Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I wholeheartedly agree with everything that Mr. Fergus has indicated. I was unfortunately not able to attend the meeting where we had this really fulsome discussion. I really would loved to have participated in it and shared some of my thoughts on this.
First and foremost, I want to say that regardless of the fact the study is happening already at PROC, I don't want to take away from how important it is for us as a country to really take a deep dive into what foreign interference is today in its current shape and form.
I think in order for us to fully understand what that foreign interference is, we have to put it into the context of where it came from over the past number of decades.
My colleague is absolutely right that this is not just a communist China issue, but the changing dynamics of how the world operates and how we work with one another, how we build allies across the world, and how we partner with other nations to build upon the democratic values that we care so deeply about.
Chair, I do sit on the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians, so I think my perspective on this is quite heightened. I really strongly believe that we do need to do a lot more to ensure that we are safe from political interference. I do believe that we need to look beyond the one nation that is listed here in this motion.
Mr. Fergus is absolutely right: we have Russia, we have Iran, we have other hostile actors that do need to be looked at. I think that we do need to see how foreign interference or espionage has evolved over the past decades and how technology perhaps plays a role in it, and how the Government of Canada ensures that we're safe and in what context over this past number of decades. I think it is paramount that if we are to dig into this very important issue, we make sure that it is not a repeat of the work that is happening in PROC already. I do believe that expanding the scope of this motion would perhaps be the better way to go.
In that spirit, Chair, I would like to move an amendment to the main motion that, after the word "interference", remove the words:
particularly in the 2021 federal election, through the use of funds from foreign-influenced organizations affiliated with the United Front of the Communist Party of China
I'll pause there if you want to pull it up, Madam Clerk.