I can't get a sub, but thank you so much for offering that to me, Blake. I am a whip. I know how that works.
I'm happy to support this amendment.
I was excited to hear Mr. Richards say that we were just going to get on with it, because I was getting frustrated by how political this has become.
In December, when I moved to adjourn, we had time in the last sitting week, on the Thursday, and I would have been happy to sit.
I don't get a vacation. I'm sure most of us don't. I was trying to spend time with my constituents. I had obligations to them. I really believe that constituency time matters, because our constituents matter, so I'm hoping we can get to a vote at least on the amendment that we have.
I keep hearing from the Liberals that they have amendments they would like to propose. If they have amendments that have a good rationale, I'm happy to consider them. I'm happy to have that discussion. I would like a clear rationale to them, as Mr. Desilets has given as well.
It feels as if this is just getting held up. I've been very clear from the beginning. I have said publicly that I would support Mr. Richards' motion. I know that I've interrupted him a few times to try to get him to move the motion. I want to say that he moved it and I appreciated that he didn't have a big speech in front of it. It's unfortunate that we can't even vote on an amendment that everybody has said they're comfortable with. It would be good to at least take one step so that we can get one step closer. I want this done. I think I've been very clear with this committee that I just want this done.
The reality is that I don't know the right answer for this. I really do believe that veterans should be making the final decision, but how that decision is made matters. How that process is made matters. We have not had clarity.
I really feel sad, because this is now blemished, and that service in Afghanistan should not be blemished with this. I'm just trying to get to a place where we can figure out what happened, because I'm sorry, but what we were hearing from the minister was not enough for me. I was clear during that meeting that it was not clear enough for me. The process was not clear, and there was no way to prove it was veterans. Maybe it was, but again it creates this cloudiness that I don't think is fair.
I encourage this committee to please just get at least to the amendment and then hear what the Liberals have to offer. Then maybe in the next few minutes we can actually get this done.