Mr. Speaker, I have a couple of very simple questions for my colleague.
I thought he made a very eloquent point about how human beings yearn for freedom. They undergo great risk to achieve that freedom.
We all remember, at least those of us who grew up as the Iron Curtain was falling, the footage of people jubilantly celebrating the end of the separation between East and West Berlin. It was remarked at the time that for the decades that wall stood, no one was ever shot trying to jump into East Berlin. No one has ever paddled a raft to get to Cuba. Human beings will go through tremendous hardship to get that freedom, and Hong Kong people had it. They had it for 100 years or more and now it is being taken away by the PRC.
First, would my colleague agree that the hopes of reform under the previous Chinese governments have dissipated? Ten or 15 years ago the western world was very hopeful that China might be embracing these types of reforms.
Second, was he as dismayed as I was that the Prime Minister, during question period today, refused to condemn the actions of the PRC?