broken up, too many children denied access to everything from emergency dental care to proper wheelchairs. For indigenous children in this country, this is how the system works. The government is balancing the books on children who are considered not worthy of protecting. My question is for the President of the Treasury Board. This is a legally binding rule. What is his plan to weed out the systemic negligence that runs through all the key departments of the federal government? What is his plan for action?

Mr. Speaker, I said that the minister had not done his job. I have a letter from the chief, who wrote, “Your department was given ample time and information.” They have received nothing but unrelenting barriers, outright refusals from the representatives and roadblocks. Therefore, I would like to ask the minister to stop hiding beneath the desk, stand up, show some leadership and go to Cat Lake. Hell, I will take him there myself.

Mr. Speaker, she cancelled the fundraiser, mon dieu. How can we come from sunny ways to these Gong Show days? The Prime Minister promised to be an ethical alternative to the backroom control of Stephen Harper and the cronyism of Jean Chrétien, and he has proven to be the worst of both. He is burning through his credibility here by trying to shut down the investigation into SNC. Let me put it simply. This is about leadership. This is about integrity. This is about the rule of law. Does the Prime Minister not understand that or does he just not care?

Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations refuses to explain why lawyers in her department suppressed thousands of pages of police evidence that named 180 perpetrators of abuse, torture, and child rape at St. Anne's residential school and then had the cases thrown out. Now that they have been forced to turn over the documents, she sent her lawyer to superior court to block those survivors from getting new hearings. Why? Who are they protecting? Just how many survivors of St. Anne's have had their legal rights compromised and their cases thrown out because of the legal obstruction of her officials? How many?

Really, Mr. Speaker. That is his answer to people who are living in squalid conditions at -50° together, to pat himself on the back. What a disconnect. The problem is that Cat Lake is the tip of the iceberg, because there are communities across this country that are suffering from the mould crisis. He appointed his personal friend as minister. My real deep concern is that if the minister cannot show any leadership or gumption on a crisis like Cat Lake, how can indigenous people across this country trust him or this Prime Minister to stand up on any other issue?

Mr. Speaker, why is the Prime Minister hiding on this? Why will he not do the decent thing? It is a question of his judgment, just like his handling of the SNC bribery case.When we listen to the Michael Wernick tape it is impossible to think anything other than the fact that the Prime Minister was the driving force in trying to make the Attorney General fold, yet he said he was never briefed on the conversation. He took an early vacation and the first thing he did when he came back in January was to get rid of her. Just like he is trying to get rid of her today.For damage control, the guy is a mess. Who is running the operation over there?

Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Health is a doctor, so I am sure she can confirm to this House that breast screening, mammograms, biopsies are normal, everyday medical procedures, yet we have documents to show that her bureaucrats are interfering with doctor-ordered mammograms to deny these services to indigenous women, and they are cancelling audiology tests for indigenous children.There is not a single member of this House who would put up with such interference for their own families, so why does the government think that it is okay to treat the health of indigenous women and children in such a disrespectful and negligent manner?

Mr. Speaker, let us talk about tax fairness.Under the Liberal government, the CRA has come down hard on single moms, suspending their child tax benefits and forcing them to jump through hoops, but when KPMG was found to be running an international tax fraud scheme, whoa, the uber-rich got immediate amnesty. The Prime Minister went further. He appointed the top KPMG rep as the treasurer of the Liberal Party. Does the Prime Minister not understand the basic principle of conflict of interest? Why is he putting the interests of the big Liberal money machine ahead of ordinary Canadians who play by the rules, pay their fair share, listen, and work hard?

Mr. Speaker, the people of Grassy Narrows believed the Prime Minister when he made a solemn promise to build a mercury treatment centre. He even gave them a timeline, and then nothing happened. I guess we should have known that the punchline was coming when the Prime Minister made a joke about them to his rich donor friends. The punchline came yesterday: an empty agreement. No wonder Grassy Narrows refused to sign that bogus agreement. Politics is full of broken promises, but what about this one? How does the Prime Minister justify such deplorable treatment of the people of Grassy Narrows?

Mr. Speaker, banks have an enormous trove of all our personal information, every liquor store purchase, alimony payment, failed mortgage. No wonder hackers are always trying to crack the data safe, because it is literally a gold mine.Legislators around the world are working to protect the data privacy rights of citizens, but the minister has put a for sale sign on it to allow banks to sell our personal information to third party operators.When is the minister going to stop acting like a butler on call for the banking elite and start standing up for Canadian citizens for a change?

Mr. Speaker, I am listening really hard, and for a Prime Minister who claims to be innocent, my God he is sounding guilty. The client here is the Prime Minister, and the question is whether he tried to strong-arm his former attorney general and then had her fired because she would not take a fall in one of the biggest corruption cases.Stop hiding behind the legal games, and let her speak. Enough with this he said, and then he said something different, and when that did not work, he said something else about what she was supposed to say. Just let her speak. Do the right thing.

Mr. Speaker, the security report on the Prime Minister's National Lampoon vacation to India is out. We found out the Prime Minister actually has the power to redact the documents, including the questions of foreign interference. I mean, what is with that? Questions of foreign interference cut to the very heart of democratic accountability. Donald Trump would love to have the power to black out investigations of foreign interference and his political hijinks. It was the Prime Minister's decision to put the interests of the Liberal Party ahead of the interests of Canada that caused this debacle.Why is this Prime Minister continuing to put the petty interests of the Liberal Party ahead of the interests of protecting the people of Canada?

Madam Speaker, Germany has cut off arms sales to the Saudi regime. There is no way the current government can justify this arms deal to the house of Saud. Here is a simple plan. One, we cancel the deal as there is not an international body anywhere that will take the side of the Saudis. Two, we impose the Magnitsky sanctions on these criminals. Three, we repurpose the plant in London to build military vehicles for our troops that need the upgrades.As for the Saudi crown prince, will the government do the right thing and tell him that we do not apologize to tyrants and that he can go stuff his objections?

Mr. Speaker, a decision was made to leak confidential information about Chief Justice Joyal's Supreme Court application. This is a very serious breach of legal obligations, but the leak went further by trashing his reputation, insinuating that he was a Harper ideologue who would undermine the charter. This was baseless and without merit. Justice Joyal's privacy and reputation were treated as cannon fodder in the Prime Minister's ongoing attempt to smear the former attorney general. Very few people had access to that information, so who gave the order to spread the smear and who leaked the information?

Mr. Speaker, Gerry Butts, the architect of sunny ways, has been packing under a storm of corruption. It is up to the Prime Minister to come clean over allegations that his office attempted to strong-arm the former attorney general into taking a fall in one of the biggest corruption cases in memory.The Prime Minister promised to do things differently, but the SNC scandal is corroding his credibility. He needs to stop hiding.Will he waive solicitor-client privilege? Will he agree to an independent inquiry to restore the confidence of the Canadian people in him as prime minister?

Mr. Speaker, it has been exactly one year since Parliament ordered the Liberal government to stop defying the Human Rights Tribunal and immediately flow that $155-million shortfall on child welfare. The government refused, saying that it would be like throwing confetti. No, it is about protecting children like 12-year-old Amy Owen, who, before she died wrote on Facebook, “I am just a kid and my life is a nightmare.”To the minister, stop defending the same feeble funding formula for child welfare established by Stephen Harper. Why will the minister refuse to flow that money that was ordered by the Parliament of Canada?

Mr. Speaker, their names are Chantel Fox and Jolynn Winter. They were only 12 years old, and they were loved. The Human Rights Tribunal found the government culpable in their deaths because the Minister of Health refused the plea for emergency mental health services in what the tribunal ruled was a “life and death situation”. That negligence led to their deaths and 24 other children being put into emergency care. They died while the justice minister was spending $707,000 fighting the tribunal. Why are lawyer fees more important to the government than the lives of first nation children?

