Another Liberal Scandal
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Summary
Bill C-10 passed the House of Commons in the dead of night at 1:31am, with the support of the NDP and the Bloc. Conservative MP Michael Barrett joins the show to talk about what happened and why it should never have happened.
Transcript
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Hello and welcome once again to The Blueprints. This is Canada's Conservative Podcast. I'm
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your host, Jamie Schmael, Member of Parliament for Halliburton, for the likes Brock, with
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new content for you every single Tuesday, 1.30pm Eastern Time. And with that new content,
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we are working hard to become Canada's number one Conservative Podcast. And unfortunately,
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we have a guest this week who's been so busy, we really had to try to lock him down. And with that
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guest, I'm going to introduce him in just one second. I need you to like, comment, subscribe,
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share this program, help us push back against the ever moving Liberal agenda. If you can't
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listen or watch it right now, please download it, listen to it later on on platforms like CastBox,
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iTunes, Google Play, Spotify. It is out there. And with no further delay, I bring in Michael Barrett,
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the busiest guy on the opposition benches these days. He's the Member of Parliament for Leeds,
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Grenville, Thousand Islands, and Rideau Lakes. He's also the Shadow Minister for Ethics. So now you
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know why he's so busy. Welcome back, Michael Barrett. Pleasure to be here. Thanks for having
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me, Jamie. We have a lot to get to. I don't even know where to start. Let's start with Bill C-10. So
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Bill C-10, just for those joining us, catching up here, it's a bill that's the government plans to
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regulate programming distributed by media streaming services, something you might see on YouTube,
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on TikTok, or something like that. Basically, if the government deems it's big enough to be
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regulated, they will regulate that content, push down other types of content. It is a dog's breakfast.
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Michael, that happened in the middle of the night. It passed the House of Commons.
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Right. So this morning at 1.31 a.m., the Liberals forced a vote with the support of the NDP and the
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Bloc to pass C-10. Now, C-10 is going to, like you said, regulate social media content. And never has
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it been more important for Canadians to be able to access information online, whether it's on YouTube
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or Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and so on. And the government has decided that they're going to
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put their finger on the scale of what you are and aren't able to see and what you see more of.
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And that's being done as part of this Bill C-10. Now, when opposition members raised concerns about
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the prospect of, you know, basically the government regulating the internet, regulating social media,
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the government took extraordinary steps to ram it through committee and then ultimately to force it
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through the House in the dead of night. And we know as conservatives that a free speech is critical.
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This is fundamental to, you know, to our way of life, our freedom of speech and our freedom of expression.
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So we believe in making sure that there's a level playing field, of course, between large streaming
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services and Canadian broadcasters. And conservatives are always champions of Canadian arts and culture.
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But we cannot give the government, any government, the ability to regulate what you can and can't see in terms of
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social media content and sharing. So this is something that this bill, if it does happen to make it through
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the Senate before there's an election, this is a bill that a conservative government under Aaron O'Toole will
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repeal. We will repeal this bill. But in the meantime, we're going to continue to, we're going to continue
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to call on the government to, to put the brakes on this deeply flawed legislation and encourage those in
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the, in the Senate to, to make the amendments to the bill that are necessary to perfect, protect
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Now, many Canadians might not be aware that the Speaker of the House of Commons, Anthony Roda,
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basically slapped down the government for their actions in committee, how the committee, through the help
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with the NDP, the Liberals and the Bloc, pushed through about a half dozen to a dozen amendments, without
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being basically debated or discussed, they just rammed it through. And the Speaker actually came back and said,
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no, that that's not acceptable. You cannot do that. So, again, another abuse of Parliament.
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Right. And we've seen this a couple of times lately, and it's a bit of a pattern for the Trudeau
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Liberals, and that's their disregard for Parliament. In this case, the, the amendments that were moved
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through the, the Heritage Committee were done so without the, even the text of them being made public
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on an extremely tight timeline, reportedly, even under the objections of the Liberal Chair of the
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Committee. But it was a part of a, a programming manoeuvre by the Liberals to make sure that there
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wasn't debate, and to make sure that, that this got back to the House, and that it was rammed through
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at the 11th hour on, you know, actually at 1.30 in the morning. And, and the Speaker did, did claw back
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those amendments that were made at committee. But ultimately, with the, with the help of the NDP and the
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block, the Liberals were able to, to gain the system and, and, and get some of those amendments
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back into this terribly flawed legislation before it ultimately passed.
