Yes. It's more a comment.
I want to just thank you all very much for your presentation today. It has been very, very eloquent and persuasive. I think you're convincing. I don't know how you managed to bring so many young people along with you today, because we know how terribly expensive it is to travel from the north. And also, for Mr. Raymond Ningeocheak, a 15-hour trip to come here and not have any rest before you appear.... We appreciate very much your presence today.
Many of the members around the table here come from coastal areas, but my colleague Randy Kamp and I come from the west coast of Canada. I believe I can speak for members around this table, but I want to say that it's not an issue that we feel the people from Newfoundland should have to face alone, when it comes to the sealing issue. It's not an issue that the people from Iles-de-la-Madeleine should have to face alone or that the people from Nunavut should have to face alone. This is an issue that we need to address as a nation.
I want to suggest to you that there is strong support around this table, but we feel that your presence with us today actually brings great strength to Canada's argument and position about why we do what we do in this nation and why we don't need to apologize to the Europeans, but we do need to stand up together.
I'm glad to hear that word “together” come out in the discussions here. I did hear a suggestion that you need to go, and we would like you to go, but I think this isn't that you should go alone. You should go as part of a delegation. We'd like to make sure that you go together, with all the resources we have, to make our story as convincing as possible.
Thank you very much for coming to make your story so clear to us today.