Mr. Speaker, the Human Rights Tribunal has made it clear that it is fed up with the government's inaction on dealing with the issue of racial discrimination against indigenous children. It points out that the Liberal budget failed children in the area of child welfare. The government continues to deny medical services to children and fights their families in court. The tribunal has effectively put indigenous affairs under third party management because it simply does not trust the government. To the Prime Minister, as the minister of youth, will he respect this ruling and if so, what are the immediate steps the government will take to end the systemic discrimination against indigenous children in this country?

Mr. Speaker, as parliamentarians, our primary responsibility is to make sure children in this country have hope, and we are failing them. I want to thank the minister for her positive words on Attawapiskat, but as the community said to me this morning, it should not take a state of emergency to get mental health workers to fly into a region that has had 700-plus suicide attempts.There is no money in the budget for mental health services for indigenous children. I have this question for the minister. What is it going to take to end this cycle of crisis and death among young people? What are the concrete steps for the long term that the Liberals are going to put on the ground, not just in Attawapiskat but in all the indigenous communities of this country?

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister's Office is running its daily smear and leak campaign against the two women cabinet ministers who stood up for the rule of law, but yesterday in the House women from across Canada turned their backs on the Prime Minister to show their repugnance with his behaviour. The member for Markham—Stouffville stated, “I chose the truth. I chose to act on principles that are so important to the future of our country. That's more important than my political career.”What did the Prime Minister choose? He chose a get out of jail card for corporate corruption. Does he not see how morally adrift he has become in this scandal?

Mr. Speaker, I really like the minister. I hope he will not sue me for pointing out that there is a dumpster fire going on behind him.Let me refer to the former president of the Treasury Board, who said that what we were dealing with were fundamental questions of the Constitution, ethical behaviour and leadership. She says, “Canadians deserve to know that someone takes responsibility.” Responsibility, I know that has been a very hard word for our Prime Minister, but we are talking about the rule of law here.Let us try this again. Could the Attorney General tell us who gave the order to leak the information, to smear the former attorney general and Chief Justice Joyal? Who did it?

Mr. Speaker, I am really, deeply concerned by the Prime Minister's indifference to three court rulings ordering immediate action to end systemic discrimination against first nation children. He was ordered to take action in January. Instead, we learned he took a Stephen Harper plan off the shelf and passed it as his own, an outdated plan that will shortchange children $130 million this year.It is bad enough that he stole Stephen Harper's energy plan, his environment plan, and his health cut plan, but does the Prime Minister really think Stephen Harper's plan to shortchange first nation children in foster care is good enough, when a court of law says it is not?

Fair enough; they do stand up for jobs, Mr. Speaker, the jobs of lobbyists. He is led around by the nose by lobbyists. The question is if he is willing to obstruct justice to help his lobbyist friends. Oh, to live in the tawdry but very elite world of Gerry Butts and the Prime Minister.Was it Gerry's idea to strong-arm the justice department to help their insider friends? No wonder he does not want Gerry Butts testifying at committee. Will the Prime Minister agree to allow Gerry Butts and his staff to testify under oath, so we can get to the bottom? By the way, is he willing to testify?

Mr. Speaker, elected office is not all that complicated. We are there to put the interests of the public first, but the Liberals treat it like an exclusive clam bar for their pals and their friends. Let us look at the investigation into the Minister of Fisheries, Oceans who had his hook in a deal that smells fishier than a Liberal at low tide. I have seen a lot of political red herrings over the years. I am asking the minister to stop floundering around like some kind of fish in a suit and come clean about that fishy surf clam quota deal, please.

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister bragged that his response to the Cat Lake crisis lifted the long-term boil water advisory. What he did not say was that it was for one building on a well at the edge of town. With 100% of the homes facing fire risk from bad electrical and poor stoves, the Minister of Indigenous Services' staff said that they would ship them light-switch covers. I am not kidding. A grab bag from Home Depot was their response. Would the minister please come out from under the desk and tell us if his staff were serious? Is that the plan? Is the minister even ready to deal with a crisis like Cat Lake?

Mr. Speaker, children at St. Anne's Residential School suffered nightmarish levels of abuse, torture, and child rape, yet the office of the Attorney General suppressed thousands of pages of police evidence that identified those perpetrators and in doing so, they had cases thrown out and undermined the hearings. Now that the justice department has been forced to turn over those documents, they claim it is inadmissible unless a survivor finds a witness to verify these atrocities.To the Prime Minister, enough. The survivors of St. Anne's deserve better. Will he instruct his government to end this obstruction of justice against the survivors of St. Anne's, once and for all?

Mr. Speaker, the former justice minister has revealed that the Prime Minister of Canada has coordinated a campaign of intimidation and interference against her to protect his partisan interests as the MP for Papineau. The finance minister attempted to interfere in the course of justice. The Clerk of the Privy Council delivered the threats. Gerry Butts and Katie Telford said that they were not interested in what was legal. The former justice minister referred to the Prime Minister as Richard Milhous Nixon.Will the Prime Minister stop the ongoing smears against her and call an independent inquiry?

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister's attempt to interfere with the SNC-Lavalin bribery case has cost him his former attorney general, the President of the Treasury Board and the Clerk of the Privy Council. He is going to bring a Liberal back from the sponsorship days to make it all right. Who is coming up with these ideas? It is no wonder the OECD anti-bribery unit said this has set all the alarms ringing. This is like a five-alarm dumpster fire of political cronyism, incompetence and now obstruction. What is the Prime Minister so afraid of that he will not let the former attorney general speak her truth so Canadians can get to the bottom of this very tawdry scandal?

Mr. Speaker, I was back home talking with people about job and pension insecurity, talking with Kashechewan evacuees facing another year of devastating floods and broken promises. Everyone asked me to explain why the Prime Minister gave $12 million to Galen Weston to fix his fridges. This is a guy who lives in a gated community in Florida and fought against a living wage for his employees. It is the disconnect of the government that offends people. Why is the Prime Minister preferring to act like a head butler for the uber-rich and the lobbyists rather than stand up for the interests of working-class Canadians?

It is not a tragedy, it is a criminal crime.

Mr. Speaker, then the Prime Minister should lift the privilege. The poor Liberals are without Gerry Butts to write their lines for them. Yesterday the former justice minister stood in the House not once, but twice, and told her colleagues and every member of the House that she is being silenced in her ability by the Prime Minister. His treatment of her is not just spiteful, not just pusillanimous; this is about the exercise of power and protecting his friends and his insiders. One woman with integrity is standing in his path. What is he afraid of? He should let her speak her truth and her power to him.

Mr. Speaker, the boss at Morneau Shepell told investors in 2013 that legislation was required to go after defined pension benefits and, voila, he introduced Bill C-27. Morneau Shepell told investors this legislation would be a game-changer.The Prime Minister is talking about a gold standard of ethics. Gold for who, for the finance minister, who is now making $150,000 a month? A blind trust will not cut it. Will the Prime Minister withdraw Bill C-27, and his finance minister's blatant attack on the pension benefits of Canadian workers?

Mr. Speaker, reconciliation is not a hashtag. It is not a bumper sticker on a Liberal car. It is about recognizing the section 35 constitutional rights of indigenous people in this country, yet yesterday when my colleague from Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou asked about the failure of the government to consult indigenous people about their section 35 rights on Kinder Morgan, the government did not even bother to respond. Therefore, on the record, do the Liberals believe that in the case of Kinder Morgan, the section 35 rights of indigenous people in Canada must be respected?

