Thank you, Mr. Chair.
For two hours, we've been beating around the bush. Our Liberal colleagues are critical because my eminent colleagues have joined us at this meeting of the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights. We are here today because this matter is of capital importance for Canadians. For some time now, Ms. Khalid has been saying that we are doing this for the benefit of the media and that we are grandstanding. I think that fundamentally, our objective goes far beyond that. As I stated earlier, we are in a country that respects the rule of law.
I want to go back to the motion and to my colleague's amendment. We are being criticized for the motion we tabled but were not able to introduce, which contains the names of witnesses we wanted to call. We were told that that should be done in camera. We were told that witnesses that may be called are discussed in camera and called afterwards. However, the motion that is before us and that the Liberals have rammed down our throats today includes some names. So the Liberals held an in camera meeting. We don't know who took part in it, but these names were submitted. There is the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, who agreed to appear before the committee and to have his name appear in the famous motion. There is also Ms. Nathalie Drouin, the Deputy Minister of Justice, and Mr. Michael Wernick, the Clerk of the Privy Council. The Liberals decided amongst themselves, in camera, to include those names in a motion.
Now we are being told today that in order to discuss other names, the meeting has to be held in camera. When my NDP colleague proposed some names, he was told that it was impossible to discuss them. We were just told that this motion would be voted down because it has to be discussed in camera. Why was there no discussion about these names before?
As you can see, what is happening today is really a farce. The situation is very serious. I don't remember if it was Mr. Boissonnault or Mr. McKinnon who mentioned that Mr. Robert Fife and Mr. Steven Chase, two professional Globe and Mail journalists, may have created fake news by writing this article. People are trying to direct our attention elsewhere. Finally, we are being told about the Shawcross doctrine and the remediation agreement. All of the topics being raised today are in the motion. We have been talking about this for two hours and we have covered the matter. I am not trying to put on a show. I am a good Quebecker and this is my way of expressing myself.
In my opinion, we are making Canadians a laughingstock today. The motion that was tabled by the two opposition parties, mainly by the Conservatives, was consistent with the principles of a country subject to the rule of law. There is a problem. The former attorney general of Canada was indirectly dismissed from her position and yesterday she resigned. This is serious. You are trying to create a diversion by using a host of procedures. I think we have to go to the heart of the issue and resolve these matters as soon as possible.
Thank you.