Thank you, Madam Chair.
I have carefully listened to my colleagues' remarks. To be perfectly transparent, I must admit that I was less interested by those that went on and on and brought nothing new. A lot of comments, in my opinion, were made more with the purpose of taking up the committee's time than with the purpose of fuelling debate and reaching a decision.
I wanted to have the opportunity to speak to the motion on the floor today. I feel that what we are debating at the moment is still very important.
More than a week ago, the governing party asked for our cooperation. They told us that it is important to produce a report so that there can be some follow-up to the committee's work. Basically, they wanted the victims to recognize that everything would not end up on the shelf and there would be some follow-up. They also wanted the government to have some options for action; they wanted us to tell it what it should do and which direction it should take.
We were very sympathetic to that idea. We felt that it was important for the committee to prepare a report. That is why we voted for the motion at that time. We wanted the committee to produce a report.
However, the intention behind it was never to prevent witnesses from appearing before the committee, particularly important witnesses like Elder Marques. I should also emphasize that, when we passed that motion so that the committee could prepare a report, it was still possible for Mr. Marques to appear on Friday.
Unfortunately, as we saw, he did not appear and I feel that the motion by my Conservative colleague Mr. Bezan became even more important at that time, meaning last Friday.
I am very pleased that our wishes were considered by accepting the amendment to not delay work on the report as we waited for Mr. Marques to appear. We are still hoping that he will, because we feel that it is required.
That gives us the best of both worlds, I feel. We have an appearance by a very important, long awaited witness who certainly has important things to tell us. If he did not, I have a hard time figuring out why the governing party would be so opposed to his appearance.
Actually, I was a little surprised that there would be so much opposition to Mr. Marques appearing before this committee, because the government tells us that it wants to get to the bottom of the matter, that it wants to solve the problem, and it wants to work for the victims. We would be inclined to believe them, but it is surprising when we see that they have tried to prevent key witnesses from appearing before the committee. We end up wondering whether, instead of protecting the victims, it may actually be looking to protect itself.
I hope that is not the case because, first, it would be irresponsible on the part of the government and second, it would be dishonourable. The government has the responsibility to see that justice is done and that its work is done transparently. It must also be accountable to the electorate. It must not put obstacles in the way of the committee's work.
The government itself says that committees are independent of the government. I assume that, putting their partisan interests aside, the Liberal representatives who are part of the government have all the independence they need to complete the committee's work. I hope that they too want us to have all the information, so that we are not always wasting time, but are able to get to the bottom of things.
Instead of wasting precious time, as we are doing at the moment, because of the systematic obstruction by the governing party, the committee could already have heard from Mr. Marques. We could perhaps have already started work on other matters that are important for the public.
I am convinced that not all members of the committee like the manoeuvres that are underway at the moment. So I invite everyone to take a deep breath and ask themselves what the best thing to do would be at this time. I don't feel that it would be bad to agree to an appearance by a witness. On the contrary, I feel that, if the government has nothing to hide, it would let us hear from him.
Let's hear from the witness; the topic will be settled and everyone will be reassured. We will then be able to hear Mr. Marques' version of the facts.
Personally, the more I see the Liberals persisting with all kinds of ways to prevent Mr. Marques from testifying, the more convinced I am that the witness should be here at the committee.
Thank you, Madam Chair.