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Now, I've said it before, and I think it still remains true. When the government controls the content
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people watch and listen to, it, it potentially, and very realistically takes us down a very dark
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and dangerous path. When you have the government determining what they like, therefore, it's what
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you should like. That's a problem. We should be going on the free market, allowing people to make
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their decisions on what they like is best. And, and it goes to even the music industry. If you think
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back 75 years ago, if the government controlled the music industry, told people what they were
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and weren't able to listen to, there are very, there are a lot of genres of music that just
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wouldn't have happened, right? Like it never would have happened because some bureaucrat would have
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said, I don't like that, but I like this. So you're going to like it too. Yeah, absolutely. And it's,
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it's particularly concerning in the context of politics as well. And, and I'm not going to,
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I'm not going to follow too far on your, on your analogy about music, because I'll find myself out
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of my depth pretty quickly. But when we have a government who is embroiled in scandal, and whether
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it's the, whether it's the we scandal, the sexual misconduct in the military scandal, when we have a
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government that's defying multiple orders of, of parliament, which is something that, you know,
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we can touch on in a minute. And when the government has the ability to control what
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you're able to see on social media, how are Canadians going to know what's happening in Ottawa?
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How would they know that the government has, you know, failed to implement recommendations from 2015
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that would, that would help improve the culture in the Canadian Armed Forces and help protect victims
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of sexual misconduct? How would Canadians know that the Special Committee on Canada-China relations
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has raised serious questions about, about firings of scientists at the National Microbiology Lab in
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Winnipeg, and that their order for production of documents have been ordered by, that have been
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ordered by the House, have been ignored by the government now multiple times, resulting most recently
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in the head of the Public Health Agency of Canada and, and, and PHAC itself being found in contempt
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of parliament. When we have, when we have just found out, as reported in the Globe and Mail,
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that Liberals have been using their office budgets to subsidize the same companies that are,
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they're running their political operations. How would Canadians find that out if the government decides
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you're not able to see what the government doesn't like? And so it's incredibly concerning
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anytime that, that free market of, of ideas isn't open. And, and so on C-10, this is something that,
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that, you know, anyone who, who follows, who follows this program, likely also follows a lot of our
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colleagues, Jamie, and sees their, sees their social media feeds, sees us talking about this a lot,
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because it's, it's critical to Canadians that we protect their, their ability, uh, to access, uh,
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access the information that they want to see on, uh, and share on social media.
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Two things you brought up and two things I want to talk about. So let's talk with your, your last
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point. First, we'll talk about the, uh, the news that was in the Globe and Mail and kind of, you
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mentioned it actually yesterday in question period, if memory serves about, uh, Liberal MPs using office
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budgets to pay for actual campaign research. And it looks like, according to the Globe and Mail
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article, 149 Liberal MPs or 97% of the caucus made payments, uh, out of their office budgets to a
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company founded by a very close friend of Justin Trudeau. Right. Uh, the story in the Globe and Mail
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details how, um, how these companies, one run by Tom Pitfield, who's a, um, a childhood friend of
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Justin Trudeau and is married to the former president of the Liberal Party of Canada. And, um, and, and
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Mr. Uh, Pitfield and, uh, his spouse accompanied Justin Trudeau on the infamous trip to billionaire
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Island that first found him that first saw him, uh, being found guilty of breaking ethics laws and,
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uh, not the last time he was found guilty of breaking ethics laws though. There's so many,
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you lose track. You're really, you start, you start to lose track. And so in this case, we're seeing
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that, uh, two, uh, two different software programs. One is called NGP van. Uh, that's the company the
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Liberal Party uses to run their political database, Liberalist, as well as this data sciences company
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operated by Thomas Pitfield. And so, um, what we're seeing here is they're using 97% of nearly all of
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the, the liberal caucus are, are using their office budgets to pay these, uh, to pay these, um, liberal
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insiders. And when asked about it, Jamie, it was pretty remarkable. And I'm going to, I'm going to
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pull it up here. Um, when asked about it, some of the liberal MPs didn't even know, uh, what they
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were paying for. So, um, uh, one of the, Wayne Easter and John McKay, I believe. That's right. And
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John McKay, I'm going to read a quote from him here when asked what, what it was for quote, I haven't
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got a clue. I can't explain it. I vaguely recall once a year we write a check and it's always been
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explained that it's within the ethical guidelines. So we all kind of sign up for it and it goes
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into some oblivion, end quote. Taxpayer money, oblivious dollars at work. Your, your taxpayer
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dollars at work. So, uh, first of all, I don't think that, um, anyone should take ethical advice
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from, uh, the Trudeau cabinet or, or Justin Trudeau himself. And so when they're telling liberal
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MPs, nothing to see here, just sign a check and send it over. I guess, I guess we should
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be thankful that it's, uh, that they're signing a check. So it's traceable and it's not just
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brown paper bags full of money, but, um, it's, it's incredibly concerning and it certainly
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doesn't, uh, avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest, but it does raise the question
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about what compliance, um, whether it, whether it's compliant with all of the applicable laws
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and legislation, uh, to be, um, to be generous in my, in my assessment.
