MP accuses government of avoiding transparency

Photo: Contributed

Central Okanagan-Similkameen-Nicola MP Dan Albas

In November of 2021, my Conservative colleague, North-Okanagan Shuswap MP Mel Arnold tabled his private members bill, C-291 “An Act to amend the Criminal Code and to make consequential amendments to other Acts (child sexual abuse and exploitation material)”.

Bill C-291 is summarized as: “This enactment amends the Criminal Code to replace the term “child pornography” with “child sexual abuse and exploitation material” and makes consequential amendments to other Acts."

The text of the bill was created by another of my Conservative colleagues, Kamloops-Thompson-Cariboo MP Frank Caputo, who is also a former Crown prosecutor.

The bill would require what is currently referred to as “child pornography” in the Criminal Code to be referred to as “child sex abuse material” in court proceedings. Prior to this bill, the word “pornography” was an ill-defined term that could apply in both adult situations, as well as those involving children. The term “child sex abuse material” clearly identifies both the exploitive nature of such acts and their traumatic impact on children.

I can happily report that this week, almost three years later, Bill C-291 will become law and receive royal assent.

Full credit to Arnold for his work on this. From my experience, I know how challenging it can be to have a private member's bill receive royal assent. When my own private member’s bill (Bill C-311) received royal assent in 2012, it took considerable effort as private members bills must not only pass successfully through the House of Commons, but it must also successfully pass through the Senate.

On a related note, while Governor General Mary Simon is visiting the House of Commons to give royal assent to Bill C-291, there have been rumours she may also grant a request from the prime minister to prorogue the House of Commons. For those unfamiliar, prorogation is a parliamentary procedure where the current session of parliament is ended. This is done by a proclamation of the Governor-General, at the request of the prime minister.

While this is purely speculation at this point, it is also not uncommon in minority government situations and in this case, there is also a current parliamentary impasse over a motion of privilege. The privilege motion relates to a ruling from House Speaker Greg Fergus that the Liberal government clearly did not fully comply with an order from the House of Commons to provide documents related to the now-defunct Crown corporation Sustainable Development Technology Canada.

The issues relate to a shocking report from the Auditor General who stated: “We found 90 cases that were connected to approval decisions, representing nearly $76 million in funding awarded to projects, where the foundation’s conflict-of-interest policies were not followed. Overall, this was a program that from March of 2017 to December of 2023 approved 226 Start-up, Scale-up and Ecosystem projects to receive a total of $836 million. All of this was public money, being overseen by experienced Liberal ministers.”

The government continues to refuse to turn over the documents related to this program that the opposition believes is necessary to provide the transparency and accountability Canadians deserve over what went on with this program.

The Liberals refuse to disclose these documents, claiming that is “an abuse of Parliament's power that tramples on the Charter rights of Canadians.”

My question this week:

Do you believe the Trudeau Liberal government should disclose these documents?

I can be reached at [email protected] or call toll-free 1-800-665-8711.

Dan Albas is the Conservative MP for Central Okanagan-Similkameen-Nicola.

(Editor's note: Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said Oct. 8, the government has no intention of proroguing Parliament to end the impasse with the Conservatives over the matter of privilege.)

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.