Mr. Speaker, I will remind the member of how I started my speech and we will talk about consistency. “Being able to ask questions is essential in a democracy, even in difficult situations—especially in difficult situations.” Those were the words of the Prime Minister.
We are asking questions on national security, not because of a story in a newspaper that was speculation but because of a story planted by the Prime Minister. He sent Mr. Jean, whom I have said I have great respect for. I remember as a cabinet minister seeing Mr. Fadden, our national security adviser to Prime Minister Harper, being a sage counsel to the prime minister. We never saw him doing press conferences. We never saw him meeting with a group of journalists and saying, “Listen, here is really what happened”, because that is not the role of the national security adviser.
In fact, the Prime Minister has undermined that position and if we do not get what we want today Mr. Jean should resign, not because of his actions but because of the Prime Minister. Therefore, who is sullying the civil service? It is the Prime Minister.
That member can yell and scream, but he knows in his heart of hearts that we are right because what we are asking for is reasonable. The same briefing and the same ability to ask Mr. Jean questions that the Prime Minister allowed members of the media to have, MPs and Canadians deserve to have.