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister bragged that his response to the Cat Lake crisis lifted the long-term boil water advisory. What he did not say was that it was for one building on a well at the edge of town. With 100% of the homes facing fire risk from bad electrical and poor stoves, the Minister of Indigenous Services' staff said that they would ship them light-switch covers. I am not kidding. A grab bag from Home Depot was their response. Would the minister please come out from under the desk and tell us if his staff were serious? Is that the plan? Is the minister even ready to deal with a crisis like Cat Lake?

Mr. Speaker, it is a simple question for the Prime Minister. Will he ask his justice minister why they are so determined to deny justice to the survivors of that brutal institution? It is a simple question.

Madam Speaker, Canadians were shocked by the horrific conditions facing families in Cat Lake, and this community is desperate for help with the mould and housing crisis. The recent agreement with the government is a new beginning, yet we are hearing reports that an outside consultant is attempting to force the community to pay $1.2 million. This is money that should be spent on housing and improving the lives of the people.Will the minister explain the steps the government will take to ensure that those funds go to help the people and not to make some outside consultant a millionaire?

Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Health has yet to explain why it is okay for her officials to interfere with doctor treatments for indigenous patients. We have a brutal suicide crisis across this country, yet her department routinely denies psychiatric prescriptions for new drugs to deal with depression, anti-psychotic behaviour, and suicide. In fact, the department will force patients to go through two failed trial periods with out-of-date drugs before they will accept the doctor's diagnosis. It is putting people's lives at risk. Will the minister take responsibility for her office, and end this discriminatory and dangerous practice?

Mr. Speaker, they do not just have a climate crisis; they have a credibility crisis. Let me go on talking about their friends in the billionaire class and the lessons the Prime Minister learned from the SNC debacle. It cost him his attorney general, the President of the Treasury Board, his right-hand man and the head of the Privy Council. Then to fix it, who is he bringing in? Oops, I have to be careful when I say the name: Ben Chin, the guy whose fingerprints are all over this scandal like a bad enforcer. Why is he promoting the backroom boys involved in the scandal when he kicked out the two women who stood up for the rule of law and stood up to the Prime Minister?

Mr. Speaker, we have a humanitarian crisis unfolding at Cat Lake, and unfortunately, the minister has done squat. That is a direct quote from the community. To claim he is making enormous strides in a community where 75% of the homes are so badly off they have to be demolished is a staggering disconnect. It is like a slow-moving Katrina, at -50°. When children are being medevaced out to emergency wards in distant cities, we need a sense of urgency. I ask the Prime Minister, will he agree that the situation in Cat Lake is a national disgrace, and will he commit that he will meet with the leaders to find a solution?

Mr. Speaker, she cancelled the fundraiser, mon dieu. How can we come from sunny ways to these Gong Show days? The Prime Minister promised to be an ethical alternative to the backroom control of Stephen Harper and the cronyism of Jean Chrétien, and he has proven to be the worst of both. He is burning through his credibility here by trying to shut down the investigation into SNC. Let me put it simply. This is about leadership. This is about integrity. This is about the rule of law. Does the Prime Minister not understand that or does he just not care?

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister is showing a disturbing willingness to undermine the independence of the Canadian judiciary, from trying to help corporate friends in a bribery case in his riding, to the allegations of leaking information about the Supreme Court nomination, to the fact that the Prime Minister is now vetting potential judges through a Liberal donor base that includes information right down to the size of their lawn signs.Is that how small his vision is, wanting to know what they have done for the Liberal Party rather than what they will do for Canada?

Mr. Speaker, the people of Grassy Narrows have suffered 50 years of lies, cover-ups and broken promises. Two years ago, the Prime Minister promised that that spring there would be shovels in the ground to build a mercury treatment centre, and nothing was done. Enough with the broken promises. Where is the money for the mercury treatment centre? What is the timeline? Why is the Prime Minister refusing to cover the treatment for people who have been poisoned by the corporate and political crime at Grassy Narrows?

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the sentiment, but reconciliation cannot just be words. Therefore, I will ask my question to the Minister of Justice. Last week, her lawyers were lambasted in the Supreme Court of Newfoundland for their unconscionable behaviour in resisting the rights of survivors of the Newfoundland and Labrador residential schools, just as they obstructed the rights of the survivors of St. Anne's Residential School. Will the minister personally intervene? Will she tell her lawyers to stand down and end this culture of obstruction that has denied the rights of survivors of these brutal institutions? Do the right thing.

Mr. Speaker, let us talk about another major Liberal donor and another man from the Liberal war room. Jeff Silvester is the owner of AIQ, which has been identified as having played a role in undermining the Brexit vote. In fact, Christopher Wylie, another Liberal, is on record as saying that AIQ's work in the U.K. vote was “totally illegal”. My question is for the Prime Minister. Will he assure the House that his party will not block any efforts to have Jeff Silvester brought, by subpoena if necessary, to testify about the role of his company in undermining the Brexit vote?

Mr. Speaker, the ability of third party actors to distort the Facebook platform to undermine elections has created international outcry, but the comfy, cozy relationship between the Liberal Party, Facebook, and the key players in the scandal is disturbingly symbiotic. Kevin Chan from Facebook comes from the Liberal war room. Christopher Wylie comes from the Liberal war room, not to mention the donations from the head of Facebook to the Prime Minister. For the Prime Minister, how can Canadians trust that he is going to put their interests ahead of the interests of his friends at Facebook and the Liberal war room?

Mr. Speaker, to speak truth to power, a citizen cannot ask anything more from an elected official, yet when the former attorney general attempted to speak with her cabinet colleagues about political interference in a justice case, the Prime Minister left her sitting outside his office for two hours while he dithered about the optics of letting her into his domain. In that meeting she spoke truth to power, and he came out and said he was disappointed in her. Canadians are disappointed in him because she is ready to speak her truth to his power. What is he so afraid of?

Mr. Speaker, the plan to build a French-language university in Canada's largest city is a symbol of pride for Ontario and francophone communities across Canada. Mr. Ford's decision to attack Franco-Ontarian communities to please his Conservative base has all kinds of implications for the whole country.Is the Prime Minister ready to work with Franco-Ontarian communities to make this institution a reality?

Mr. Speaker, today is indeed a historic day because this is the day the government has to implement Jordan's Principle or be found in contempt of the Human Rights Tribunal.I have just returned from Attawapiskat and I can tell the House how badly needed those resources of Jordan's Principle are to hire child mental health workers and to augment child and family services. The budget came and went with zero dollars for Jordan's Principle, so the Human Rights Tribunal has called the government out.Will the government meet the deadline of the Human Rights Tribunal and flow the money? If so, when will it start to flow because the children cannot wait any longer?

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister spent nearly a million dollars fighting indigenous kids in court. Now his ministers are blaming the provinces, but documents show that federal programs are so underfunded that indigenous parents actually have to give their children away to provincial foster care to get help. There is something fundamentally wrong in a nation where indigenous families have to give their children away, while we have a finance minister who cannot remember that he owns a villa in the south of France. Will the Prime Minister call off his lawyers, stop blaming the provinces, and end this system of child-focused apartheid in Canada, and do it now?

Mr. Speaker, we have now learned from the CEO of SNC-Lavalin that 9,000 jobs were never at risk. To say that they are going to be unemployed is not true, he said, yet the Prime Minister has misled his caucus, the House and Canadians day after day, because it was never about jobs. It was about helping his wealthy friends and about shutting down the justice committee. He has tried to cover up his interference in an independent public prosecution. He has broken faith with the Canadian people.Why is he so afraid of an investigation into his actions in making up the facts around the SNC lobbying?

