Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I think some history is important here, because it is important for Canadians to understand that this motion was passed. A decision by this committee was made to request these documents. There had been a considerable amount of discussion at that point and there was a considerable amount of filibustering by the Liberals to try to delay the release of those documents. In the end, the ethics committee voted to have these documents brought to committee. It was just hours before those documents would have been available to committee members that the Prime Minister shut down Parliament, shutting down all investigations into the Prime Minister with regard to these documents and this scandal.
The national media are now reporting that Liberal members, Liberal MPs, are afraid of what these documents will show. They have been quoted as saying that they are afraid of what's included in these documents. As a matter of fact, I think it's telling that we have members of this committee who, I would say, are respected members of the Liberal Party and who would rather humiliate themselves than allow these documents to see the light of day. I think that says something about the severity of the contents of these documents.
If these documents were going to exonerate the Prime Minister, I don't think there would be a single member of the Liberal Party who would be fighting to see that we would not have access to them. I believe that if these documents were going to exonerate the Prime Minister, the Prime Minister would work day and night to ensure these documents would be released to the committee members, and I do not believe that any members of the Liberal Party who are members of this committee would humiliate themselves the way they are doing by going on for hours and hours and reading documents into the record. We all have access to those documents. This is simply a decision by those members to humiliate themselves rather than have these documents see the light of day.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau used to say that “sunlight is the best disinfectant”. Well, Mr. Chair, I believe that the spreading infection of Liberal corruption desperately needs the disinfectant of sunlight right now. I strongly believe that it is time for this committee to have access to these documents in the way that this committee has voted in the past to have these documents brought forward. I believe now more than ever that we need to see these documents so that we can put this matter to rest. If in fact there is nothing to be seen in the documents, then Canadians will never see the contents of these documents, because regardless of what happens, these documents will be held in the clerk's office and will not be readily available to Canadians. They will simply be accessed by members of this committee to ensure that we can verify the evidence.
Mr. Chair, I believe that how desperate the Liberals are to ensure that these documents do not come to committee demonstrates just how damning the evidence within them must be.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.