Thank you, Madam Chair. Forgive me. I will clearly explain why I believe the Canada-Ukraine Free Trade Agreement is relevant to my argument on this amendment.
I've just outlined for several minutes why I believe the Conservative Party—this motion overall—is reckless. They don't take the care that is needed with national security documents. The amendment specifically is removing a section that is requesting more information again in the public domain. Why I take such issue with this is built partly on the track record that we've seen from the Conservatives in the last week or two. That is the connection I'm making between the Canada-Ukraine Free Trade Agreement.
While I acknowledge that other members may not like that I'm making this connection, it is certainly within my purview and right as a committee member to share my opinions of why I'm going to support this amendment, but I will do you the courtesy, Madam Chair, of explaining the threads in my thought process so that we can eliminate, hopefully, more of the Conservatives' attempts to just silence me.
On the “relevant information”, that is the line right in the motion that we are amending to remove. What I find interesting about why the Conservatives are requesting relevant information is, again, the track record we've seen just this last week that is deeply concerning.
We've spoken in the House about the Conservatives' champagne trip to the U.K., with one member in particular paid for by the Danube Institute. The Danube Institute published a paper in which they refer to the Russia-Ukraine war and the support for Ukraine as wokeism. Then, just a few weeks later, a Conservative member who came back from that trip—I don't know what was expressed, but certainly I have deep concerns based on these connections—actually referred to the Canada-Ukraine Free Trade Agreement as Liberal woke. I thought, wow: the exact same language used in this Danube alt-right pro-Russia paper and a Conservative member who just came back from a foreign trip paid for by the Danube Institute.
When I come back to this amendment and we talk about relevant information, we witness those turns of events where Ukraine is fighting for its democracy—and fighting for democracy all around the world, frankly—and then we come back to this committee and a motion that wants to put out classified collected national security documentation for the world to see. I'm seeing this pro-Russia language coming from the Conservative Party, and a vote against the Canada-Ukraine Free Trade Agreement.
I'm starting to be concerned. I try not to be paranoid and to see the best interests from Conservatives, but when you start stacking all of these things, you start stacking the fact that they're so reckless with national security documents that the national security community has said that this can put Canadian Armed Forces members at risk, full stop.
Then, yesterday, the leader puts in his “bring it home” slogan—your home, my home, let's all bring it home—national security—