Mr. Speaker, she is not going to get her honorary set of gold SNC cufflinks with excuses like that, because we are talking about illegal interventions by the Prime Minister's Office. The Prime Minister and the clerk met with the former justice minister on September 17. She said no. The PMO official met her on December 5. She said no. The PMO staff met with her staff on December 18. They said no. Then the Clerk of the Privy Council met with her on December 19. She said no and was removed from her position soon after.In the interest of corruption, I ask the Prime Minister this. When does no mean no for the Liberal Party?

Mr. Speaker, the government's witch hunt against Vice-Admiral Norman has collapsed, but it has exposed the ruthlessness of a Prime Minister who was willing to destroy the career of a naval officer who served this nation with distinction. Why? It was because the vice-admiral raised questions about a lucrative pork-barrel deal on an important naval deal. What we have seen are the shocking lengths to which this Prime Minister will go to interfere in the legal system to help cronies in the Liberal Party, but to attempt to destroy an admiral's career is way over the line. I am asking the Prime Minister to stand in this House today to apologize to Vice-Admiral Norman and his family.

Mr. Speaker, we thank Justice Murray Sinclair for reminding parliamentarians of our duty to put the children first and to vote to order the current government to be in compliance with the Human Rights Tribunal. Until forced to vote, the government refused mediation from the tribunal, ignored two compliance orders, and its Liberal caucus members were insinuating in the House that the shortfall numbers put forward by Cindy Blackstock to the tribunal were pulled out of thin air or like throwing confetti around.Will the Prime Minister commit to the immediate implementation of the $155 million shortfall in child welfare that was identified this year?

Mr. Speaker, speaking about specifics, when the justice system fails an individual, there are appeals, there is legal precedent. However, when justice fails a people, it is incumbent upon leaders to take a stand. Let us be clear. The system did not just fail Colten Boushie. The system has failed indigenous people all the way back to Poundmaker, and it has to stop. Therefore, in this watershed moment, what concrete steps will the Prime Minister take to deal with the huge legal inequities that are faced by indigenous people all across the country?

Mr. Speaker, I know I speak for members of all parties when I express grief for the tragedy in La Loche. However, condolences are not enough. Parliament must take action, because all too often the young people feel left alone, whether it is a suicide and violence in La Loche, or the 600 young people who gave up hope in a Mushkegowuk territory and tried to kill themselves since 2009. My question is for the health minister. Her department routinely rejects requests for counselling services for mental health for indigenous youth. What steps will she take to guarantee that practice will end and will not continue, not just in the days and weeks ahead but in the years to come?

Mr. Speaker, when I drive the 407, like other Canadians, I expect at least that my name and address will be kept private, not shared around in a bunch of dodgy Conservative nomination races. The 407 data scandal is exhibit A as to why we need to have political parties held accountable and brought under the Privacy Act.The Prime Minister is pushing through his electoral reform bill, which privacy protections are about as reliable as a pinky swear from a party operative. Why is he ignoring the call of the Privacy Commissioner to hold political parties accountable?

Mr. Speaker, Jaspal Atwal, a convicted political assassin, was given an all-access pass to the Prime Minister's India trip because he was useful to local Liberal politics. When this debacle became an international incident, the government doubled down, using a senior civil servant, and now the Prime Minister, to spin a conspiracy theory that somehow the Indian government was trying to make the Liberals look bad. What was the Prime Minister thinking, putting the interests of the Liberal machine ahead of national security, international relations, and Canada's reputation?

Mr. Speaker, I am heartened by the minister's language on reconciliation but she does know as we do that the reconciliation has to begin on the ground in communities like Shoal Lake, Marten Falls, and Neskantaga where children are facing bacterial infections from dirty water. We all have a responsibility to change that. The Prime Minister has committed to ending the boil water advisory within five years.Could the minister tell us what her timeline is for an action plan and will that action plan have clear guidelines and commitments so we can get results for these communities?

Mr. Speaker, a decision was made to leak confidential information about Chief Justice Joyal's Supreme Court application. This is a very serious breach of legal obligations, but the leak went further by trashing his reputation, insinuating that he was a Harper ideologue who would undermine the charter. This was baseless and without merit. Justice Joyal's privacy and reputation were treated as cannon fodder in the Prime Minister's ongoing attempt to smear the former attorney general. Very few people had access to that information, so who gave the order to spread the smear and who leaked the information?

Mr. Speaker, I can see why the Prime Minister does not want to answer. He is becoming the political equivalent of Monty Python's Black Knight. He speaks of independence, but it was the Prime Minister who stated that there would be a court case against Vice-Admiral Norman, and we have seen how that ended up. Last week he was defending his decision to vet judges through a Liberal donor base; the week before that he was shrugging off a political leak on a Supreme Court nominee, and the week before that, well, I am going to give him a pass today on SNC.I have a simple question for the Prime Minister. When is he going to apologize to Vice-Admiral Norman and the taxpayers of Canada?

Mr. Speaker, our thoughts today are with the family of Colten Boushie. It is incumbent upon us to say that this Canada will not be a nation where the senseless killing of indigenous youth is considered okay, that Canada will not be a nation defined by racial suspicion, a failed judicial process or 150 years of broken promises. Platitudes are not enough. My question is for the Prime Minister. What steps will he take to reassure the Boushie family and indigenous youth across the country that justice will be made real for Colten Boushie?

Mr. Speaker, the night that Colten Boushie was killed, the RCMP raided the home of his grieving mother and treated her as if she were an accomplice. They left his body lying in a field in the rain for two days. They handcuffed his friends and took them on a high-speed police chase. This is not how to treat victims of crime, so no one should say that race was not a huge part of this tragedy. Will the Prime Minister agree to an independent investigation into the RCMP's handling of the Boushie killing, and tell the House that the RCMP in Saskatchewan will finally be brought under an independent review process to deal with police complaints?

Mr. Speaker, when the Prime Minister was hanging out with his billionaire friends at Davos, he made very clear his indifference to the corporate pension robbery at Sears. Those retirees have no friends in this government. Let us look at the finance minister. His family business, Morneau Shepell, had the contract to roll up the Sears pension fund. He has told the investors about the opportunities of going after defined plans, and he has brought in the legislation, Bill C-27, to make it possible. At the very least, will the finance minister withdraw Bill C-27 and recuse himself from any discussions about the Sears workers?

Mr. Speaker, in the NAFTA renegotiation, the Prime Minister left steel and aluminum industries hanging in the wind, but he has also abandoned small businesses across the country, like northern boat sellers who are paying punishing import duties because of the Prime Minister's tit-for-tat war with Donald Trump. Would he explain his logic to Clint Chartrand of Guiho Saw Sales in Timmins, who is being hammered by punitive penalties from the government, why the government has squeezed $300 million out of hard-working Canadian businesses and has only paid $11,000 back? When are these penalties going to end against Canadian businesses?

Mr. Speaker, it has been exactly one year since Parliament ordered the Liberal government to stop defying the Human Rights Tribunal and immediately flow that $155-million shortfall on child welfare. The government refused, saying that it would be like throwing confetti. No, it is about protecting children like 12-year-old Amy Owen, who, before she died wrote on Facebook, “I am just a kid and my life is a nightmare.”To the minister, stop defending the same feeble funding formula for child welfare established by Stephen Harper. Why will the minister refuse to flow that money that was ordered by the Parliament of Canada?

Mr. Speaker, the people of Grassy Narrows believed the Prime Minister when he made a solemn promise to build a mercury treatment centre. He even gave them a timeline, and then nothing happened. I guess we should have known that the punchline was coming when the Prime Minister made a joke about them to his rich donor friends. The punchline came yesterday: an empty agreement. No wonder Grassy Narrows refused to sign that bogus agreement. Politics is full of broken promises, but what about this one? How does the Prime Minister justify such deplorable treatment of the people of Grassy Narrows?

