Madam Speaker, my colleague across the floor asked why we needed a separate focus special committee. I believe there is an angle that we have not heard tonight, which is that Canadians brought back a minority government with the largest opposition to that minority in our history because there is not a sense of confidence in the Prime Minister's priorities. This is an example of that. In regard to the China relationship, he praises its dictatorship. His new Minister of Foreign Affairs speaks as though there were some kind of an amazing synergy between the two countries.
My friend spoke about the need to set democracy, human rights and the rule of law as the priorities for what we are as Canadians. We have a Prime Minister who has used the PMO to control many of the committees. On human rights he tells us what our values must be, virtue signalling and reducing freedom of speech and thought. When it comes to the rule of law, the executive branch interfered in the independence of our judicial system in the case of SNC-Lavalin.
There is a need in this House, as my constituents have told me, for us to work together. There are multiple reasons for that, and one of them is that we need accountability in regard to China. We need it to be done as a whole of government, including this side of the floor, and so we need—