Mr. Speaker, obviously, I am not in a position to keep detailed track of all the requests to attend international meetings held in Canada.
But the tolerance and openness for which our country has always been known was not in evidence last weekend. I do not know whether the images of demonstrations, of police conduct on the weekend, were shown throughout the world, but I can say that our image of tolerance was far from representative. Our image took a beating.
Under no circumstances should a legislature prevent people, who could represent added value, from attending an international meeting. It should certainly not be the case that legislation prevents people from coming here to do their job properly in a diplomatic context and particularly from trying to find solutions to the problems raised in these international meetings which these people are addressing.