Mr. Speaker, we can see that the issue obviously is one that concerns a lot of people, and rightly so. However, when people talk about not pointing fingers but use their fingers to emphasize that point, I have a problem with how partisan they are trying not to be.
Perhaps the microphones were not working properly, but what I said, and I said the same thing at committee, is approximately 450 cases have been identified, cases that have been confirmed. They are not “maybe” cases and not “possibly” cases, but cases that have been identified as needing further investigation. We are working on those.
To give the House an example of the hyperbole that is going on these days, yesterday the member for Scarborough—Agincourt said in the House, and he said the same thing in committee, that Statistics Canada figures showed that the number was as high as 50,000. He challenged me on how deeply I believed in Statistics Canada's numbers because he swore they were true. I also received correspondence yesterday and I will read this into the record. It says:
I would like to clarify an error appearing yesterday February 20 in various media articles with regard to the concept of lost citizens. Statistics Canada does not collect or publish any information on lost citizens.
That is signed by Rosemary Bender, the director general, Social and Demographic Statistics at Statistics Canada.
The member forScarborough—Agincourt owes the House an apology for misrepresenting the numbers and misrepresenting Statistics Canada just for his hyperbole.