Madam Speaker, it has been a great pleasure for me to have the opportunity to work with the member on the Canada-China committee and various other fora. I know that fighting for democracy and parliamentary institutions has been a core part of what he has done, both in foreign affairs and domestically.
I would ask the member to expand on some of the very important comments he has made about the broader attacks that we are seeing on the ability of Parliament to do its job, this increasing pressure from the government to minimize the role of Parliament and minimize its real powers to hold the government accountable. What is the trend that he is observing in this respect? What do we need to do as parliamentarians from all parties to assert the privileges, the rights and, indeed, the important role that any Parliament should play in a democracy in the face of the approach of the current government?