Thanks, Madam Chair.
This afternoon, as Canadians watch either online or through a different form, it's important for us to make the case here and provide a context for where we're at.
We are now 17 hours into a Liberal filibuster to avoid having the Prime Minister's chief of staff, Katie Telford, appear before this committee. We are getting near six hours today alone in which we've had Liberal members of Parliament come to the committee and talk about their work history and some of the traffic they've had in their constituency office. We've just had members reading from a book into the record to delay a vote on something that....
Frankly, we talk about being non-partisan. That was alluded to several times. We have Conservatives, the Bloc Québécois and the NDP ready to vote right now and call the question to have the Prime Minister's chief of staff come and answer questions on the election interference by Beijing, and that portfolio, at the procedural affairs committee.
One of the things I wanted to put on the record today, as a lot has been said on the other side in the dither and delay of things, is that the Liberals act as if this is absolutely abnormal and unheard of to have the Prime Minister's chief of staff appear before a committee. I want to remind Canadians, and the Liberal members as they cite that, Katie Telford has, in fact, appeared twice at parliamentary committees during her tenure as the Prime Minister's chief of staff.
We remember, back in the summer of July 2020, she was forced to appear at the finance committee regarding the WE Charity scandal. The national scandal that emerged, the PMO's role in that and who knew what and when, as that all went along. She appeared a second time at the defence committee in May 2021 on the scandal of sexual misconduct in the Canadian military, having to answer questions about the Prime Minister's Office, what it knew and what it did, or didn't do, in those cases.
She has appeared twice before. Again, we are saying that, considering the context and considering the stunning news reports that have come out from whistle-blowers, it is absolutely appropriate and necessary for her to appear before this committee, in a public setting, to answer questions about where we're at.
We are, again, six hours into this meeting, and many Canadians would say it would not be informative. I've actually found today to be very informative. Canadians should draw that same conclusion, because every passing hour, every single MP that gets into the queue talks and reads the phonebook into the record about what's going on here, instead of calling the question for the vote and having this issue resolved.
We've now spent 16 to 17 hours trying to have Katie Telford appear for three hours. She could have been here nearly six times over and been done with it. At the end of the day, the question that Canadians have.... They've learned a lot, because every speaker that goes up, every hour that passes without the vote and resolution of this, Canadians ask the rightful question: What is the government hiding? What are the Liberals hiding? What is the Prime Minister hiding? What is the chief of staff in the Prime Minister's Office hiding, and why won't she come forward?
When we talk about the reasons why the Liberals are delaying this, the firm reason is that I don't think it's good news. If Canadians knew what actually happened, and more importantly what didn't happen, when these serious allegations came forward to the Prime Minister and the PMO's attention, what they didn't do would be an embarrassment to them.
I think it's time to call the question. I was in municipal politics back in the day, and we called the question. Let's end the debate, and let's end the filibuster. Let's call the vote.
We are absolutely, on this side, ready to go. It is absolutely reasonable to have Katie Telford appear at this committee. She has done so before, when there has been a scandal emerging of national importance. In this case, it is of national and international importance.
Let's call the question. Let's get her here, and let's get answers. It's as simple as that.