IN THE HOUSE ~ Question ~ flawed Bill C-23 fails to effectively target deceptive phone calls

    M. Peter Julian (Burnaby—New Westminster, NPD): Monsieur le Président, la « déforme Â» électorale du projet de loi C-23 a été critiquée de partout. Aujourd'hui même, au procès sur la fraude électorale à Guelph, on apprend qu'Andrew Prescott...

    The Speaker: Order, please.

     As much as I love the Cape Breton accent, I am going to ask those members who want to continue on with the previous question to maybe find a seat outside, in the lobby, but not in the chamber where they seem to be disturbing, certainly, the Chair.

    The hon. member for Burnaby—New Westminster.

    M. Peter Julian: Aujourd'hui même, au procès sur la fraude électorale à Guelph, on apprend qu'Andrew Prescott, impliqué dans la campagne de 2011 des conservateurs, a dit que ces appels robotisés frauduleux ont été organisés au niveau national. Pourtant, la « déforme Â» électorale des conservateurs ne s'attaque pas à ce problème.

     Pourquoi laisser la porte grand ouverte à d'autres fraudes électorales du même genre?

    Mr. Paul Calandra (Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister and for Intergovernmental Affairs, CPC): Mr. Speaker, of course, nothing could be further from the truth.

    What Elections Canada found was that, after listening to two years' worth of false allegations from the NDP, this government and this party actually ran a clean and ethical campaign and that we actually won the last campaign because we had better policies, we provided good government, and we cut taxes for all Canadians, who have more money in their pocket.

    At the same time, what we see is that the NDP has used money illegally to fund partisan political offices across this country. As opposed to living up to it and repaying taxpayers, it continues to try to run and hide to avoid accountability--

    The Speaker: Order, please.

    The hon. member for Burnaby—New Westminster.

    Mr. Peter Julian (Burnaby—New Westminster, NDP): Now, the information is coming out, Mr. Speaker.

    The Conservatives' deeply flawed Bill C-23 failed to effectively target deceptive phone calls. Now we can see why.

    At the trial of a former Conservative staffer, one of the witnesses has just stated:

This scheme was clearly wide-spread, national...and well organized. It required access, and ultimately complicity from someone higher up in the campaign.

    Given these troubling allegations, would the government agree to finally introduce a bill that would actually go after these kinds of national voter suppression crimes, yes or no?

    Mr. Paul Calandra (Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister and for Intergovernmental Affairs, CPC): Mr. Speaker, again, Elections Canada found no evidence of this.

    The only scheme that we have before us right now is the scheme perpetrated by, I think, about 23 members of the NDP caucus to defraud Canadian taxpayers of millions of dollars in using parliamentary resources, taxpayer resources, to fund partisan political offices across this country.

    It is up to the NDP, now, to apologize to Canadians, return all of these millions of dollars that it took from Canadians, and think about honesty and accountability, for once.

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