Mr. Speaker, my colleague and I know that consistency has never been the hallmark of the Conservative Party. Let us be honest. Human rights are fundamental values of Canadians and this government. Wherever we are, whoever we meet with, we always promote human rights.
I want to share this with my colleague. The president of the Saudi Arabian human rights commission visited Canada a couple of weeks ago. Our government, in addition to private bilateral meetings, organized a round table with Canadian human rights NGOs to have the opportunity to speak directly to the president of the human rights commission. We even invited members of the opposition parties. My colleague from Thornhill was there. What surprised me was that after the meeting, he issued a release, a long laundry list of complaints about Saudi Arabia. However, did he ever have the courage to raise these issues during the meeting? No, he never did. I was puzzled by this.
We gave him the opportunity to speak directly to the president of the human rights commission, but he would not utter a word. That is disappointing.