Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for those very thoughtful and incisive comments.
The member is absolutely right. This has nothing to do with the fundamental issue of confidence in the Government of Canada. This is a question of whether or not members on the government side of the House are prepared to support the fundamental principle of a level playing field before a federally appointed commission. That is what it is about, not whether or not the government should fall. We all have our views on that. But that is not the motion before the House. I trust that Liberal members will look at this in that light.
With respect to the second issue my colleague raised, there is an opportunity for those Canadians who do believe deeply that there should be legal funding if the government does not do the right thing. There is a fund which has been established by the B.C. Federation of Labour and I give the federation full credit for doing this. That fund is called the APEC protesters legal support fund. They are urging that Canadians from coast to coast make contributions. I know many have already done so very generously. I join in appealing to Canadians to do that.
I note once again what this is all about. A young student named Craig Jones on the UBC campus held up three signs. One said democracy. One said free speech. One said human rights. Those signs were torn down. Mr. Jones was wrestled to the ground and he too was locked up during the APEC summit.
That is what this is about, a profound violation of the basic charter of rights of Canadians all to kowtow to a brutal foreign dictator. We saw that.
What about the upcoming APEC summit, the ruthless suppression of the rights of people in Malaysia, the denial of funding by the Canadian government of assistance to the peoples summit there? We question this whole APEC agenda, the so-called trade liberalization agenda which really is about trampling on human rights, on the environment and on the rights of people and putting corporate profit before people.
We say no to that agenda and yes to funding for students to get at the truth about what happened in those black days around the last APEC summit in British Columbia.