In politics there is an expression; “the cover-up is always worse than the crime”. A casual look at famous political scandals from history show this is the case. Efforts to cover-up a mistake are worse than the mistake. Think of the infamous Watergate scandal in the United States. It was not really the break in at Democratic Party offices by political operatives that led to the resignation of President Nixon, but the attempts by his office to cover-up connections to the break in.

The attempts by the Liberal government to cover-up key elements of the Atwal-India Affair has dominated Parliament lately because it goes down to issues of trust of the Prime Minister and his senior team. For those who are not familiar with the scandal, here is a short summary. Justin Trudeau went on a week-long state visit to India and he took most – if not all – of his MPs with Indo-Canadian heritage or ridings on the trip. There was virtually no business conducted during the week and the schedule was premised upon photo-ops with Justin Trudeau and his family in traditional Indian outfits at historic sites within India. The entire trip was based on showcasing Trudeau and his team in India to shore up votes at home. The trip was already being mocked in India and around the world for its lack of substance and over-the-top outfits when an epic diplomatic scandal took place. One of the Canadian guests at the Prime Minister’s events – Jaspal Atwal – was revealed to be a former Sikh extremist who had been convicted of trying to kill an Indian politician on a Canadian visit in the 1980s.

While the presence of Mr. Atwal at the Canadian events and his photos with the Prime Minister’s wife and Liberal cabinet ministers were bad enough, it was the damage control done by Trudeau’s office that has caused the cover-up and has prolonged the scandal. At first, the Liberal MP who invited Mr. Atwal tried to fall on his sword and accept responsibility. He apologized for helping Mr. Atwal attend the events and resigned his role within the Liberal caucus. A day later, however, the cover-up began when the Prime Minister’s office arranged a briefing with the media and the National Security Advisor to the Prime Minister. At this briefing it appears that the security official suggested that the Indian government was responsible for the invitation of Mr. Atwal as part of an effort to embarrass Prime Minister Trudeau. This was a very serious allegation that has hurt Canadian relations with an important ally. It is not clear what evidence – if any – was shared with the media to justify this outrageous claim. This senior official had never previously briefed the media like this and it seemed to be part of the Prime Minister’s attempts to change the channel on the Atwal scandal.

Now we have two competing stories on how Mr. Atwal showed up in India. The first story, that comes from a Liberal MP and appears to be supported by the Foreign Minister, is that the invitation was an “honest mistake” by the Liberal government. And the second story, supported by the Prime Minister and created by the National Security Advisor, is that the Indian government (or elements within it) invited Mr. Atwal to embarrass Justin Trudeau. Both of these stories cannot be true, yet both are being spread by the Trudeau government.

To get to the heart of the matter, the Conservative opposition has made a simple request to receive the same briefing from the National Security Advisor that he gave to members of the media several weeks ago. This would take half an hour and cost taxpayers nothing. In fact, I believe that Parliament – and by extension Canadians – are entitled to this information. The Liberals have limited debate at committee and have used their majority to shoot down several requests to have the National Security Advisor reveal what he told journalists. They are blocking answers to resolve the issues and this means the cover-up continues. If we stop asking to hear from Mr. Jean we will be, in some ways, allowing the cover-up to be successful. This is why the Conservatives are using procedural rules to apply pressure. We cannot reward this blatant lack of accountability.

Of course, I am both the MP for Durham and the Foreign Affairs Critic for the opposition, so this scandal appears to have more to do with my critic role than my role as MP, but I would suggest that is not the case. This is about trust and accountability. We have a Prime Minister who has already been found to have broken ethics laws and never accepts responsibility for his actions. He also displays a degree of entitlement that has him out of touch with average Canadians. Through this incident and others, Canadians are beginning to see that behind the slogans and carefully crafted imagery, there is a Liberal government that is profoundly out of touch with average Canadians and does not believe that they are accountable to them. They may be able to avoid accountability in Parliament, but they cannot escape being accountable in the election next year.