Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'll keep it short.
I remember very well what I said the honourable member had said, which was, “What's there to apologize for?” He is correct; that was what his uncle said. I refer to that because it was pretty clear that the government doesn't believe there is anything to apologize for, and that's their opinion.
If he felt that I was saying “he said” instead of “His uncle said, 'What's there to apologize for?'”, then I would certainly apologize, if he was misunderstood.
As for his being upset about my comments in The Hill Times, I've been on this committee with the chair for five years. We have a way of working at this committee. Sometimes it's raucous, but we have all kinds of witnesses, and I find that we have a really high level of respect for our witnesses.
I would be rather concerned with my honourable colleague's attempting to use all the citizens of Markham to hide behind. When I said there was bush league behaviour—and I don't know whether that was a direct quote, but I'd say bush league behaviour—it was bush league behaviour from the member; bush league behaviour towards witnesses who came representing the Italian community. Frankly, I was embarrassed. I said I had never seen this guy before he showed up at our committee, and I felt he was very disrespectful to the witnesses.
If he can't take that, well, that's too bad, but he shouldn't use the people of Markham to hide behind and he shouldn't use our committee to attack witnesses who come here in good faith.