Mr. Speaker, I am familiar with the reasons that we closed that office because I was a member of the cabinet of our government in that day.
While the office for rights and democracy had been originally set up for all of the valuable purposes and advocacy that one would associate with rights and democracy, in its latter years, unfortunately, it fell into internecine battles within its board. We can go to any number of historical references to see why that organization went off the rails. There was mismanagement of budget. There was confusion and misapplication of its mandate by some of its leaders.
The decision taken by the government was that it no longer served its original mandate and deserved to be closed down. We were proud that we did it.