Thank you, Madam Chair.
This is a really important motion. The amendment that Ms. Ashton has put forward I would love to be able to support; however, here is my challenge. Nothing Ms. Ashton has said about condemning the Leader of the Opposition for visiting a Diagolon camp I disagree with. It must be condemned in the strongest possible terms. Every political leader in this country has an obligation to not hang out with far right, violent, extremist organizations.
What I would say is that this is an important motion without the amendment. Without the amendment, I would challenge my Conservative colleagues to support this. We strip out anything that might be perceived as a partisan attack, rightly or wrongly, and we all get to work on this important work. I cannot see a reasonable-minded Canadian who would not want us to do this work as a committee. My concern is that if we support Madam Ashton's motion, this will end up in a filibuster, which is exactly what happened when we brought this up the last time.
While I agree with the sentiment that Ms. Ashton has put forward—I think there need to be real, serious conversations about where politicians show up and what that means to Canadians—my fear is that this important study will be derailed completely if the amendment is passed, because Conservative colleagues will use that as an opportunity to filibuster.
My request, if Ms. Ashton is willing to withdraw that amendment, is that we do that and hope that Conservatives will join us in supporting and getting this motion passed. If that's not going to happen, then we will see where the votes land. If the amendment is defeated, I would hope that Conservatives would see no problem—no problem at all—in having a meaningful, thoughtful conversation about the impact of far right extremism, about misinformation and about the impact that is having on people's lives.