QUESTION PERIOD — Prime Minister’s Office
Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner
April 9, 2019
Senator Harder, further to Senator Housakos’s question, we are dealing here with someone in the Ethics Commissioner’s office who is the acting director of investigations. In your response today, you referred to independence, but once again, the Trudeau government proves that it needs to use a definition of independence that bears some actual resemblance to the word and the definition of “independence.” In what world would it be appropriate that the sister-in-law of a senior cabinet minister, Dominic LeBlanc, would be able to be involved at that high a level investigating any Trudeau government minister or Prime Minister Trudeau? This is outrageous.
Who will confirm to Canadians and validate what steps were taken to avoid the obvious conflicts that would exist here with investigating the SNC-Lavalin scandal?
I thank the honourable senator for her question. She will know by my previous answer that the Ethics Commissioner’s office itself has taken the appropriate steps, or steps they feel are appropriate. It is, of course, for the independent Office of the Ethics Commissioner to answer the specific question the honourable senator is asking, but they feel, in their view, that their independence has been preserved and the integrity of their office and all of its staff are accordingly also not suspect, in their mind.
