Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I'm going to reformulate and tell you that I agree with what Mr. Sorbara said. This is not a court of law. There are no rules for judicial fairness. There is no judge here. There are no lawyers and there is no due process, yet in motion after motion, or amendment after amendment, the opposition majority seems to find ways to drag us down this path that we are simply not, in my opinion, suited to travel.
Members from the government side are not unreasonable. I'm certainly not oblivious to how this is playing out. We're in front of cameras. The media are watching. This meeting is being put on display for the public; I would go as far as saying it is feigned indignation in the position of the government, which is in opposition to several parts of this now amended motion. The opposition knows full well that they are on tenuous ground with regard to the motions that have been put forward. In my opinion, I think they understand full well that the very idea of this study serves no other purpose than perhaps to garner political points.
There has been no evidence whatsoever to support the baseless accusations being made by the Conservatives and other opposition parties. Testimony at several committees, including this one, along with over 5,000 pages of documents, proves the exact opposite of what the opposition is trying to forge ahead with.
I don't know if Madame Gaudreau is dancing to my tune, but it pleasantly surprises me.
The evidence supports the testimony of the Prime Minister and relevant ministers that this was a recommendation of the non-partisan public service. Upon review of government, it was determined that this was the best way forward to implement the Canada student service grant: That's it. It's plain and simple.
Mr. Chair, this was a very cut-and-dried matter that has consistently been spun and promulgated to the public by the opposition in such a way that no one can make head or tail of it anymore. The amended motion that we have before us today continues to try to twist the narrative even further, with my opposition colleagues taking several unrelated issues and trying to spin a narrative of corruption that simply does not exist.
Quite frankly, it is quite clear that the only real goal of the opposition at this point and juncture of our debate with regard to the Canada student service grant, it seems to me, is to target only the Prime Minister and his family. They've become the target. It has also been abundantly clear, from the moment our government was elected in 2015 through too our debate on this motion here today, that the opposition has no interest in working in a bipartisan fashion in the best interests of Canadians. It is also very clear to me, and I think to many Canadians, that the opposition—