Liberal MP Vance Badawey (Niagara Centre, Ont.) accused media and Opposition MPs of manipulating public opinion by portraying the federal government as scandal-ridden. Blacklock's Reporter says his comments came during a Commons industry committee hearing on a recent ethics scandal involving a federal agency.“I will say this and I’ll be blunt about it,” said Badawey. “Especially for the past year we have been going through this diatribe of attempts by Conservatives to time after time create scandal in an attempt to create a narrative that the government isn’t acting in the best interests of Canadians.”“Quite frankly I am getting tired of it because it is just, once again, a narrative they continually try to gain and of course utilize the media to get out there and try to manipulate public opinion,” Badawey added. “With that said, it is just simply playing politics.”Badawey emphasized that the committee should focus on government work rather than political games: “The overlying message I am speaking on is the time being wasted by the Conservatives once again to play their political games. We are here to get a job done, not a political job but the business of government.”His remarks were made during a hearing into a July 24 report by the Ethics Commissioner on inside dealing at Sustainable Development Technology Canada. “What is he talking about?” asked Conservative MP Michael Cooper (St. Albert-Edmonton).“He says it’s political games, it’s politics?” Cooper responded. “I’ll tell you what it is, it’s Liberal corruption, and he should be embarrassed to be part of a government that over the past nine years has resulted in a culture of corruption that starts at the top, starts with the Prime Minister, that has made its way through all aspects of this government.”The Ethics Commissioner’s Verschuren Report cited Annette Verschuren, a Liberal Party donor, for breaching the Conflict of Interest Act as chair of Sustainable Development Technology Canada. Verschuren had voted a $217,661 federal grant to her own company, NRStor, a Toronto green technology firm.According to a June 4 report by the Auditor General, directors of Sustainable Development Technology Canada had 186 conflicts of interest. In response, the cabinet disbanded the agency hours after the audit was released and transferred its work to the National Research Council.Members of the industry committee voted to summon Verschuren and the Ethics Commissioner for questioning. “This topic takes priority over all other matters before the committee,” said Bloc Québécois MP René Villemure (Trois-Rivières, Que.).Conservative MP Rick Perkins (South Shore-St. Margarets, N.S.) expressed his outrage at the internal dealings within Sustainable Development Technology Canada. “Every time there is an investigation now with the Ethics Commissioner we uncover a deeper and deeper and deeper level of conflict of interest, self-dealing and frankly feathering their own beds,” said Perkins.
