QUESTION PERIOD — Privy Council Office
Independent Special Rapporteur on Foreign Interference
September 19, 2023
Well, you’ve said before there’s a reason why it is called Question Period and not answer period.
In June, the Prime Minister’s made-up rapporteur confirmed he was receiving free media advice from Liberal and NDP strategists at the same time the crisis communications firm Navigator was being paid to help him. Leader, at that time, I asked you why taxpayer dollars were going to Navigator when he was getting free advice.
Yesterday, a written answer tabled in the House revealed that Navigator was subcontracted by the Torys law firm, which the Trudeau government awarded a sole-source contract worth $4.5 million.
Leader, given that the made-up rapporteur stepped down on June 9, how much of this $4.5 million was actually paid out? If I guessed all of it, leader, would I be right?
Thank you. I certainly don’t know if you’re right, but I certainly do know that the summer obviously hasn’t tempered your proclivity to insult the former Governor General. The rapporteur did the job he was asked to do and happily. We now have in place Justice Hogue, who will be conducting her inquiry into foreign interference, and we look forward to the results of that.
Well, certainly the two and a half months off that you had have not improved your answers, either. I guess maybe we both should have had another month, leader. I’m not sure.
Instead of taking the allegations of Beijing’s interference seriously from the start, leader, your government thought it could spin its way out of trouble and instead chose to waste time and taxpayer money. This is a criticism of your government, leader, not of the made-up rapporteur. He didn’t make up that title; Trudeau made it up.
The Trudeau government also thought it was appropriate to award this contract at a time when a record number of Canadians are using food banks, housing costs have doubled and people cannot afford to pay for gas to drive to work or to heat their homes. Contrary to what Minister Freeland says, we can’t all take a subway.
Leader, does the Trudeau government honestly believe this $4.5 million contract provided good value for taxpayer dollars spent? Yes or no?
The government believes that the efforts that it has taken and continues to take to investigate and combat foreign interference in our democratic institutions — and, indeed, in our institutions more generally — is the appropriate response to a serious threat facing Canadians, and it will continue to act accordingly.