Mr. Speaker, international Human Rights Watch has called out the government for the systemic water crisis on indigenous reserves. Not only are families getting sick or suffering bacterial infections, we have had youth die from mercury poisoning at sites like Grassy Narrows that should have been cleaned up years ago.The Prime Minister made a personal commitment to have clean drinking water in every single community within five years, but government documents show it will not get close to that target because it is shortchanging the commitment by billions. Why is the government continuing this shameful legacy of leaving indigenous families at risk?

Mr. Speaker, we would have to look very long and hard to find a joke so dissonant and disconnected as the Prime Minister's decision to ridicule the people of Grassy Narrows. I was speaking with Chief Rudy Turtle and he said that nobody from the Prime Minister's Office has even bothered to call to apologize. When a leader does something so snide and so smug to such a marginalized community, the decent thing to do is to pick up the phone and say sorry. That is leader to leader, nation to nation.Will the Prime Minister make this right and commit in the House that he will personally call Chief Turtle and apologize?

Mr. Speaker, the Cambridge Analytica scandal continues as the company and its parent, SCL, have folded up operations, but the main players have just put a new name on the door, Emerdata, and they have disturbing connections to both the Chinese government and international mercenaries. This morning, at the ethics committee, we received an urgent letter from the data security firm UpGuard urging legislators to ensure that the potential data trail of electoral crimes is not erased. To the chair of the ethics committee, what steps will he take to ensure that the data is obtained from host servers used by SCL's Canadian operation, AggregateIQ?

Mr. Speaker, last week, the Prime Minister stood in Parliament and agreed to immediately flow the $155-million shortfall in child welfare, but Cindy Blackstock is already saying she may have to take the government to court because it is stonewalling. Meanwhile, there are communities that are struggling with serious allegations of sexual abuse. Without the resources on the ground, there is no way to protect these children. This is money that is urgently needed. This is about the credibility of the Prime Minister's word.Is he going to flow that money or is this going to be just another in a long line of broken promises to indigenous kids in Canada?

Mr. Speaker, well, I am thankful that another minister had to stand up for the minister who is missing in action. I will tell members what the chief just wrote today—

Mr. Speaker, why is the Prime Minister hiding on this? Why will he not do the decent thing? It is a question of his judgment, just like his handling of the SNC bribery case.When we listen to the Michael Wernick tape it is impossible to think anything other than the fact that the Prime Minister was the driving force in trying to make the Attorney General fold, yet he said he was never briefed on the conversation. He took an early vacation and the first thing he did when he came back in January was to get rid of her. Just like he is trying to get rid of her today.For damage control, the guy is a mess. Who is running the operation over there?

Mr. Speaker, this morning I wrote the Prime Minister asking him to provide parliamentarians with a security briefing over his allegations about the alleged interference by the government of India, and how alleged convicted assassin and Liberal insider Jaspal Atwal was given access to the Prime Minister's delegation. Those allegations made in Parliament did enormous damage to Canada's credibility and to the Prime Minister's credibility.Will the Prime Minister provide Parliament with the evidence in a briefing, or is this him using the Donald Trump damage control playbook of self-serving political Pinocchio-ism?

Mr. Speaker, the allegations of widespread fraud committed against the people of Kashechewan raises serious questions about the operating culture in the Minister of Health's office. Joe Crupi is alleged, among other things, to have stolen a million dollars from a breakfast program in a community so poor the kids do not have a school, yet her officials protected his access despite the warning bells from the Attorney General and the RCMP. Now her lawyers are going after Crupi for the money, but that was money stolen from the mouths of children. What steps will she take to make it right for the children of Kashechewan and right for the people of Canada?

Mr. Speaker, the Wenjack and Downie families have shown Canadians what true reconciliation looks like, and the Prime Minister promised solemnly to stop fighting residential school survivors in court. However, the Minister of Justice is in court fighting against a ruling in favour of a childhood rape victim at the Spanish residential school. This week she filed documents actually stating that her lawyers did nothing wrong when they misrepresented evidence regarding a notorious pedophile and had the case thrown out.Will she explain why she is breaking the Prime Minister's vow and why she is fighting these survivors in court?

Mr. Speaker, it is Mental Health Week, which reminds us that there was no new money in the budget for indigenous mental health and that last week the government was castigated by the Human Rights Tribunal for its failure to act on Jordan's principle. In Attawapiskat, the suicide crisis continues, with young people being medevaced out. This community has been asking for a long-term child mental health worker. Some of these traumatized children are as young as six years old. Therefore, I am asking the minister, what is her commitment to get long-term mental health services on the ground for that community and for those children?

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank all my colleagues who participated in the debate last night. This may be a transformative moment, but the youth need action now.First, there is a need for a family doctor in Attawapiskat. It is a simple request. Help us with that. Second, there is no new mental health funding for the communities. We need that. Third, I would like to ask the Minister of Indigenous and Northern Affairs to commit today to funding to empower indigenous youth, so they can start to look at how we can change programs, because after 140 years of failure and negligence and trauma, it is time we said that the youth will lead the way for the future.

Mr. Speaker, with the government responding to the crisis in Attawapiskat, we are hearing from indigenous youth in other regions who are saying “Where are the resources for our community?” The crisis is extreme across this country, and band-aids will not work. The youth want action now, yet there were zero dollars in this budget to deal with the suicide crisis and zero new dollars to deal with indigenous mental health. The current government has the power to act. The only thing missing is political will. Will it commit today to augment the funds to ensure that we can end the mental health crisis in all of the communities across this country?

Madam Speaker, rather than comply with the tribunal ruling, the indigenous affairs minister hired a consultant who claims that meeting the $155-million shortfall would be like throwing money around like confetti. It might be confetti to the government, but it is life and death for too many children.Speaking of throwing money around, we learned that the minister did not bother to spend $900 million from her budget. That is money that could have gone to children, to houses, and to education. With all of that money unspent, how come the Liberals cannot find the money to be in compliance with the ruling and stop fighting Cindy Blackstock and the children? Why can they not put that money where it is needed?

Mr. Speaker, I think the issue we are dealing with here is whether a minister of the crown poisoned an important case by making that gesture. That is the issue before us. People can make all manner of judgment—

Mr. Speaker, indigenous women deserve answers, not reading from a website.The Prime Minister promised to do politics differently, and on Bill C-14 he said that he would accept good faith amendments. Instead, the Prime Minister has disrespected Canada's top legal experts, flouted court rulings in Alberta and Ontario, and rejected good faith amendments every step of the way.Given the seriousness of the situation, Canadians deserve better. Will the Liberals finally stop putting politics ahead of policy, stop trying to ram through an unconstitutional bill, and work with us to fix Bill C-14 so that it will be a charter-compliant bill that respects the rights of Canadians and respects the Supreme Court of this country?

Mr. Speaker, speaking of crime, I was just in Grassy Narrows with Jagmeet Singh where people live on the most beautiful lake and cannot drink their own water.The poisoning of the people of Wabigoon-English River system was not an accident. It was a corporate crime of massive proportions, and the federal agencies have covered up the ongoing contamination to this day.The Prime Minister promised to clean the river once and for all. He has put no money into it. He has refused to meet the community. What is it going to take for the Prime Minister to stand up and end the ongoing poisoning of the people of the Wabigoon River once and for all?

Mr. Speaker, when it comes to issues of ethics and security, the Prime Minister keeps playing a busted flush, like his bizarre claim that nobody in the PMO knew anything about the fact that the member for Brampton West was being followed by the RCMP here in Parliament, and being mentioned in a wiretap on terrorism financing and money laundering. Here is the the thing. The Ethics Commissioner has confirmed that he is willing to look into whether the MP misused his position on the finance committee to ask leading questions about how to evade a money laundering investigation. Let us try this one more time. Is the Prime Minister sticking with his story that there were no adults around who could pay attention to these ethical and security debacles?

