Mr. Speaker, it deeply hurts me that I have hurt his feelings. I have no intention of hurting anyone's feelings here. I would also like to make it clear for the record that there is no innuendo here. There was not an appearance of conflict. Charlotte Bell from CanWest Global was handing out on the letterhead of the Conservative Party on the eve of a major television review.
I was hoping that the parliamentary secretary would be able to rebut many of my charges by giving us some facts, by showing us where the minister stood up and fought for culture, because I cannot find it. I would love to find that she stood up for culture. I had great respect for the minister when she was the parliamentary critic. She spoke out on many cultural issues. She spoke out about needing funding for CBC. I have not seen her do that since she became minister. She talked about how unfair it was that the cultural sector was not getting proper funding. She has not done that.
I have come here hoping that she would be here to defend herself, that she would stand up and tell this House that she is speaking up and fighting for the cultural sector. Instead we have the record: $160 million pulled out of aboriginal languages, the women's centres shut down, and no commitments on television, video, the CBC or any other sector. If we talk to the museums across this country, they are going to tell us that the minister has been absent on key issues where she has been needed. We need a champion of culture and--