Mr. Chairman, my intent in the motion is to get an update on the current crisis in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. If we invite the minister, which is what I want to do, and the minister says “Sorry, I can't come this day because...”, that's fine. I'm not going to have a cardiac over it. Then we bring somebody else in. But at some point, I want the minister here. There are certainly more contentious issues I'd like to see him on. Obviously, we haven't had him. So I think it's respectful to the committee to invite the minister, first of all, since he is the minister. If he can't come, I'm not going to jump up and down and say “Well gee, we picked that one time when he couldn't show up”. Move the motion as is. If he can't come, I understand. Fine, there'll be other times when I expect he would be here. Fine. But let's not lose sight of what we want. We want to discuss the issue.
On November 27th, 2007. See this statement in context.