Madam Speaker, I am somewhat surprised that my friend thought we did not support the findings of the Ethics Commissioner. I think it was a very well-rounded report. She did not find him guilty on all matters but only with respect to key areas, such as the unacceptability of accepting gifts, of trying to then claim that those gifts came from a personal friend, when they were clearly not from a personal friend but were from someone who was in a position to influence government policy, and the failure of the Prime Minister, under section 21, to recuse himself from discussions that provided an opportunity to improperly further the private interests associated with the institutions of the Aga Khan. To me, these were a very clear repudiation of the Prime Minister's position that he has been working all along to further the interests of accountability in this country.
The question we are debating here today is not just the report. We are debating closing the loophole so that this kind of abuse does not happen in the future. That is incumbent upon us as parliamentarians. When a report is delivered that has findings, the government can say that it is great and put it on a shelf with all the other findings it has ignored over the years, or the government can do the right thing and say that it accepts that there was a breach and that it needs to make sure that in the future, it cannot drive a Mack truck full of Liberal lobbyists through these kinds of loopholes. Unfortunately, the current government is trying to divert attention from these egregious loopholes being used by the Liberals to help their friends. I would encourage my Liberal colleague to say that the government will support the amendment and close the loophole. We can then get back to discussing other matters that are certainly of great importance to Canadians.