QUESTION PERIOD — Prime Minister’s Office
Address to Parliament
September 27, 2023
Senator Gold, my question concerns — as I’m sure you expected — the address to Parliament by Ukrainian President Zelenskyy last Friday.
Senator Gold, someone was there who should never have been there and who should never have been invited. One of two things happened: Either the Trudeau government’s entire protocol, intelligence and security apparatus vetted this person and showed gross incompetence in doing their jobs or the outgoing Speaker of the House of Commons was able to invite someone to be with the president of a country at war without any vetting at all, which is also gross incompetence on the part this government.
Senator Gold, which of those two is it?
Thank you for your question.
What happened is deeply troubling and deeply distressing for Canadians, especially Jewish Canadians, Ukrainian Canadians and all of those affected by the Holocaust.
It is regrettable, Senator Plett — with the greatest of respect — that you make assertions with underpinnings that you know are incorrect.
The Speaker of the other place — like the Speaker of the Senate and the senators in this chamber — has the prerogative to invite guests. Their names are not vetted with the Prime Minister’s Office, or PMO, and neither are our names when we invite guests.
It was a horrible, embarrassing situation for which the Speaker has apologized and resigned, and for which the Prime Minister — literally within the last few minutes — has apologized to all Canadians.
I think it is important to heed my words: I urge all parliamentarians not to politicize this event that was deeply hurtful to so many people.
That truly is a shameful answer. Every guest has to be vetted by protocol and security.
Leader, power and responsibility go together. If the Prime Minister wants to have the power, he must also take on the responsibility. If he wants to travel all over the world and meet other heads of state, he is responsible, leader, for Canada’s reputation.
Last week, he presided over Canada’s greatest diplomatic blunder. He should have apologized two days ago, leader, when this came to light; he didn’t. Today, he finally came out from under the rock where he has been hiding for the last two days, and he said that Parliament apologizes — he did not say, “I apologize.” Parliament apologizes, not him.
Senator Gold, when will the Prime Minister finally grow up, accept his responsibility for once and apologize — not on behalf of only Canada and Parliament, but on behalf of himself?
The vetting of guests is for security purposes in terms of the danger to any guests or parliamentarians. It is not with regard to other aspects of those guests, as the honourable senator knows very well.
The Speaker of the other place took his responsibility and did the honourable thing. The Prime Minister has apologized.
My question is for the government leader.
Government leader, you’re spreading misinformation on this floor. I was the Speaker at the time with Speaker Scheer when we negotiated the MOU for the security structure in Parliament. I can assure you that guidance is given to our security forces on the Hill by the two Speakers of the chambers, but all security is controlled operationally by the head of security — which is the RCMP — and they report directly to the minister and the executive branch of government. That’s how it works. Anytime we bring guests on Parliament Hill, they are vetted, and they are only allowed once the government and the RCMP give authorization for those guests to be vetted.
This Prime Minister is more than willing to apologize for prime ministers and governments from 40 years ago, or 100 years ago, but he never assumed responsibility for this fiasco — which embarrassed Canada internationally and embarrassed Parliament, and hurt the souls and hearts of Ukrainians, Jews and Poles across the country. When will the Prime Minister assume responsibility, and can you tell us exactly what mitigating steps he will be taking for this fiasco to never reoccur?
Thank you for your question. I do not believe I was spreading misinformation. I repeat that any vetting is done for security purposes — not in terms of their pedigree, history or the like.
The Prime Minister has taken responsibility, and the Speaker has taken responsibility — and all of us regret deeply what happened.
Again, it is your prerogative to treat this as a partisan issue. It is regrettable, and I think it does not address the real issue. The real issue is that Canada continues to stand in solidarity with the people of Ukraine against Russian aggression, and will continue to do so despite this most horribly unfortunate and embarrassing incident.
The fact remains that protocol and security, especially when a world leader is addressing Parliament, fall under the jurisdiction of the government, and not Parliament. That is a fact.
This is not a partisan issue. It’s about an incompetent Prime Minister who gets up in the House of Commons, and calls the child of a Holocaust survivor — MP Lantsman — a Nazi. The same Prime Minister proclaimed that Canadian taxpayers and Canadian truckers protesting here in Ottawa are Nazis. That’s our problem.
You want to call it partisan; I call it justice. When you’re the Prime Minister of Canada — and the buck stops with the leader of this country — and you are proclaiming Canadians and parliamentarians as Nazis, but for the first real Nazi who walks up Parliament Hill, you roll out the red carpet, put him up in the gallery and give him a standing ovation, I take exception to that, and that has nothing to do with partisan politics.
My question remains: What will your government and the Prime Minister do to take mitigating steps to ensure this never reoccurs?
Thank you for your question and for the commentary that preceded it which, I might suggest, was filled with more misinformation than any answer you have heard from me during my time in this office.
This was a regrettable situation, Senator Housakos and others, and I think it would behoove us to not treat it as it is being treated in this chamber today. It really is regrettable.
