Thank you, Chair.
This is just another delaying tactic by the Liberals. Obviously, they don't want these documents to ever come forward. The Liberals have now come up with an amendment that really doesn't do anything other than reiterate facts that are already existing, the fact that we're in compliance with the law. Let's move on. We know that the Liberals will continue to bring forward amendments, because they're being instructed to continue to frustrate and delay the work of this committee. We've never heard at this committee from any Liberal member who has said, “If you give us this, we will then allow this to go to a vote.” They've never negotiated in good faith. They've always just said to give them this and give them that. Then they have a new problem once there's been give by this committee. Every single opposition member of this committee has given up something to get to where we are today. The Liberals, however, have given up nothing.
As a matter of fact, the Liberals, not only on this committee but generally, have gone to extraordinary measures to ensure that these documents never see the light of day. Before we prorogued, these documents were just hours away from the committee receiving them. When the Prime Minister prorogued Parliament, he did so at a time when he would ensure that these documents never reached committee. The investigation stopped. Of course, at that point there were assurances by the Liberals that we would move back to this once Parliament resumed. When Parliament resumed and the House was prepared to call for these documents by an order in the House, the Prime Minister threatened a surprise election if in fact these documents would ever see the light of day.
The Liberals will stop at nothing. We've seen it at this committee. We're now into 30-some hours of debate as to whether or not these documents should be released. The Liberals continue to negotiate in bad faith. This amendment is just another example of them trying to negotiate in bad faith but also trying to water down the ability of this committee to get the documents that are necessary. I do believe we need to move on. We need to continue to demonstrate that these Liberals will stop at nothing to ensure that these documents never see the light of day. I'm going to continue to do what I need to do and what Canadians expect us to do as a committee, which is to provide transparency and ensure that what is hidden is released.
It's interesting; the Liberals continue to say that we don't need these documents because we've already heard what the facts are. Well, if these documents simply corroborated the testimony of the Prime Minister and others that the Liberals brought forward, then the Liberals should just let these documents be released. Their extreme and extraordinary actions up until this point, including embarrassing themselves as members of this committee by talking about all kinds of nonsense simply to try to delay this from ever coming to a vote, demonstrate that there is something included in these documents that will be a bombshell that will negatively impact possibly the Prime Minister and certainly the Liberal Party of Canada.
I believe it's time to move to a vote on this amendment. Let's allow it to fail and then let's go on to a vote on the main motion.