Oh, God, Mr. Speaker, that is their idea of a priority: no money for Grassy Narrows, but hey, lots of money for the billionaire Irvings. Speaking of which, when the media asked the government if it gave $40 million to the Irvings to make French fries in Lethbridge as part of an Arctic shipbuilding contract, what did the Liberals do? They tipped off the Irvings, who then threatened The Globe and Mail with a lawsuit. Think about that: a government snitch line for billionaires to target journalists over the spending of taxpayers' money. What is the Prime Minister trying to do: turn Canada into some kind of two-bit potato republic for his friends?

Mr. Speaker, we can tell a lot about a man by what he thinks is funny: witness the Prime Minister using Grassy Narrows to be the butt of his jokes for his rich friends at the Laurier Club.Mercury poisoning is a nightmare. I have seen the effects of Minamata disease on children in Grassy Narrows. Grassy Narrows survivors had to pay top dollar to the Liberal Party to even get close to getting to the Prime Minister, and he thinks this is funny.Does the Prime Minister understand that he has shown a fundamental lack of moral compassion and leadership?

Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations refuses to explain why lawyers in her department suppressed thousands of pages of police evidence that named 180 perpetrators of abuse, torture, and child rape at St. Anne's residential school and then had the cases thrown out. Now that they have been forced to turn over the documents, she sent her lawyer to superior court to block those survivors from getting new hearings. Why? Who are they protecting? Just how many survivors of St. Anne's have had their legal rights compromised and their cases thrown out because of the legal obstruction of her officials? How many?

Mr. Speaker, Steve Fobister Sr. of Grassy Narrows died of mercury poisoning. That is a fact. Seventeen-year-old Calvin Kokopenace died from mercury poisoning. That is a fact. Children who are suffering ongoing mercury poisoning have been denied special education funding for six years. That is a fact. What is also a fact is that the Prime Minister promised the people of Grassy Narrows that he would clean up that river “once and for all” and not a dime has been spent.What is it going to take for the Prime Minister to admit that people are still being poisoned and for his government to pay its share to clean up the Wabigoon and English River systems, once and for all for these people?

Mr. Speaker, the Bank of Canada is warning that the power of the U.S. data oligarchies is so great that it is now threatening the competitiveness of the Canadian economy—this as the U.S. and the U.K. talk about regulating these corporate giants that have the power to undermine democratic elections. Meanwhile, the Liberal Party has put a “for sale” sign on the Prime Minister's door for all the data lobbyists who just all happen to have Liberal Party passes. Once again, why is the government putting the interests of giant data and its Liberal Party insiders ahead of the interests of Canadian citizens, consumers, and Canadian culture?

Fair enough; they do stand up for jobs, Mr. Speaker, the jobs of lobbyists. He is led around by the nose by lobbyists. The question is if he is willing to obstruct justice to help his lobbyist friends. Oh, to live in the tawdry but very elite world of Gerry Butts and the Prime Minister.Was it Gerry's idea to strong-arm the justice department to help their insider friends? No wonder he does not want Gerry Butts testifying at committee. Will the Prime Minister agree to allow Gerry Butts and his staff to testify under oath, so we can get to the bottom? By the way, is he willing to testify?

Mr. Speaker, legal discrimination against women is unacceptable in 2017, unless apparently they are indigenous women, because colonial Ottawa still maintains the power to decide who has indigenous rights in this country and it has disenfranchised thousands of women. Now the courts have ordered a remedy, and what a sight. Our feminist Prime Minister is saying he needs more time to consult. Come on, governments have had 150 years of time to obstruct the rights of indigenous women. Time is up. Will the Prime Minister amend Bill S-3 and end sex discrimination against indigenous women once and for all, yes or no?

Mr. Speaker, around the globe, U.S. data oligarchies are facing calls for regulation, but with the Liberal government it is a case of who you know in the PMO. Liberal operative Kevin Chan did not even bother to register as a lobbyist because he could just call up his friends, the ministers, and Google did one step better, moving Leslie Church from the Liberal Party to Google public affairs to the senior position in the Minister of Canadian Heritage's office. Talk about letting Dracula have the keys to the blood bank.Why is the Minister of Canadian Heritage putting the interests of Liberal insiders ahead of the interests of Canadian citizens?

Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for the answer, but a nation-to-nation relationship needs a commitment by the leadership to meet. Ever since the government of Paul Martin, everyone in Ontario has received an annual 6% increase in health transfer payments, and first nations got nothing like that. What they do have are the highest rheumatic fever rates in the world, hep C, a suicide pandemic, and children with parasitic bacterial infections.I am asking the government, what commitment will it make to close that gap in the coming budget for health care and why will it not meet with the leadership now and commit to ending this discrimination once and for all?

Mr. Speaker, in 15 years I have dealt with all manner of Indian affairs ministers, but the member for Markham—Stouffville was one who got things done. I worked with her on the health and suicide crisis in the north. She committed to the relocation of Kashechewan and we battled to instill Jordan's principle as a legal right.To see the Liberal caucus publicly trash the member's reputation with words like “traitor” and “repugnant” and “joined at the hip” with her colleague is just not acceptable. She deserves better than this.Does the Prime Minister not understand that?

Mr. Speaker, I was pretty shaken up to see the visible impact of Minamata disease on the children, who do not just carry it in their bodies, as 80% of these children are suffering permanent cognitive damage. Yet the government has cut all of the special education funding for the school. There is not a school board in this country that would deny special ed funding to children with such needs.Will the Prime Minister explain to the people of Grassy Narrows why he refuses to spend a dime helping the children who will carry the impacts of this disease their whole lives?

Mr. Speaker, the first promises the Prime Minister made were to indigenous Canadians, and those were the first promises he broke, with the justice minister supporting the Site C dam and then using lawyers to fight residential school survivors in court; the health minister denying medical treatments to first nation children and using lawyers to fight their families; and the Prime Minister defying two human rights tribunal orders, trying to pretend that Stephen Harper's child welfare plan was his own, and then shortchanging students by $800 million.Does the Prime Minister not realize that breaking promises to first nation children is the oldest con in Confederation?Happy anniversary.

Mr. Speaker, in a moment, along with my colleague from Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou, we will be asking for unanimous consent on an important motion, because it is up to the Parliament of Canada to accept our role and obligation in furthering the work of reconciliation and in addressing the still harsh wounds from the forcible removal of indigenous children to destroy indigenous identity in the residential school system.There have been extensive talks among all the parties, and I sincerely hope that you will find unanimous consent in this Parliament for this motion: That the House call on the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops to (a) invite Pope Francis to Canada to apologize on behalf of the Catholic Church to indigenous people for the church's role in the residential school system, as outlined in Call to Action 58 of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission report; (b) to respect its moral obligation and the spirit of the 2006 Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement and resume the best efforts to raise the full amount of the agreed upon funds; and (c) to make a consistent and sustained effort to turn over the relevant documents when called upon by survivors of residential schools, their families, and scholars working to understand the full scope of the horrors of the residential school system in the interest of truth and reconciliation.

Mr. Speaker, I met a young mother in Cat Lake this week who wept as she told me that her 12-year-old was so disfigured from rashes and impetigo that she had quit school, she hid under a blanket and she would not let her own mother see her face. Last week, the minister offered to send up some light switch covers. That does not cut it in a country as rich as Canada.I am asking the minister if he will stand in the House and commit today to a full independent medical team to go into Cat Lake to assess every child living in those mould-infested shacks, yes or no?

