Madam Speaker, I want to thank the hon. member for Durham for his fine defence of religious liberties.
I want to congratulate him as well, for having congratulated the government on how we handled the Syrian refugees, and pointing out that many, if not most, of the people who came from Syria were fleeing religious persecution. That is opposite to what one of his colleagues said earlier, who criticized the government for not protecting Christian or Yazidi refugees who were fleeing religious persecution.
I think all of us in this House care about the persecution of Christians in the Middle East, particularly in ISIL and ISIS-occupied territory in Syria. I think we all care about religious liberties. We are having almost a false debate. That side of the House is trying to put forward a motion to get us to vote against it because we are saying we want to broaden the office, and they are saying we did not support an Office of Religious Freedom. We want to support an Office of Religious Freedom within a broader context, because all fundamental freedoms are important.
I would ask the hon. member for Durham why the motion put forward is insisting on supporting the office with its current mandate, as opposed to putting forward a motion that would have said, “supported all of the work of the Office of Religious Freedom in either its current form or an enhanced form”. In that case, both sides of this House would have supported it.