Thank you, Madam Chair.
I wholeheartedly agree with the comments of Mr. Martin. I too had the same surprise today, coming in to see brand new members of the Liberals and to see their most verbose and eloquent filibusterers joining us today. I think it's obviously a very intentional move by the Liberals to make sure this isn't going to see the light of day. I think it's unfortunate. It's also a little bit disingenuous, to tell you the truth. A few weeks ago, we had Ms. Coady in here talking about how important and pertinent it was to the government operations committee to study lobbying. Now to have the same party arguing the exact opposite position is really tough to rationalize.
I also find it surprising that when committee meetings have gone on before, the Liberals have argued that we couldn't waste time with these types of filibusters, and now they're undertaking the same process themselves. I think it's unfortunate, because we've scheduled this extra time, and we've wasted an opportunity and wasted some good time with the government operations committee.
I actually think you're doing your colleague Mr. Lee a great disservice. I actually thought we would come here today and give Mr. Lee an opportunity to tell us what actions he took against Sun & Partners; whether he authorized the website, and if he didn't authorize it, how he had gone about having Sun & Partners address that if they had done this; whether it had served them well in the law firm; and what compensation he sought from Sun & Partners to make up for this claim they had on the website to buttress their own reputation.
I thought this would be an excellent opportunity for Mr. Lee to clear the air. I think by not giving Mr. Lee an opportunity to answer questions, unfortunately you leave a cloud of suspicion. By not giving him an opportunity to respond to any questions, you leave us with an impression that there's something to hide. I think it's very unfortunate that you engage in these political games of filibustering to remove any opportunity for the government operations committee to do its job. So I certainly will not support the motion put forward by the temporary member of this government operations committee.
I really hope we don't see further meetings of the government operations committee wasted, because I would like to actually clear the air and do our job and get to the bottom of this. As I said, it's highly disingenuous for one to change one's exact same position regarding whether it's the responsibility of the government operations committee to look at lobbying and alleged influence peddling. It's unfortunate to see these games afoot. I really hope we can quickly dismiss this motion, and hopefully we're not going to see another one of this committee's meetings wasted on this.