Mr. Speaker, at one level I think the member for Provencher is really stretching it. I was exhorting the president. I was not criticizing him. I was exhorting him to do a certain thing, which I think is consistent with the best principles to be found in the biblical tradition that both he and I subscribe to. I do not see anything wrong with that.
What I do see wrong with this is the implication by the hon. member for Provencher that somehow this is not a moral issue, not a religious issue, but just a legal issue.
When all the religious arguments were made on the committee that the member just recently served on, he probably did not say to those people, “This is just a legal issue. It is not a religious issue. We do not want to hear your religious arguments”.
This is precisely what is wrong with the current role of religion in politics: that it is constricted to two or three different issues.
I say that the care of creation and the environment is a religious and a moral issue. I disagree with the member and I think most people in his religious community would too.