I'm so glad that Mr. Perkins has had a moment to connect with his wife. I'm sure she's a very lovely person, and I wish her the very best.
I also would like Mr. Perkins to use his time as a member of Parliament in a more judicious manner. I think that putting forward bogus and disingenuous motions like this has a negative impact on what this committee is assigned to do and what it should be doing.
I'm just going to read out the words of the motion. Excuse me while I enter my lengthy password here.
The words of the draft motion are:
That the committee instruct the clerk and analyst to prepare a report to the House, which the Chair shall table forthwith, outlining the potential breach of privilege concerning Navdeep Bains' refusal to answer questions which the committee put to him and his prevarication in answering others.
My English is not as good as yours, Mr. Perkins.
Given the fact that this motion was drafted before questions were even answered by the witness today, while the questions were in process and while each member of the committee had time to ask their questions—this motion was drafted way before then—really calls into question the motives of the Conservatives.
I, for one, do not want to sit here and let them play their games, because, quite frankly, Canadians deserve better than that.
What the Conservatives are doing—all six or seven of them at this committee today—is quite deplorable. I really think Canadians deserve better than to have their hard-earned dollars used for the purpose of partisan hack games.
I've had enough of this, Chair. I don't think this is a legitimate privilege motion. This is premeditated and being used to raise fundraising dollars for the Conservatives, delay important legislative work in the House of Commons, delay important committee work in this committee and agitate.
We are not in the business of agitation here, Chair. We are in the business of trying to make sure Canadians understand how their tax dollars are spent and have the ability to review how we can improve the process of...Canadian dollars in our government and democracy. For us to be sitting here debating a bogus motion like this for the sole purpose of agitation, delay and fundraising dollars.... That is quite the slap in the face of democracy in our democratic institutions.
I can hear Mr. Perkins snickering right now. It's very unfortunate, because he knows exactly what he's doing. What he's doing is agitating and using Canadian taxpayer dollars to raise funds.