MPs must become more transparent...
All parties in the House of Commons have joined forces to support fuller disclosure of MPs' expenses.
The House has unanimously passed a Liberal motion instructing Commons administrative staff to begin publicly posting, by April 1, all travel and hospitality expenses incurred by MPs.
The Liberals began voluntarily posting their expenses last fall, through their party website.
The Conservatives followed suit.
However, the NDP has refused until now to go along, arguing that self-policing by parties of their MPs' expenses was little more than a stunt.
New Democrats say the latest Liberal motion is a partial recognition of their position that disclosure of expenses needs to be complete, standardized and independently verifiable.
The NDP had hoped to move an amendment to the Liberal motion, which would have authorized auditor general Michael Ferguson to audit MPs' expenses - as he is currently doing with senators' expenses.
However, a prior Conservative amendment made it procedurally impossible for the NDP to proceed.
Peter Julian, the NDP's caucus chair, said there's some suspicion that the Conservatives and Liberals conspired behind the scenes to ensure that the auditor general doesn't get the power to audit MPs' expenses.
However, earlier this week, Liberals and New Democrats supported Green party Leader Elizabeth May's attempt to win unanimous consent for a motion authorizing the auditor general to examine MPs' spending habits.
The Conservatives denied unanimous consent.
NDP Critic for Canadian Heritage Peter Julian issued the following statement:
"It has come to our attention that a consultant for a federally funded anti-racism project has a disturbing track record of spewing hate speech online against Jewish and francophone communities. This is completely unacceptable. We call on the Minister of Heritage to take drastic action and terminate his contract.
NDP Heritage Critic Peter Julian issued the following statement:
“Today’s announcement by Hockey Canada is another attempt to delay the important and urgent work to deal with the toxic culture in this organization. While a former Supreme Court Justice is a credible appointment to conduct the review into Hockey Canada, this won’t be the first time the organization undergoes this process.
NDP critic for Canadian Heritage, Peter Julian, made the following statement:
“Canadians are horrified by the incidents of sexual assault and by what they’re hearing from Hockey Canada. They are left with many questions about how this toxic culture is allowed to persist in our sports organizations and what the government is actually doing to ensure this doesn’t happen again.