I'm going to read the motion again. To give the benefit of the doubt to my colleagues, this could be a result of my not passing around the motion—which, by the way, I do have in writing. It might have been easier. Listen to the motion. It reads:
That, pursuant to Standing Order 108(2), the Committee invite representatives from Maurice Law Barristers and Solicitors, the DisAbled Women's Network of Canada, the Native Women's Association of Canada, Amnesty International, the BC First Nations Health Authority, and the Minister of Justice, to appear before the Committee at the earliest opportunity to provide evidence with respect to the forced sterilization of women in Canada.
It does not call for a study. It does not call for a report. It's no different from the motion that provided for these witnesses here. It's simply to hold another meeting with some more witnesses who could provide us with information.
What happened, then, is that as people started describing all of the difficulties of whether we should have a report and other witnesses and those sorts of things, we got off on a tangent. I was trying to be collegial to Ms. McLeod, recognizing that we could add some further witnesses to the ones I suggested, but the motion does not obligate us to do this immediately. It does not obligate us to have a report. It's not a study that we'd be undertaking; we'd just be hearing from some more witnesses.
While I have the floor, that's the most charitable interpretation of what I've heard. If I'm less charitable, I want to go on the record to note that I'm a little offended by the comments or any notion by Mr. Ayoub about this not being collegial, or of it being partisan or of it being done on a whim. I had the motion drafted in writing prior to the meeting; it was not done on a whim.
Number two, there's nothing uncollegial or partisan about this. It was based on testimony. When this issue came up, we had discussion and we put motions forward to hear from the minister. The Liberals shot that down; we can't hear from the minister. We discussed having a multi-committee panel, because this issue involves Status of Women, Indigenous Relations, and Health, as we recognize. That was shot down; the Liberals didn't want that. We proposed having a subcommittee of our Standing Committee on Health to look at this. That was shot down. Finally what we had was a briefing from ministerial officials who were hand-picked by the Liberals. These are the people here. This wasn't a decision of the committee. This was a decision by the Liberals to put these people in front of us.
Now we know from the testimony we heard today—and again, I have enormous respect for all of the people here; this is not a comment on them—that they just don't have the information we need. We're here looking at this to get a briefing, and so far I've heard Ms. Hoffman say that one could just “imagine” the situation that's there.
By the way, I received a message while we were talking. The lawyer from Maurice Law Barristers & Solicitors said she would be happy not to come, but knows dozens of women who said they would be happy to come if it were the only way to give voice to victims. I'd like to have some people come before this committee who can tell us what happened. I don't want to have to imagine a homeless person who has no.... No, I want to hear what went on.
I think it's a little disingenuous. I keep hearing that everybody wants to get to the bottom of it, but there's always a reason, from the Liberal side, for us not to get people before this committee who might actually know. If the Liberals on this committee really believe this is a serious issue that we should get to the bottom of, then let's have one more meeting, or two, and hear from some other witnesses who might be able to give us more information. That's all the motion is calling for.