Madam Speaker, it is a pleasure to rise today and address the matter that has really plagued this place and its members for some months now. No, I am not talking about COVID-19; I am talking about the cover-up that has followed the scattershot, at best, response by this government in so many areas.
We have seen this most acutely at committee with filibusters, and I say “acutely at committee”, because we saw, on a very large scale, the lengths to which the Liberal government will go to hide from accountability. That, of course, was when the opposition parties proposed a motion that would have formed a special committee to look at the pandemic response, to look at the failed Canada student service grant and to look at other pandemic-related measures, and the government made it a confidence vote. It was so afraid that Canadians would find out the truth that it backed the opposition into a corner and, of course, the official opposition, Canada's Conservatives, voted for the motion. We voted to form that committee, because that is what we were sent here to do.
I talk about what happened at committee. We have heard, most recently, Liberal members refer to the blacked-out documents that we saw at the finance committee as being sacred texts. They said the documents were as sacred as the Bible, the Quran or other religious texts. Those are the lengths that they will go to, so the question is: do they want to black out other religious texts, or do they just believe that corruption is sacred?
Just minutes ago at the ethics committee, we heard Liberal members go on about everything from underwear manufacturing to reading out donors to the Conservative Party. I will go off topic very briefly just to say it would take the Liberals a long time to read the list of Conservative donors, based on the news this weekend of the records that have been set by the party with our new leader. The member for Durham has led us through a very strong quarter, because that is the response that we are getting from Canadians. The opposition has not just attempted to bring to light what the Liberals are so desperate to hide, we have also posed concrete solutions and concrete improvements to flawed legislation that they have brought forward.
It does leave Canadians, members and me wondering what they are so desperate to hide. The ethics committee has rounded over 20 hours of filibuster since Parliament has resumed following the cover-up prorogation. The government said it was to reset the agenda and that they are focused on one thing. Yes, they are focused on one thing, and that is avoiding accountability, so we need to know what they are trying to hide. We need to see what is in the documents that they are fighting so desperately for Canadians not to see, and why their members are saying such unusual things, such as these redacted documents being sacred.
My question to the government is: what is it trying to hide?