I'm going to wrap up quickly. I don't want this to drag on.
I just want to make sure that I get on record saying that we all know we have more than the responsibility of just being on this hill. I want to see more people like me and others who come to this country doing this. For me to be handed this role—and obviously we know that our leader was known for this role—was a big deal for me, for my family and for many people across the country, because that's what I hear about.
Honestly, I come from a family that was neither political nor even successful. We lived through poverty. I remember standing in line in my riding for low-income bus passes. I remember, when I was growing up, the first bout of racism—and I'm not going to say that's what this is about, but I want to put on record how important being here is for me. My first experience of racism was when I was on a bus with my mom and my brother. She was spat on because she covered her head. There were many other incidents as well, whether they were when I was going through school, playing sports or even being in business. I would look around the table and there would be exactly the same dynamic: I would be the person who looked very different from everybody else, but I knew I had a role to play.
I'm not going to play the victim card. This isn't about racism. I'm just saying that when I travel, people of other ethnicities tell me how proud they are that I get to be in this position. I don't take it lightly, but the precedent I think this is setting is that if you come here and you do your job, whether you do it well or not is very subjective. It depends on the person looking at it. At the end of the day, it just goes to show that you can be your best and try your best, but there will always be someone who wants to get rid of you.
That's the precedent I'm afraid we're setting here when we go down this line.
That's my heartfelt plea to the committee. There are no bad feelings after this.
I just wish, Daniel, that instead of bringing it onto this floor, you would have had the decency to maybe have this conversation once, at least, outside of here. I'm not hard to get a hold of. People call me all the time.
Going forward, however the committee wants to do this, I'm game, but I don't think I'll back down from doing the job that I was sent here to do. I don't think that would be the point of my being here.
I just want to thank the committee. Thank you for everyone's input. I'll leave my piece there.
Thank you.