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But holy smokes, Michael, like this whole pandemic, the liberals have been basically using the public
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treasury, the public purse to enrich their friends and punish their enemies at the same time. We've
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seen this over and over and over again, the we charity with money going to companies owned by
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former liberal MPs that actually haven't produced anything. And this and many others over and over
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again, the, the, the, their insiders get rewarded. Everyone else on the outside stays on the
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outside. Well, that's absolutely right. It's, uh, in, in auto in liberal Ottawa and Justin Trudeau's
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Ottawa, it's all about, it's all about who, you know, and what your connections are to the PMO. And
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we've seen, you know, whether it's, uh, whether it's, um, the, the spouses of, uh, the insiders,
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the chief of staff to the prime minister and questions about lobbying. And it's always, you
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know, um, for, first of all, the fact that they've been found guilty of breaking the rules so many
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times, I think has, has helped to train them on how to just stay inside the bounds. And which tells
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us that perhaps the rules aren't tough enough. Certainly the penalties aren't tough enough in
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Ottawa. And that's, uh, and I think it's really eroding Canadians confidence when Canadians are
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struggling to get by businesses have been closed because of lockdowns. Um, we have, you know,
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people are trying to do their very best and meanwhile, and, you know, uh, and money's not
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what it, uh, you know, money for a lot of households wasn't what it was a year ago. And meanwhile, liberals
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connected to Justin Trudeau, um, are, are doing great at the taxpayer expense. They're getting the
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contracts, they're getting these sweetheart deals and it's, um, it's, it's really wearing on people's
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confidence in, in politicians and their democratic institutions. And so we need to start dropping
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the hammer with, with real, real penalties, meaningful penalties for people who break, um,
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ethical laws in Ottawa. And I forgot to mention SNC-Lavalin got a new contract during the, the
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pandemic. So everyone gets money. If you are connected, if you're well-lawyered, well-lobbied,
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you get the big government contracts, everyone else. Well, we can just push it uphill, I guess. I don't
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know what, what more we have to do here, but again, the, the ethics commissioner, you almost
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need rules to stop liberals from liberaling. That's well, that's right. And, and our, our
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committee, the, uh, the ethics committee did just release its report and it detailed all
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of the different ways that we do need to tighten up the rules in Ottawa. And, um, the refrain we've
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often heard from the liberals is that, well, these rules were put in place by conservative
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government. Stephen Harper put these, put these rules in place. Well, um, prime minister Harper
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was trained as an, as an economist and he couldn't have, um, and well, he masterfully steered us
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through the recovery from the 2008 recession. He couldn't have seen inside the, uh, devious ethical,
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a serial ethical law-breaking mind of a future liberal prime minister. And so we didn't, we,
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we thought that, you know, conservatives in, in, uh, the two thousands thought here's a robust
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set of ethical rules that'll make sure that any of the political players of the day will
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stay inside. We won't, we won't end up with another ad scam. Well, my goodness, you know,
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this is, you can just picture, uh, Justin Trudeau saying, hold my beer and doing his very best
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to, uh, to put, um, to put those rules to shame. So now it's time for us to fix these broken, uh,
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these broken rules, the rules that have been broken, but obviously accountability in Ottawa
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is broken. And, uh, that's why it's going to take a conservative government, um, to, to return,
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uh, good ethical governance and accountability to Ottawa.
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So what has Justin Trudeau done to, to clean up Ottawa? He campaigned on that in 2015 as this new
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shiny individual who is going to clean up Ottawa. He was going to take away power from the prime
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minister's office, give it back to his backbench MPs. Things are going to be different. The clouds
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are going to part. The sun is going to shine. The angels will start to sing. Life will be good.
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But yet the absolute opposite has happened. He's actually solidified power in the PMO. His backbench
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MPs barely have a say in anything and the scandals keep on going. And, and thankfully some of the
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rules, as you mentioned, put in place by Stephen Harper caught and put some light on some of the,
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the, uh, ethical violations that Trudeau and his gang are doing, but it hasn't stopped him.
