Mr. REID:

We left your appointees in office.

Mr. GAUVREAU:

Sit down; you will have your turn.

Sir WILFRID LAURIER:

In regard to investigations by commissions of inquiry, they ought to be carried on in the light of day and not behind closed doors as some have been under this Government. I call the attention of the House to two commissions in particular; the Transcontinental Railway Commission and the commission of Mr. Ferguson, of which we heard yesterday, those investigations have been conducted behind closed doors. No opportunity -was given to the men attacked in Mr. Ferguson's report to defend themselves. I complained of this yesterday, and to show my hon. friend the condition of things, I want to quote to the House a telegram received this morning from Mr. Cruise by the hon. member for Edmonton;

Winnipeg, Man., April 14, 1915. Hon. Frank Oliver,

House of Commons,

Ottawa, Ont.

Ferguson's report concerning me absolutely false in its two essentials. First, I was a bona fide homesteader and not a squatter; secondly,

I had twenty-six horses besides my cattle, as my application for patent shows and as Ferguson knew when he made his report. Will go to Ottawa if necessary. Wire me Royal Alexandra.

R. Cruise.

I appeal again to the fairness of the men who sit on the other side of the House. Mr. Cruise is a respected member of this House. He has a good reputation in his own constituency and in that whole section of country in which he is well-known. He was attacked here yesterday in his absence, which is bad enough, but he was not called by the Commissioner to answer to the charges made against him. Is that fair play?

I know the right hon. gentleman does not wish to be unfair. Mr. Cruise was called, and was also represented by counsel at the inquiry. .

Sir WILFRID LAURIER:

Was he examined on this point?

Mr. MEIGHEN:

Mr. Cruise was examined. He claimed that this transaction was bona fide, and Mr. Ferguson reports that he so claimed, but finds against him.

Mr. ROCHE:

Mr. Cruise swore that he had fifteen head of his own cattle and bought seven, giving his promissory note, to make up the twenty that were necessary. He said nothing about any more.

Sir WILFRID LAURIER:

Did he not

say that he had twenty-six horses?

Mr. ROCHE:

No, there was not one of

these horses on the land he was homesteading.

Sir WILFRID LAURIER:

That is what he says at all events. If he was examined, then I withdraw what I said. But I said it in support of my contention that these investigations should be held in public and everybody should have an opportunity of being heard. Does the Solicitor General deny the proposition that these investigations should be held in public? Is he prepared to isay that mien cam have the justice to which they are .entitled if such investigations are held in secret, as this was ? Everybody who has an inmate sense of justice must agree with me that an investigation that is not made in the open light of day is not a proper investigation nor one upon which we can place reliance. It is an axiom of British justice that no person shall be condemned unless he has had an opportunity of being heard. If Mr. Cruise was heard in this investigation there are others who were not heard, who had no opportunity of being heard, and who were equally condemned. If we are to have investigations which will purify public life, as I hope we shall, then I insist as a condition absolutely essential that these investigations shall take place with open doors, and that every man whose name is brought before the commission shall have an opportunity to give his own version. When this is done we shall have something like justice.

We have been told .also that the Government is going to prosecute the offenders, and the resolution we are now considering states that restitution must be demanded from parties who are found in the wrong, and the Department of Justice is .entrusted with this duty. I have this to say to the Solicitor General, who represents the Department of Justice on this occasion, that if in these prosecutions the Department of Justice shows .no more diligence, no more justice and no more fair-play, than it has shown in the case of the land owners at Valcartier, who for the last six months have been claiming their money and have not got it, then the offenders will have a good chance to go scot free. Twice before, and now for the third time, I have called the attention of the Government to the claims of these land owners who in the months of August and September last were deprived of their property, being called upon to give way to the necessities of the occasion, but who up to this day have not received the money to which they are entitled. I first called attention to this matter in the latter part of February. I was then told by the Minister of Militia in the presence of the Prime Minister and the Minister of Justice that most of these cases had been settled and that those that had not been would be settled very .soon. I received a letter on the 25th of March from Mr. Cannon of the firm of Taschereau, Roy, Cannon, Parent & Fitzpatrick, who represents a number of these settlers, including Frank McLaughlin, Hugh Bowles, Madame Veuve Conway, Thomas Thompson, Michael Woodlock and Joseph Griffith, and I received a letter the following day from a widow, Mrs. Richard Smith, and up to that date these people had not received their money. I quoted letters going back to the month of November showing that they had refused to take what was offered them and had asked that the Government should at once proceed in the Exchequer .Court; and yet no relief has been granted.

I understand that there is an understanding that this debate is to end with the speech of the leader of the Opposition. One would think -that .common decency-

Order.

Major General HUGHES-would demand that no controversial matters be introduced into his speech. The Prime Minister understood that no new matter was to be introduced.

Sir WILFRID LAURIER:

I do not know

about common decency; I leave that to my hon. friend; but I do know something of common sense, and if we are not to talk of controversial matters, what is this debate for?

262a

There is an understanding that the debate closes with the speech of the right hon. gentleman, so that there is no chance to reply to him.

Sir WILFRID LAURIER:

Certainly, the debate ends with my speech.

Mr. SPEAKER:

It seems to me that this is going a little outside the record. We are dealing with a report of the Public Accounts Committee.

Sir WILFRID LAURIER:

I am just pointing out that the report recommends that the prosecution of offenders should be referred to the Department of Justice, and I am stating in your presence, Mr. Speaker, and before this House of Commons, that if the Department shows no more diligence in prosecuting offenders than it has shown in paying the creditors of the Government, the offenders will have a chance of going scot free.

Mr. SPEAKER:

In that I think the right hon. gentleman is within his rights, but to take up these cases which are not before the House, and which were not before the committee-*

They were before the committee.

Mr. SPEAKER:

I did not so understand it.