Thank you, Mr. Chair.
My thanks to my Conservative colleagues. I acknowledge that there has been some openness on their part, which is something I have not seen for a few meetings. That is refreshing.
The first part of the amendment proposed to Mr. Housefather's motion, which is intended to replace “programs” with “content”, is perfectly acceptable, in my opinion. However, I have serious reservations on the issue of inviting witnesses.
If we invite Mr. Geist, I feel that we will also have to agree to invite other witnesses.
Mr. Geist is certainly a credible witness. Our Conservative colleagues have quoted him a lot in recent weeks. In a real sense, he has somewhat joined the debate. He has expressed his opinion a lot on social media. So we are very familiar with his position and we have a good idea of what he would tell the committee.
However, I feel that Mr. Geist is not necessarily the supreme authority or the supreme arbiter for the committee's work. As I understand it, he would be invited more or less to counterbalance the testimony of the Minister of Justice and the Minister of Canadian Heritage. He would provide the opposing view to any proposals made in the charter statement or in answering any questions that the members of the committee might have.
Whatever the case, I feel that the natural counterbalance to the testimony of Ministers is not testimony from outside experts but from members of the opposition parties. In our teams, we have people who are also experts on these matters. If we are not experts ourselves, we have references at hand who are familiar with our activities.
While I am grateful to my colleagues for the openness they have shown this morning to move our work forward, I do not feel that it is a good idea to open the door and invite other witnesses. I know various people in arts and entertainment, for example, who were invited to testify before the committee and who have been contacting us a lot for several weeks. They are concerned by the way the committee's work is going and by the obstacles we are currently experiencing. They would also like to be heard just as much as Mr. Geist, and rightly so.
So I am uncomfortable with that part of the proposed amendment. I do not feel that it is a good idea to open the door and invite witnesses again on this issue. I feel that we have the resources we need in our teams to get a proper handle on the issue and express a very clear opinion about it. Hearing from the Ministers, as has been requested from the outset, would accommodate the initial request of our Conservative friends and we would also have the assurances we require. I feel that we could move this important bill forward in that way.
That's my opinion. Of course, we are only just starting to discuss it, so I will stay tuned.