Mr. Speaker, help me out here. The member for Brampton East gets himself elected and then goes into business with a local company. I know that is pretty unusual, but at least we have some kind of rules. However, he then helps his friend get access to the Prime Minister and senior cabinet ministers during the notorious India trip. The reason we have a conflict of interest code is so that backbenchers do not sell access to the highest office in the land, like some kind of huckster peddling velvet Elvis paintings. Does the Prime Minister not understand that, or does he think that the rules for his friends do not count?

Mr. Speaker, you know that I have had enormous respect for you in the House in the 12 years I have been here. I come into the House to get engaged in spirited debates, and I am very pleased that the Speaker pointed out that my spirited debate with the member for Spadina—Fort York was actually interfering with other spirited debates in the House. I very much appreciate that, and I am very sorry. We were so spirited that I forgot we were in question period. I thank you very much for your role, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, as parliamentarians, our primary responsibility is to make sure children in this country have hope, and we are failing them. I want to thank the minister for her positive words on Attawapiskat, but as the community said to me this morning, it should not take a state of emergency to get mental health workers to fly into a region that has had 700-plus suicide attempts.There is no money in the budget for mental health services for indigenous children. I have this question for the minister. What is it going to take to end this cycle of crisis and death among young people? What are the concrete steps for the long term that the Liberals are going to put on the ground, not just in Attawapiskat but in all the indigenous communities of this country?

Mr. Speaker, it has taken two years, a million dollars in legal fees, and four non-compliance orders for the Prime Minister to finally accept the ruling of systemic discrimination against first nation children in foster care. In that time we have lost so many young people, like Tammy Keeash, Courtney Scott, and Kanina Sue Turtle.I thank the minister for pushing cabinet for compliance, and we will work with her, but we have heard these promises before. She needs to give us the dollar figure. How much have they been ordered to retroactively reimburse, and what will it take to end this shortfall and end this discrimination once and for all?

Mr. Speaker, the government cannot seem to get its story straight when it comes to its decision to fight a residential school survivor in court. Yesterday the Minister of Indigenous and Northern Affairs assured the House that if government lawyers were involved, it was only to help ensure they get justice. Justice department lawyers are in the Ontario Superior Court fighting against compensation to a victim of a “perverse” misapplication of justice. The Prime Minister promised to put an end to this.Will the justice minister please explain to the indigenous affairs minister why her officials are trying to stop this survivor from getting justice in court?

Mr. Speaker, I refer him to his notes about being paternalistic and inadequate. I am very pleased that the Premiers of British Columbia and Alberta tabled the question as to why they were deliberately excluding indigenous Canadians. That is the question. The Liberals are asking Canadians to assume the financial risks for Kinder Morgan, but there is also a significant social risk.Just how far are the Liberals willing to go to run roughshod over indigenous rights to do the work of a Texas-based oil company?

Mr. Speaker, the idea that the Prime Minister is hanging out with billionaires to protect the hard-pressed middle class is like telling us that those billionaire Liberal turkeys showed up and asked for an early Easter. This brings us to Mitch Garber. He is a mega donor, and the Liberals paid him back by giving him his own agency. They call it “Invest in Canada”, when it is really another case of investing in friends of the Liberal Party.Does the Prime Minister not understand that the public service in this country needs to be more than a patronage smorgasbord for his friends, donors, and insider pals?

Mr. Speaker, their names are Chantel Fox and Jolynn Winter. They were only 12 years old, and they were loved. The Human Rights Tribunal found the government culpable in their deaths because the Minister of Health refused the plea for emergency mental health services in what the tribunal ruled was a “life and death situation”. That negligence led to their deaths and 24 other children being put into emergency care. They died while the justice minister was spending $707,000 fighting the tribunal. Why are lawyer fees more important to the government than the lives of first nation children?

Mr. Speaker, diverse perspectives, yes, there is truth and non-truth. I remember in Sunday school they said that what is whispered in the backrooms is going to get shouted from the rooftops. This is the Prime Minister's opportunity to come clean. Stop hiding behind those legal-weasel mechanisms that are preventing the former minister from telling the whole truth. Will he waive the cabinet confidence on what was said to the member of Vancouver Granville in the lead-up to her resignation? Better yet, will the Prime Minister agree to testify about his interference in this case and come clean on this whole tawdry affair? Will he testify?

Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Health is a doctor, so I am sure she can confirm to this House that breast screening, mammograms, biopsies are normal, everyday medical procedures, yet we have documents to show that her bureaucrats are interfering with doctor-ordered mammograms to deny these services to indigenous women, and they are cancelling audiology tests for indigenous children.There is not a single member of this House who would put up with such interference for their own families, so why does the government think that it is okay to treat the health of indigenous women and children in such a disrespectful and negligent manner?

Mr. Speaker, yesterday the finance minister went from arm's length to cheerleader when he stated the decision by the CPP Investment Board to invest in privatized American prisons was not just ethical but represented the highest of ethical standards. They may be making record profits, but they rightly received worldwide condemnation, particularly for the tactic of targeting migrant families where children are separated from their families and caged. This is a human rights abuse, not an opportunity to make bank.Could the finance minister explain what it is about privatized American prison camps that he thinks represents any kind of ethical investment standard?

Mr. Speaker, in Timmins, North Bay, Sudbury, and Thunder Bay, the pension savings of Sears workers are on the line as the hedge fund creditors move in. This kind of pension theft is not only legal in Canada, but they get paid bonuses for doing it.Our finance minister said that he has set up a virtuous circle. It works like this. He is making a fortune off Morneau Shepell's shares and they are in charge of the Sears pension fund. Therefore, his being caught and having to sell those shares is not virtuous enough. Will he work with us to change the law to protect pensions in corporate bankruptcy, or will he continue to do the bidding of his friends at Morneau Shepell?

Mr. Speaker, the shortfall for clean water for first nations on reserve is $3.2 billion. The shortfall on housing is much more severe. When I am dealing, as I was this week, with a young mother with a chronically sick child living in a mould-infested shack, what am I to tell her? Do I tell her that she is now a part owner of a 65-year-old pipeline, or that it is not going to be Doug Ford driving the first bulldozer through first nation territory but the Prime Minister? Why is it that with first nation children change is always incremental, but Texas oil investors get from the Prime Minister what they want, when they want it?

Mr. Speaker, I spoke with the chief this morning. He said the government has done “squat”. We have houses that are so toxic that 75% of this community needs to be demolished. We just had a child medevaced out to London because of mould contamination. The officials in his department have ignored the crisis at Cat Lake for years, so sending him up to put on a Band-Aid solution is not going to cut it.What is it going to be? Are we going to see leadership from the minister, more jargon from Indian Affairs or an admission that his department has failed the people of Cat Lake, that he is going to take responsibility and he is going to make sure that action happens, yes or no?

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the health minister for visiting Kashechewan and Attawapiskat with me last week. It is ground zero in the indigenous health crisis. The minister met people who have lost loved ones because there were no doctors, and children with respiratory illnesses, because Tylenol is the only medication available, yet there was no money in the budget for the shortfall, and she did not make any new commitments on health services to the region. I have a simple question. The youth and leaders will be in Ottawa next week. Would she be willing to put the money on the table so we can end this discriminatory, substandard, third world health standard?

Mr. Speaker, I am not sure if the hon. minister heard the question. The question was for the justice department.What we have learned is that 1,000 victims of sexual and physical abuse in the residential schools had their cases thrown out on a flimsy legal technicality, which is that children who were abused in institutions run by the government are not, somehow, eligible for compensation by the government. This travesty was conjured up in the Department of Justice. I am asking the minister, as its boss, will she do the right thing? Will she tell this House that those cases will be reopened and that justice will be done? I am asking her to answer for her officials.

