Harper calls for office of public prosecutions

Last Updated: Wednesday, November 30, 2005 | 11:44 PM ET

CBC News

A Conservative government would institute an independent office of public prosecutions responsible for investigating criminal activity on Parliament Hill, party Leader Stephen Harper said Wednesday.

Harper told a campaign rally in Quebec City that such an office would ensure nothing like the sponsorship scandal happens again without the politicians or public servants involved being punished.

"I invite you to look forward to ... a bold future where people are held responsible for their actions," Harper said on the second day of campaigning for the Jan. 23 federal election.

Conservative Leader Stephen Harper, Wednesday.

The Liberals, he said, cannot be allowed to escape responsibility for the scandal in which millions of dollars were funnelled to Liberal-friendly advertising agencies, with some returned to party coffers.

Under current rules, Harper said, politicians have had too much say in how those involved are dealt with and how much money should be repaid.

"Conservatives believe as a basic principle that politicians should not be accountable to other politicians, that government should not be accountable to itself," he said.

"A new Conservative government will ensure that decisions about criminal prosecution are independent of politicians and independent of politics."

The new office of public prosecutions would be in addition to a proposed accountability package announced a week ago by the Conservatives.

Similar offices have been adopted in other countries and some provinces, the Conservative leader said.

The director of such an office would be responsible for all federal prosecutions and make final, binding decisions regarding who should be charged and when.

"There's going to be a new code on Parliament Hill: bend the rules, you will be punished; break the law, you will be charged; abuse the public trust, you will go to prison," warned Harper.

" The independent director of public prosecutions not a politician will decide on prosecutions arising from the sponsorship scandal we will let him do his job without interference "

But Harper seemed to be contradicted by his deputy leader Peter MacKay, a former Nova Scotia prosecutor, who said such a prosecutor could only have jurisdiction over federal offenses.

MacKay said such breaches are not those uncovered in the sponsorship scandal.

"Look, there is no way that this office set up after the fact is going to have anything to do with the sponsorship program," he said.