Thank you, Mr. Chair.
As I was saying—and I'm speaking directly to the comments of the Conservative member who introduced this motion and referenced his private member's bill—Mr. Ruff is one of only a small handful of parliamentarians who sit on NSICOP, and for those who might just randomly be tuning into this, NSICOP is the secret committee of parliamentarians that reviews sensitive information and has all the security clearances to do that. Mr. Ruff does not support the narrative of these Conservative colleagues sitting here, despite the fact that Mr. Cooper invoked his name moments ago. As a matter of fact, this is what Mr. Ruff said just a few days ago, on June 10. He said, “Every single parliamentarian, in fact, I would encourage every single Canadian, read this report from start to finish...the fact is, this is an issue that needs to be resolved”—referring to foreign interference, and this is the important part, Mr. Chair—“and you want to tone down the partisanship and up our game on national security intelligence. We all need to do a better job of educating ourselves on what the threats are, what the vulnerabilities are and how to deal with it going forward.” Mr. Ruff also said, “To build on what Mr. McGuinty said—and I'm 100% in agreement.”
I notice my Conservative colleagues are chatting with each other, which doesn't surprise me, because that's what they did during the time that the witnesses were speaking, because they have no interest in hearing this, but at least to have it on the record, I just want to reiterate this point. He said, “and I'm 100% in agreement. The Prime Minister is not redacting anything. It's the process that we go through that allows those redactions to occur to protect national security, national defence and mainly international relationships....” Mr. Ruff, who is on NSICOP, who is a Conservative member of Parliament, is chastising these four individuals for the way they're acting today.
Mr. Chair, I move that we adjourn the debate.