Mr. Speaker, their names were Chantel Fox and Jolynn Winter. They were 12 years old, and they were loved. The current government was found culpable in their deaths, specifically the refusal of the minister's department to respond to what was known to be “life and death situations.” The minister is in federal court, not to clarify but to “quash” the order. There has been $6 million of taxpayer money wasted fighting first nation children in court. Therefore, for Chantel, for Jolynn, and for all the other children falling through the cracks, will the minister just call off your lawyers, do the right thing, and end that federal court case today?

Mr. Speaker, things do get heated in the House. I have seen that over 15 years. If a matter is of importance to the House, it needs to be responded to with respect in the House. Whether a member in a senior cabinet position may or may not be involved in a police investigation is an issue for the House, which deserves an answer. However, we have heard the continual threat of, “Say that again and you will be sued”, sued by the minister and sued out front. That is intimidating and undermining our work. When we ask legitimate questions, we respect the Speaker's right to decide whether a question is out of bounds. If the Speaker decides it is out of bounds or not parliamentary, then it is up to the Speaker and we will stop. However, if it is an issue of parliamentary business, the continuing response of intimidation and threats, which has become a tactic over the last two days, interferes with and undermines our ability to do our job.

Nine hundred kids? That is it? Mr. Speaker, everyone in this House agrees that the first nations child welfare system is underfunded. The question is whether the government will comply with the legal ruling ordering it to take immediate action. After nine months, and two compliance orders later, the government's notion of “immediate” becomes clear. Wait for it: more consultations and an online survey. The government can consult all it wants. The question is whether the Prime Minister believes he is above the law of the land, while first nations children are scooted by the law. It is a simple question. Will the Prime Minister support our motion to bring the Liberal government into compliance with the Human Rights Tribunal ruling that orders immediate action on the—

Mr. Speaker, the current government has ignored two compliance orders by the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal to end systemic racist discrimination against indigenous children. That Minister of Health was asked to end the systemic denials of emergency orthodontic surgery that run at denial rates of 99%. Instead, she has decided to spend more money fighting these families in court than the surgeries would cost. We are talking about a moral and legal obligation to children. Can the minister explain why she would rather spend the money on lawyers than on responding to the emergency needs of indigenous children who are being denied their rights?

Mr. Speaker, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board is a Crown corporation answerable to Parliament. In its corporate ethics guidelines, it says it will meet a credible standard, and yet it has been using Canadian pension savings to invest in cigarette companies, arms manufacturers and privatized U.S. prisons. The profit margins for these have gone through the roof because of Donald Trump's policy of seizing and separating families at the border and putting them in privatized prison camps.Does the finance minister believe that investing in cigarette companies and privatized prisons meets a credible standard of corporate investment for the Canada pension plan?

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister's Office is running its daily smear and leak campaign against the two women cabinet ministers who stood up for the rule of law, but yesterday in the House women from across Canada turned their backs on the Prime Minister to show their repugnance with his behaviour. The member for Markham—Stouffville stated, “I chose the truth. I chose to act on principles that are so important to the future of our country. That's more important than my political career.”What did the Prime Minister choose? He chose a get out of jail card for corporate corruption. Does he not see how morally adrift he has become in this scandal?

Mr. Speaker, a political decision was made in the office of the justice minister to suppress 12,000 pages of police evidence documenting the rape, the torture, and the abuse of children at St. Anne's Indian Residential School in Fort Albany. Justice officials trashed the legal proceedings and the credibility of survivors and fought to have legitimate cases thrown out.Will the Prime Minister of this country instruct his justice minister to end the cover-up and turn over the memos so we can find out who in her office is responsible, and will he ask her why? Why are they—

Okay, Mr. Speaker. Speaking of loopholes that are big enough to fly the Aga Khan's private helicopter through, I note that the Prime Minister's beach buddy on that trip also did not register his inappropriate gift. It is a simple thing. All members of Parliament have to register all travel that is paid for by lobbyists and third parties, yet the member for St. John's South—Mount Pearl did not bother to register his trip to billionaires island. What is with that? Were they sharing loophole ideas when they were hanging out on the beach?Why does the Prime Minister have such a low standard for accountability for his caucus?

Mr. Speaker, Health Canada officials have confirmed that no money was set aside to implement Jordan's principle. This flies in the face of two rulings by the Human Rights Tribunal that ordered immediate action to end the systemic discrimination against indigenous children. The government ignored the ruling with its budget and now it has ignored the deadline with the new estimates, so there is no money to close the funding gap for child welfare and zero for Jordan's principle.What part of the word “immediate” does the government not understand? With $30 billion in extra spending, could it not find a dime to help children who are still being denied their rights?

Mr. Speaker, they deserve better than cheap laughs from the Prime Minister, the frat boy. He promised the people of Grassy Narrows that he would clean up that river, and he broke that promise. However, he keeps his promises to his friends at the Laurier Club, which is why he sent Michael Wernick in to push 17 times in 17 minutes to get the former attorney general to overturn the SNC investigation: “Thank you for your donation” to the Liberal Party, even if it is an illegal donation. What happened to the Prime Minister's promise of ethical and moral government?

Mr. Speaker, jobs? Job one of the Prime Minister is to be more ethical than Richard Nixon. Let us talk about the threats, like when Michael Wernick said that the Prime Minister “is going to find a way to get it done, one way or another. He is in that kind of mood, and I wanted you to be aware of it.” He further said that she did not want to be on a collision course with the Prime Minister. I asked her if she felt threatened. She said she was not threatened once in that meeting; she was threatened three times.It is not the role of the Clerk of the Privy Council to act as the personal goon of the Prime Minister. At the very least, will they call on Michael Wernick to step down today?

Mr. Speaker, the independent assessment process was supposed to bring justice to survivors. Instead, government lawyers in the Department of Justice had over 1,000 cases thrown out under the administrative split. We now find that justice department lawyers suppressed evidence about a serial pedophile at St. Anne's Residential School, and then told the hearings that the victims were simply lacking credibility.This really puts Canada in the spotlight if the Minister of Justice cannot explain why this is happening. I am asking her: Will she do the right thing? Will she stand up in the House and say that she will meet the survivors and fix this?

Mr. Speaker, I am deeply concerned that the justice minister is going to ground on her obligation on the duty to consult and whether or not she believes the government is running roughshod over aboriginal rights with Site C. Her silence suggests that either she, as the justice minister of Canada, like the Liberal member for Winnipeg Centre, does not agree with her own government or she has changed her mind. Either way, it is her duty, as justice minister, to stand in this House and tell us, if she has done the due diligence, whether or not that Site C dam runs roughshod over aboriginal rights and the duty to consult. It is a simple question.

Mr. Speaker, really? Is he serious? Okay, so when the Liberals' top fundraiser, Stephen Bronfman, gets named in the paradise papers, the Prime Minister jumps in immediately and says, “Hey, no investigation needed here.” Why? Is it because he raised $250,000 for the party in two hours? Is it because it is a case of who you know in the PMO? Ordinary Canadians do not get the royal treatment. Just look at how the Prime Minister treated veteran Brock Blaszczyk who lost his leg in Afghanistan and is fighting for a pension. If only the Prime Minister treated veterans with the same level of deference that he does his billionaire crony pals, would it not be a better country?

Mr. Speaker, so speaks the woman who is fighting Cindy Blackstock in federal court. The government has fought Cindy Blackstock for 12 years tooth and nail, and now it is is fighting her in court. Internal documents show that when the ruling came down, her top officials did not even know what Jordan's principle was or how children were being routinely denied services. Health Canada did draw a line in the sand, that it would not accept the definition that would “ensure that First Nations children have access to the same publicly funded health and social services”.Will the minister please explain why indigenous children do not have that right under her government?