Mr. Speaker, I welcome the opportunity to address this question. Let me apologize for referring to a member by name. I actually cannot even recall to whom I referred to by name. I apologize, and I am going to have to figure that out later, because I do know better. I am not permitted to do that and I did not intend to do that.
I welcome the question from the member for Fredericton. By chance, the very next item I was going to speak about if I had not run out of time was the court challenges program, which serves as a screaming example of the hypocrisy of this government. I have to say that for a government whose members in opposition constantly talked about being the real grassroots democratic voice of Canadians, it is stunning to watch the many different ways in which they are trying to quash any meaningful advocacy and any meaningful discussion.
It is doubly hypocritical because, with great enthusiasm, the government has taken up the notion that we should really push our overseas development assistance obligations aside, or at least cut down on the extent to which that should be a really high priority, and instead commit to “democracy building” in failing and fragile states.
I absolutely think we should be committed to democracy building in failing and fragile states, but there is an expression, “Physician, heal thyself”, and maybe we could tweak that a little and say, “Politician, would-be democrat, heal thyself”. As for us going around the world on this, I worry about where this government really wants to take us in this democracy building exercise, because that can go as far as talking about regime change that causes chaos in the world.
Even acknowledging that an element of our overseas development commitment should involve contributing to the kind of capacity building and to the political sensitization of people who need and want to build a stronger foundation for democracy, it is unbelievable to me that this government is busy quashing dissent and cutting off opportunities for democratic expression everywhere we turn.