Not to belabour the point that my other colleague just said, I just hope that, moving forward, the other witnesses we have coming to the committee do not feel intimidated in any way, shape, or form, in that if they are receiving any type of funding from the government they do not have a right to speak out. I would hope that this was not the intention of the parliamentary secretary in terms of bringing forward the information. A number of organizations receive funding from the Government of Canada, but they do have a right to have their opinions, whether or not they're in the favour of the government.
On March 9th, 2009. See this statement in context.