I'm entitled to my opinion and my opinion is that the witnesses in paragraphs (c), (d), (e) and (f) are, for the most part, political witnesses. The witnesses in paragraphs (g), (h), (i), (j) and (k) are largely bureaucratic witnesses.
He's asked for the politicians to come, but not with the documents. He's asked for the bureaucrats to not come, but we can get their documents instead. We're going to have politicians answering from bureaucrats' documents. That's basically where this is going to go. I don't agree with it at all. The crux of the matter to me is the production of those documents.
There is nothing wrong in the language in paragraph (l) of this motion. As parliamentarians, we have a responsibility—at least in the opposition—to hold the government to account. There are serious allegations in the news report published by Sam Cooper, which revealed, as said in the motion, that “intelligence officials informed the Prime Minister and several cabinet ministers in January of 2022 that the Chinese Communist Party actively worked to influence the 2019 Federal Election”.
I'll go back to the Parliament that happened before the 2019 election. This very committee had a motion before it to study foreign election interference, and the Liberal majority at the time actually killed it. Now they're in a minority situation and they're scrambling. I know what scrambling looks like when I see it.
The documents that are being asked for here are going to help parliamentarians make a determination of the level and extent of the threat and the abilities of not only the Chinese Communist Party, but, to Mr. Turnbull and Madam O'Connell's point, any foreign state actor that is not working in the best interest of Canada. We need to know as parliamentarians what the actual lay of the land is. Our constituents demand it, and defending our democracy demands that we have this information.
The Liberals seem agreeable, but they are obfuscating with regard to getting any results, having this committee get results and having Parliament and parliamentarians get the information we need to make an informed decision.
If we're not going to come to an agreement on this, we would yield to deleting paragraph (b) and we would yield on paragraphs (g), (h), (i), (j) and (k). However, we will not yield on the amendment to paragraph (l) or anything about that matter. Otherwise, I will work with my colleague from the NDP, who in my opinion is reasonable in suggesting that seven days might not be long enough. I'll let her make that argument if she wishes to. We need to have these documents before Christmas.