Juno News - What are the Liberals trying to hide？

00:00:00.000 Democracy dies in the darkness is the motto and slogan that appears on the masthead of the

00:00:10.760 Washington Post. I agree with the idea, if not always, their execution and carrying it out.

00:00:17.180 In the early part of the last century, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandes,

00:00:23.620 who served in the highest court in the land from 1916 to 1939, said,

00:00:28.720 quote, sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants, electrically the most efficient

00:00:34.300 policeman, unquote. In December of 2015, the newly minted Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in his

00:00:41.520 maiden speech to the House, quote, we are committed to delivering real change in the way that government

00:00:46.660 works. It means setting a higher bar for openness and transparency, something needed if this House

00:00:54.100 is to regain the confidence and trust of Canadians, unquote. Well, that was then. In 2020, in the

00:01:02.160 aftermath of the Wee scandal, which is being investigated by the Standing Committees on

00:01:06.860 Finance and Ethics in Parliament, his Liberal MPs have been anything but open and transparent.

00:01:14.580 We have witnessed the better part of four days of various Liberals engaged in a filibuster

00:01:20.240 to prevent opposition MPs from getting documents relating to the Wee scandal tabled in committee.

00:01:27.320 Frankly, it's been embarrassing to watch the machinations of the collected Liberals that

00:01:33.300 they have gone through to keep these documents from ever seeing the light of day. Why is the

00:01:40.100 real question. We know the Wee organization paid the Prime Minister's mother more than a quarter

00:01:46.100 of a million dollars for speaking at Wee events. We know that the Prime Minister's brother Alexandra,

00:01:52.820 Sasha, has also received tens of thousands of dollars, ostensibly, for speaking at Wee events.

00:01:58.860 And we know the Prime Minister's wife, Sophie, has appeared at multiple Wee events and accepted

00:02:05.220 travel and hotel arrangements at the very least from Wee in the past few years. The Wee scandal and the

00:02:12.980 Liberal filibuster of the opposition attempts to shed light on what really went on and how much money

00:02:20.260 the Trudeau family has benefited from it have caused Pierre Poilev and his conservative colleagues joined

00:02:26.740 by the NDP and the Bloc Québécois to call for an anti-corruption committee in Parliament. Stunning stuff.

00:02:33.700 In a lead opinion column in the National Post, Chris Selle called liberal efforts, quote,

00:02:40.580 a pathetic endless spectacle, unquote. To help understand how pathetic, conservative MP for Leeds

00:02:49.300 Grenville, Michael Barrett, said on Twitter late Thursday, quote, the Liberals are blocking the

00:02:55.220 release of documents. We are in our eighth hour. What are they trying to hide, unquote. That's the

00:03:01.700 crux of all of this. There must be something for Canadians to see, or the Liberals would not be

00:03:08.900 fighting hammer and tong to keep those requested documents secret. The more they appear to be covering

00:03:16.100 up something, the more tenacious the opposition is going to be to get at it, and the more guilty the

00:03:23.940 Liberals appear to be. It would seem the opposition smells blood in the water. When the committees

00:03:30.020 reconvene next week, it will be interesting to see if the Liberals keep battling from the parapets,

00:03:36.020 or realize the futility of this charade.

Juno News - October 17, 2020