Thank you very much, Madam Chair.
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak during this round of questions. I hope it won't prevent me from speaking during a subsequent round, after we have debated this amendment, because I'd like to move a minor amendment to Mr. Cooper's initial motion regarding dates.
As for Mr. Turnbull's amendment, I won't be able to support it.
While we were discussing with witnesses here how the government has handled the interference, and while we are raising more questions here than are being answered, the Prime Minister held a press conference during which he strongly asserted that there are already enough tools to protect against foreign interference. This is the complete opposite of what our witnesses have told us today.
To reiterate, beyond what we can do as a parliamentary committee, we absolutely need an independent public inquiry. As for our committee, we must ensure that we continue to hear from more witnesses, including Ms. Telford, as stated in Mr. Cooper's motion. Mr. Turnbull's amendment would among other things remove the part of the motion calling on the committee to invite certain witnesses. Yet we need to hear from them because there are still many unanswered questions. The confidence that Canadians have in their democratic institutions is at stake.
We need to hear witnesses who can tell us what happened, who knew what, when, and why this was not made public. The Prime Minister has said that the existing mechanisms are effective, but I have the impression that is not the case. We therefore need to keep hearing from witnesses who can tell us that these mechanisms do not in fact provide for the timely sharing of information about foreign interference with Canadians. Further, these mechanisms do not assure us that foreign interference was not concealed in cases where it was politically convenient for the government, for instance, when that interference favoured its own candidates.
In light of this, I cannot support Mr. Turnbull's proposed amendment.
I hope we can now move to debate on the original motion. As I said, I have a very small amendment, which will be distributed to everyone in both official languages.