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Yeah, that's right. And, and we've seen over the last six years, the prime minister, uh,
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investigated by the, by the ethics commissioner three times found guilty of breaking
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those ethics laws twice, multiple members of, of his, uh, of his cabinet, including Bill Morneau,
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who, who he fired in, in disgrace, uh, the, uh, Dominic LeBlanc, the, you know, the current
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president of the privy counts or of the, um, of the treasury board. And so we have, uh, we have this
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and to say nothing of the, um, the code violations and, and the cast of characters who now, um, sit as
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independents who, who were first elected as, as liberals. Um, and, and then we have the actual
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disregard for parliament itself. And we've seen that with, you know, with the, uh, the findings by
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the speaker, you know, holding PHAC in contempt. We've seen the government again, refuse to deliver
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documents. We, we see that, you know, the, the prime minister wouldn't apologize for his role in,
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in the SNC-Lavalin scandal, where he attempted to use his political power to interfere in the criminal
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prosecution of his friends at SNC-Lavalin. He, he would make no apologies for that because he
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believes that there are two sets of rules. He believes that there's a set of rules for, for
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liberals and well-connected liberals. And then there's a set of rules for everybody else. And
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he's going to take care of that first set first. And it's, it's been, it's been a, it's been a tough,
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uh, it's been a tough six years, I think for, for Canadians to watch what's unfolded in Ottawa.
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All right. We have run way over time, but I do want to touch quickly on what happened yesterday.
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It was a, uh, sadly historic moments in the house of commons in the Canadian political system. There
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was a public office holder brought to the bar of the house of commons, and you mentioned it a few
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times. And I want to quickly touch on that. What happened and why? Well, the, um, the conservatives
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put forward a motion. We put forward a motion last week. It had the support of, uh, of the other
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opposition parties. And we, um, ultimately we, we found, uh, the house found, uh, the public health
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agency of Canada in contempt of parliament and summoned its head, uh, Ian Stewart to appear at
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the bar of the house of commons. As, as you mentioned, Jamie, this hasn't happened, uh, in
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over a hundred years where someone who, who's not an MP to be, uh, to be called like this to the house.
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And, you know, really, uh, the liberals have used Mr. Stewart as a scapegoat and the direction that
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he has been given, this isn't something that Mr. Stewart has arrived at decisions of his own
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volition. These are directions from the, the health minister, from the PMO. And, uh, and when,
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when Mr. Stewart arrived, um, and he did all that he could do as an individual, and that was to present
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himself and to receive on behalf of his agency, um, the, the admonishment of, of the speaker,
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but he wasn't able to bring the documents of course, because the liberal government won't allow
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him to do so. So we have a government that's in, in breach of three orders of the house and its
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special committee. And these orders require the government to hand over documents in such a way
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that, that protects national security, but also gives Canadians a transparency and holds the
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government to account, which is the job of all MPs in Ottawa. And so it's, it's really, uh, disheartening
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to see a government that, um, that set, set our, you know, Canadians, uh, uh, hopes very high in 2015
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on, on, uh, on what they said they would do versus what we're seeing now. And it's, uh, it's incredibly
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disappointing that these liberals have refused these orders of the house and have continued to cover up
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of what, you know, is essentially a, a, or possibly a national security breach on, uh, on Justin Trudeau's
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Well, Michael, I always give the guests the last minute, the last comment. Why don't you take that
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now? And we'll let you get off to question period. Cause I believe you have a few questions and the
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leaders up very shortly. So take it away, Michael Barrett.
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Well, it's, uh, it's incredibly important the, um, you know, that, that folks share this message
00:20:59.400
certainly while we still can, you know, the, before, you know, things like Bill C-10 take effect,
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uh, you want to talk to your friends, talk to your family about what's going on in Ottawa. This,
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this podcast, uh, Jamie and his team do a tremendous job in getting our, in getting our message out to,
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uh, to you and you need to do your part for our, uh, conservative movement in Canada and make sure that,
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that people hear this. You have conservative MPs who are working hard for you in Ottawa. And
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as we come up on, uh, on an election, uh, it's important to, to support those, uh, to support
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those folks who are putting their name on the ticket and to, uh, to stand up for, uh, conservatism
00:21:38.720
across Canada and to take that message, uh, to Ottawa.
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All right. Michael Barrett, member of parliament for Leeds, Grenville, Thousand Islands, and Rideau
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Lakes. He's also the shadow minister for ethics, sadly, a very busy individual. We appreciate his
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time. He's a good friend of the show. He's been on a few times and we do appreciate him coming on
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yet again. And sadly, Michael, you're a great guy. You're awesome. You're good at your job. You're a
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great voice for your constituents, but for our country's sake, I'd like it if you didn't come
00:22:08.100
on as much. Like the reason I'm having you is because there's problems. So I love you. You're
00:22:13.240
awesome, but you know, I'd be glad if we didn't have to do this. Anyways, this is great content.
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As Michael said, before BLC 10 stops this program, we need you to like, comment, subscribe,
00:22:23.180
share it, help us push back against the ever moving liberal agenda. As Michael said, maybe
00:22:27.740
there's someone in your social media network that would be open to hearing the conservative
00:22:31.560
message, something they're not getting from the mainstream media. This is your chance to
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ensure that Aaron O'Toole becomes the next prime minister. New content every single Tuesday,
00:22:39.580
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