I was happy to hear that Mr. Volpe and the Liberals were now prepared to support the bill, after they discovered it was actually very similar—or identical, as he said—to a Liberal bill that was passed three years ago, or was before the House three years ago.
My issue is this. I want to be clear on the record that the government is not looking at who should receive credit for this bill. What we believe is that the substance of the bill is very important. It touched upon a lot of people. Six million Jews and their families were destroyed during this period of time, and I think it's something that as a committee and as a government and as opposition members we should move forward on as quickly and as thoughtfully as possible, without worrying about where the credit lies and without worrying about all of those kinds of political issues. I think what's important at this stage is that we move forward.
I also want to say for the record, and for those people who are listening, wherever they may be, that I think all parties feel this is a very important thing. This committee is a master of its own destiny, so we can perfect any imperfection of this particular bill at this stage. I think it's important that all people who listen to this understand that we can perfect any issue now, by way of a vote. Even any challenge to amendments, or anything else, we could perfect and have this bill done within the next 15 minutes, to establish this.
But Mr. Gaudet has moved a motion that he would like some more time to think about this and possibly talk to his party, in relation to the amendments, which I do not believe are substantively different. If that's what Mr. Gaudet and the Bloc would like to do, I think the government can do nothing but support that at this stage, because what's important is to move forward with this bill. But it's also important that everybody has an opportunity to have a thoughtful process.
I want to make sure that everyone listening and everyone at this committee recognizes that we are not into taking credit for something that is simply the right thing to do. If Mr. Gaudet wishes to have some more thoughtful process to that, and if Mr. Uppal doesn't mind, I suggest that the government would support the motion by Mr. Gaudet to move this matter to the next time.