Thank you.
Chair, it's my hope that we can.... This has been going on for months, and we're trying to get a vote on this. We think it's important. Obviously, we have veterans here in the room with us today who served in this mission. We have veterans watching from across the country who served in this mission, and they just want to get some answers. I think they feel disrespected by the fact that this has been pushed off and off, and by the fact that there's been political interference by the Prime Minister's Office. This is something that is a real slap in the face to the veterans who served in this mission, and to those family members who lost one of theirs serving in this mission. It's time we get to a vote on it.
Having said that, I do want to make a couple of comments quickly on the amendment that's been moved by the Liberal Party. You all heard the so-called rationale for that. Let me interpret that for anyone who wasn't clear on what it really means. It really means that the Prime Minister's Office told the Liberals, “I don't want to provide these documents, because I'm hiding something.” They're standing here today to cover for him. That is what this means.
The idea that you can black out a bunch of the information that's in these documents.... These are just documents that talk about what happened in this period of time. I'm not going to go on at length about this, but on November 8, 2021, the decision of the jury that was set up to decide on the design of this monument was communicated to the Minister of Canadian Heritage and to the Minister of Veterans Affairs. Somewhere in the period of time between November 8, 2021 and June 2023—almost a two-year period—there was some kind of an effort by the Prime Minister's Office to change the decision that was made by the process they set up. It was political interference, plain and simple.
These documents are just designed to try to get to the bottom of that. If anyone believes that wanting to black out and redact some of that information is anything other than trying to make sure that anything that incriminates the Prime Minister and his office is prevented from coming out to be seen by the public, and to be seen by veterans who served in this mission, they're mistaken, because that is exactly what this amendment is about.
We are firmly opposed to that amendment, but we do believe this motion needs to get passed. We need to get to the bottom of this for our veterans, and for the family members of those who served in this mission.