Mr. Speaker, if the hon. member wishes to set the record straight, he needs only to say where he was on that Tuesday morning, at 8:58, when the chair cancelled the committee meeting, while the committee members and witnesses who had travelled from Winnipeg and Montreal were in attendance. The government had paid for these witnesses to come and testify.
The member knows very well that he voted with us to have these witnesses before the Standing Committee on Official Languages. If he wanted to tell the truth in this House, he would say that the Conservatives were embarrassed because the members of the Standing Committee on Official Languages were doing a good job. The Conservatives claim to have been doing good work, but the fact is that the chair did not even travel with us across the country, from Newfoundland to Vancouver, to attend the hearings of the Standing Committee on Official Languages.
Two minutes before it was scheduled to begin, the meeting was cancelled by the chair of the Standing Committee on Official Languages. Not only was that committee meeting cancelled, but so was the Thursday meeting, because the chair did not like the committee's agenda. A committee chair does not have that power. The Conservatives may allege whatever they want, the fact remains that a chair may have the power to cancel a meeting. Indeed, if on a Tuesday morning the witnesses do not show up, it is natural for the chair to have the power to cancel the meeting, but he cannot do so because he does not like the agenda and he thinks that the committee has become too partisan.
If the member has a sense of honour, he will admit that this is what happened. It is true that the Standing Committee on Official Languages has done good work. I have been sitting on that committee since 1997. The members of that committee have worked hard and brought forward good proposals.
The same member was with me when we toured Canada. He has heard Canadians say that it was unacceptable to cancel the court challenges program. The member is aware of all that. He should not attempt to confuse the House.