Dear Friends,
Embroiled in scandal and the resulting forced resignation of Finance Minister Bill Morneau, Prime Minister Trudeau has broken his election promise and prorogued parliament until September 23, 2020 when a speech from the throne will be presented forcing a confidence vote.
The immediate effect of prorogation is that all committees will be shut down. This means that the four committees investigating the WE Scandal are suspended and unable to continue their investigations.
Make no mistake, that was Trudeau's plan.
Trudeau shut down these committees the same day that 5000 pages of information on the WE contract were released by the government. While many of those documents were redacted - with entire pages blacked out in some cases - some new information has come to light.
Despite repeated claims that the WE Charity was recommended to the government by the public service, the released documents show that members of the Cabinet and the Prime Minister's staff guided the public service into making that recommendation. Furthermore, members of the public service raised concerns about WE Charity's ability to handle the volunteer program.
While these revelations undermine the Liberal's narrative of events, committees cannot currently force Trudeau to reveal the truth.
Not only will those committees investigating the WE Scandal be stopped, but also the Canada-China committee where MPs have been re-evaluating our relationship with China, as well as the Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates where we have been questioning the government on the procurement of much needed PPE and the possibility that Canada has purchased equipment made by slave labour.
The special COVID sittings that were happening once every two weeks will also be discontinued. What little opportunity the Opposition had to hold this government to account has been taken away.
But perhaps the most concerning consequence of this cover-up is that the government can't pass any new legislation until the House returns in late September without an emergency recall. As 2020 has shown us, anything can happen, and the Liberals have severely handicapped Parliament’s ability to help Canadians. This is their one job, and they are refusing to do it.
The Prime Minister is claiming that he is doing this so that when Parliament does return, he can present a Speech from the Throne and a new budget to Parliament, focusing on "reopening" Canada.
While on the face of it this seems like a reasonable thing to do, there was no reason to prorogue Parliament now. Trudeau could have waited until a few days before September 23rd to do it. His decision to prorogue now is a clear attempt at a cover-up of the WE Scandal and to avoid questions about Trudeau's corrupt government.
Canadians have had enough. They have had enough of this corruption. It is time for Trudeau to follow in Morneau’s footprints, and step down from his position.
Fortunately, the Ethics Commissioner will be able to continue his investigation into Trudeau's ethics violation and uncover the truth.
Rest assured that, despite Parliament not sitting, our Conservative Caucus will continue to fight for Canadians at every turn, and call out the corruption of this Liberal government. When Parliament returns, our committees will continue to search for the truth. Trudeau has not ended the investigations, only delayed them.
I hope this has been of interest to you.
Sincerely,
Kelly Block, MP