The following statement was delivered by Hon. Scott Brison, M.P. today after the release of  Justice Gomery's report:

The report speaks very powerfully for itself.  We support its findings unconditionally, and now await Justice Gomery's second report.

In his report, Justice Gomery says in black and white that Prime Minister Paul Martin is, "exonerated from any blame".

Further, Justice Gomery also said that the vast majority of public officials and politicians do their work honestly and emerge from his inquiry free of any blame.

But let's be clear - the kind of activities that Justice Gomery was investigating were wrong and totally unacceptable and these activities went on for decades under different governments and under different political parties for far too long.

It was Prime Minister Paul Martin who ended the sponsorship program.  There is only one leader, Prime Minister Martin, who has had the guts to say enough is enough, we're going to end this, we're going to clean it up, and we are going to strengthen governance to ensure this never happens again.

Paul Martin is the leader who tackled this problem head on.  The work is not over.  I believe he is the only leader who can finish the job, fix the problem and make sure this never happens again.

This Prime Minister has done more to depoliticize and professionalize advertisement and procurement practices than any government in history.  He is changing the culture of government to a culture of respect for Canadians and for the Canadian taxpayer.  This culture of respect will benefit Canadians for generations.