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Edited Hansard • Number 053
Wednesday, February 5, 2003
Mr. Garry Breitkreuz (Yorkton—Melville, Canadian Alliance): Mr. Speaker, on Monday the justice minister tabled the 27 page version of the Hession report in Parliament. Then I found out that the media received an additional 65 page report containing all the financial information Mr. Hession used to prepare his report and recommendations. Why does the justice minister persist in hiding key information and keeping Parliament in the dark? Why?
Hon. Martin Cauchon (Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, I must say that the hon. member is keeping himself in the dark. I said yesterday that obviously he did not go to the briefing session and it shows even more today. We have tabled two reports, two very important reports, in order to prepare our plan of action. The report which was produced at the briefing session and which the media have had access to, and other members of Parliament as well, is a report which has been used as a backgrounder to prepare Mr. Hession's report. He called the department yesterday and received a copy. I guess he finally has read the press release.
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Mr. Garry Breitkreuz (Yorkton—Melville, Canadian Alliance): Mr. Speaker, one of the Auditor General's biggest complaints about the gun registry issue was that Parliament was kept in the dark. After her report was released, the minister promised to be open and transparent. The 65 page report was released to the media but was not tabled in this House. How can Canadians trust the minister when he deliberately withholds important information concerning the future costs of this billion dollar boondoggle?
Hon. Martin Cauchon (Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, I did not have to table those two reports in the House. I did it because I want to work in a very transparent way. I did it because I want to work with parliamentarians in order to make sure that all together we produce a good plan of action. If he would have done his homework, he would have been at the briefing session and would have had access to the documents that have been used by the media. The problem is that they do not believe in gun control and they do not believe in public safety. On this side of the House we believe in gun control and public safety and we will proceed with that program. We will fix it once and for all.
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