Mr. Speaker, a number of people today have said that we should be debating important things, and I agree.
However, I think this is best summed up in what a writer of a fax sent to me. He said that we can debate the budget all day but that the Liberals, with their majority, will do whatever they want anyway. He said that the debt will not go down any faster because of our debating this all day.
What he suggested was that if we lose the most fundamental of freedoms, the freedom of expression, then really it does not matter anyway. This is really a matter of freedom of expression.
I would like to ask the member a question. I presume he also stood and waved the flag and joined in the singing of our national anthem as a way of saying to the Bloc that we love our country. I agree, it was a demonstration that obviously has been ruled out of order and which we are not proposing. In fact, we are proposing the opposite in this motion.
Later on I was asked by the same separatist party to remove my flag because I had not had the sense to put it away. I left it sitting here. I stood on principle and said that I do not want to comply because of a party that wants to tear the country apart asking me, a loyal Canadian, to put away the flag of this country. That is why I refused. That is what this motion is about, to say that if a member has a small flag he cannot be required by someone else to take it away, thereby taking away his freedom of speech.
I would like the parliamentary secretary to respond.