Madam Speaker, I would also like to make some comments and raise some questions following the speech by the member for Winnipeg South.
The member in his attempt to appeal for reason in this chamber has clearly underestimated the seriousness of the issue we are dealing with. As my colleague from Winnipeg Centre has just said, he has very much trivialized the issues at hand.
What is so clear today is that we are dealing with a fundamental matter of human rights and the pursuit of freedom and justice in a democratic state. All of those questions are in doubt today surrounding the actions pertaining to student demonstrators at APEC last year.
The comments of the member for Palliser on the conversation he overheard pertaining to the solicitor general are all serious. The member for Winnipeg South is disregarding the importance of this input and this debate. I would very much like to ask the member for Winnipeg South if he does not feel that we need to operate on the basis of a level playing field. We need all the facts on the table. We need to understand that the proceedings before the complaints commission have not been prejudiced or prejudged.
The member for Winnipeg South was no doubt at the meeting in Winnipeg when his leader the Prime Minister cracked another joke pertaining to pepper. I wonder how the member feels about the way in which this matter has been trivialized by the Prime Minister and whether he would not join us in acknowledging that these kinds of jokes do not help the matter. They are not funny and they certainly are hurtful for the people involved.