Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I too support the motion proposed by the NDP for the same reasons, and perhaps one that's even a little bit personal to me.
I was the only one within our Liberal caucus who supported Mr. Rathgeber and his bill. I truly did believe that his intent was noble, and that where he was trying to go with this particular piece of legislation was to open up and have more transparency and accountability.
I would have even went as far as to believe the Conservative Party on their amendments regarding journalistic sources. I thought that was an honourable thing to do, but they've limited what “journalistic source” will mean, and they don't totally protect journalistic sources.
Then the final straw to drop on this bill was the gutting of the disclosure of salaries. So it's very disheartening that we see this here today. For those reasons I will no longer be supporting Mr. Rathgeber's bill. I thought it was noble in his intent and his willingness to be more open and accountable, but obviously his philosophy doesn't hold true through the Conservatives. They will go out there and tell him they tried to protect the CBC's interests through journalistic sources, but it's quite obvious that they have not.
So I'll support the motion as put forward by Mr. Angus.