Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you, Minister and officials for attending today.
It has been reported as recently as May 2 in the Globe and Mail by Stephen Chase and Colin Freeze that in a National Research Council application process for advisory members of a committee related to a Huawei research grant, those with political opinions about Huawei need not apply for this process.
I think it's disturbing to Canadians when they're seeing that our federal agencies are screening people out for their political viewpoints in terms of their membership on committees. We have seen this trend in other departments, with the government putting political and personal values tests on whether or not you get government funding.
I'm just wondering, Minister, if we can trust the government in the future to protect Canadians and protect our processes from people being screened out for their political and personal viewpoints, and excluded from sharing in government programs and processes.