Mr. Speaker, those are his alleged comments. Let me address this in two ways.
First, I believe people should be hired and fired on their merits, on their ability to do the job. That is the only criteria upon which people should be hired and fired.
There is a black gentleman who works for me. It is entirely inappropriate to suggest that our party would somehow discriminate against somebody because of their skin colour. That is ridiculous. The proof of the pudding is in the eating of it.
That is why I believe the hon. member across the way and the chief government whip are not being genuine in asking these questions. They are simply trying to throw mud because of what was allegedly said. They are trying to smear members who have never ever in their lives done anything to indicate that they are in any way racist or have shown any other kind of bias toward anybody. It is not very genuine of the hon. member to do that. Frankly, the proof of the pudding is in the eating of it.