Mr. Chair, I was the first to use this metaphor in the House when the Minister of Health was not performing, as well as he is tonight, in question period. It must be something about this setting. This is what we had in mind when we designed this so that we could have a more meaningful exchange than is sometimes possible on the floor of the House during question period. I remember saying that I was beginning to understand why we did not get anything when we traded him to the Liberals, but he has a chance to redeem himself. Certainly, this issue presents him with that opportunity.
To the member who asked the question, I did not suggest that there was not a sense of compassion on that side. I suggested that sense of compassion was repressed by the authority of the prime minister of the day. There was a great sense of injustice that had been done to hepatitis C victims. There was the need to do right by them, and not just those who were in the 1986-1990 category, but also those who found themselves outside that.
Quite the contrary. I was not trying to suggest that there was not that emotion or that attitude. What I did suggest, and the record is conclusive on this, was that the government of the day, for whatever reason, hardened its heart and asked its own members of Parliament to vote as if their hearts had been hardened also. Here we are today doing something that actually could have been done a long time ago.