Thank you very much, Madam Chair.
I would like to thank all my colleagues for taking part in this debate, as we have a motion and an amendment before us, in addition to the two notices of motion that were presented earlier.
First of all, I would like to say that this is an issue that concerns me. I sincerely believe that it is of concern not only to the members around this table, but to all members, because we are talking about reputations and interference in our democratic system. As the witnesses who have appeared before us have noted, we are dealing with foreign interference in elections, but foreign interference is not limited to politics. It is widespread in academia, in business, in the economy, and in all sorts of other areas. If you spread a rumour, it spreads everywhere. All of a sudden, we read about it on our electronic devices, it's picked up by the newspapers, and so on.
Today we heard testimony from people responsible for ensuring national security, and from a group of people responsible for ensuring the integrity of our elections and monitoring foreign interference. Unfortunately, their findings invalidate many of the points that are in the motion introduced by my colleague and friend, Mr. Cooper. I am always willing to have a frank and non-partisan discussion to examine these issues. However, when I look at many of the points in this motion and listen to the speeches of my colleagues in the official opposition, I find that they continue to repeat allegations that are not supported by the facts presented by the experts who have testified today. I therefore find it difficult to support the motion.
We sometimes jokingly say that our colleagues are very consistent in that they always believe the same thing, no matter what happens from week to week. However, we need to take into account the evidence we have heard here.
The main weakness of this motion is that it asks for top secret documents to be produced before this committee, which is a very serious problem. We know that a number of countries that are not our allies, if I can put it that way, are monitoring the electronic devices of members of Parliament and are looking for every opportunity to obtain information. I am not convinced that the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs in its current form is the appropriate forum to receive this top secret information. There is a committee of members of Parliament that is charged with examining all such matters in a transparent manner and has access to all unredacted information: it is the Committee of Parliamentarians on National Security and Intelligence.
If we insist on retaining the problematic points in my colleague and friend Mr. Cooper's motion, particularly point (f), it will be very difficult for me to support it. The motion as it stands would cause us serious problems. Indeed, Canada could get into trouble with its allies, especially those who work with Canada to guard against foreign interference.
We now have four different motions before us. I want to give my colleagues the opportunity to debate them. I hope that we can also find common ground. Once everyone has presented their motion, I hope that we will have time to think things through and have discussions among ourselves. I think we can find a way to proceed, ideally without partisanship. I hope that we are up to the challenge and that we act in the interest of Canadians and in the national interest of our country, rather than purely political and partisan interests.
I want to share my thoughts with my colleagues. I hope they are listening. I already proposed a solution for this evening. I hope we can apply it and come back tomorrow with an action plan to deal with the suggestions before us. That way, we'll be able to really do the work that Canadians expect of us.