Debates of Oct. 21st, 2024

RCMP Allegations Concerning Foreign Interference from the Government of India

[Sukh Dhaliwal, Liberal, Surrey—Newton, BC]

Mr. Speaker, in the member's speech, he mentioned that the Indian government played a key role in the leader of the official opposition's leadership. Is that the reason why the leader of the Conservative Party is not seeking that security clearance, so he can pay back the Indian government for doing what it did in his leadership race?

[Randeep Sarai, Liberal, Surrey Centre, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I think my hon. colleague is probably fairly accurate in that. I think there is a grave concern about that, but obviously the leader of the Conservative Party will not look at it.

As my colleague from Kingston and the Islands stated earlier, it is very strange that the leader of His Majesty's opposition, of the Conservative Party, has not made any statements on his Twitter account, any social media or his party's account. Only two Sikh members of his caucus have posted that statement. He has not made any public statements to the media. He has not taken any questions on it, nor has he condemned the Indian government at all, which he normally spends a very gracious amount of time with.

[Elizabeth May, Green, Saanich—Gulf Islands, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I certainly resonate with the comments made by the member for Edmonton Strathcona that the Modi government displays a hard-right approach of polarization and of fomenting hate against minority groups within India. Our focus tonight is the horror of the RCMP's allegations that the Indian government is actually interfering with and, in fact, responsible for the deaths of Canadians on our soil.

I resonate with the words of the many members who have called for unity. For us to unify in this chamber does require that the Leader of the Opposition seek top secret security clearance so we can all work from the same level playing field and have the same knowledge.

I am concerned. Having gone through the process, I know that, if one asks for top secret security clearance as the leader of a federal political party, it is not given as a right. CSIS and the security agencies go through one's background and history with a fine-tooth comb to ensure there is nothing that compromises the individual. On that basis, I would, not as a question but as a comment to all my colleagues on the Conservative side of the House, urge their party leader to pursue top secret security clearance because it is only in his hands to remove the cloud of questioning. The kinds of questions being raised tonight can be removed only by the leader of the official opposition asking for that investigation of his own background that would clear the air and ensure that nobody thinks he is compromised.

[Randeep Sarai, Liberal, Surrey Centre, BC]

Mr. Speaker, that is what every member of the House from every party, save and except the Conservative Party of Canada, has been stating. We need to be unified against any foreign transnational aggression, and the leader of the Conservative Party of Canada should ask for the oath, get clearance and look at it. If he cannot obtain clearance, he should stand in the House and say that he does not pass the security clearance and make it abundantly clear to the House so we know why he cannot take it.

[Melissa Lantsman, Conservative, Thornhill, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I wish I could say it was a pleasure to speak today, but it is certainly not the case tonight in the House. The news and the allegations from the RCMP are extremely concerning, and they must be taken seriously as opposed to what has taken place tonight in the House. This debate is primarily about the Prime Minister, who has the power to take them seriously and has not done so.

Any foreign interference from any country, that we have been hearing about in the House and outside of the House with the Liberal government for years, needs to be stopped. The government's first job is to keep citizens safe from foreign threats. The very fact that we are here in this place debating such a serious issue demonstrates that the government has failed. The government has failed in its obligation to keep this country safe and to secure the integrity of our nation. It is a natural consequence of nine years of incompetence, of chaos and of an attitude that puts the divisive nature of the Prime Minister over the security of the public. We have seen it time and time again and particularly in the last year.

Canada has become a playground for these activities. We hear it, the evidence is there and multiple people have said it out loud on record, and still it is ignored. While tonight's debate descends into unserious political distractions, Canadians need to know who knew what and when and why it took so long for the government to act.

While we are here to address the allegations about foreign interference in India, this is about much more than that. It is certainly about India, but it is also about Beijing. It is about the tyrannical regime in Iran. It is about all of the times that our Prime Minister made a mockery of our democratic processes and frankly, our values.

Every Canadian should be concerned, because it is putting our lives, our freedoms and our country at risk. The allegations that have been made are serious, incredibly so, and they should be investigated and pursued to the fullest extent of the law. As a country, we must stand resolutely against the attempts of other actors to interfere with the rights of our citizens and our democratic process. The idea that a foreign state would even attempt anything near these allegations certainly merits more than the anemic response provided by the Liberals at every turn over the last nine years.

Furthermore, any suggestion that individuals collaborated or colluded with these attempts, or in any other attempts, should be fully investigated, and again, pursued to the fullest extent of the law. That is really not up for debate.

Here is what these suggestions should not be. They should not be used as a means to score cheap political points that nobody is buying anymore to divide our nation into smaller and smaller groups, into smaller and smaller factions. What the Prime Minister did when he appeared in front of Justice Hogue last week is exactly that. He went there with one mission, which was to level unfounded, unproven and unfair allegations against members of this party and members of his own party, casting aspersions.

If we cannot name the parliamentarians, then it should be equally wrong to say anything about them, such as what we know or their party affiliations. Frankly, the Prime Minister cast aspersions on the entire House and then walked away from the podium. It is behaviour like this that is unbecoming of a prime minister and has made a mockery of this whole process. If we look outside of the House and listen to what people are saying, it has made a mockery of this entire issue, which is unfortunate because it is a serious one. He should be less focused on trying to make this a mockery and more focused on the serious implications that it has for our national interests. He is more than just the Liberal Party leader, although I do not know how long he is going to be the Liberal Party leader; he is the Prime Minister, and he should remember that. However, I suspect it might be difficult when his caucus is revolting against him and he needs to focus at least a bit of attention elsewhere for the first time.

My parents always told me growing up that if a person is going to make a serious allegation about Conservatives being part of something, they need some evidence to back it up, and that is what we are asking for. We are asking for the Prime Minister to release the names. If he has evidence about the claims he has made about MPs in the House, he should release the names. We all know that he can do that. We are asking the Prime Minister to release the names of the individuals who have been accused so we can deal with the actual problem and move forward constructively. That is what Canadians want to know on the matter at hand. However, the Prime Minister will not, because this is another crass and pathetic attempt by him to divide, distract and deflect from his mistakes.

Maybe they are not mistakes. Maybe it is an intentional hiding of facts the Prime Minister has known about for a very long time, rather than trying to fix the issue at hand or look serious while doing it. He is trying to cover up that his caucus is in open revolt of his leadership, and it is a convenient distraction. He is trying to cover up that he has destroyed our economy through higher taxes, higher inflation and higher government spending. He is trying to cover up for his own failures to protect this country and safeguard the rights of Canadians. While this behaviour is unbecoming, we really should not be surprised by it. It has probably even benefited his prospects electorally; otherwise, why hide anything at all?

The opposition parties have acquiesced to his tactics of swearing them into secrecy so they cannot do their jobs and cannot effectively prove their case. That has been proven tonight over and over again. Any opposition leader who has bothered to speak in the House to this motion could not hold the government to account. If they really knew there was something in the documents, then rather than sitting back, they would have asked the government what it has done, but it is exactly nothing.

The Liberals have muzzled their opposition so they can continue to turn a blind eye to the obvious wrongdoings, and they have brought the cabal along with them to acquiesce to all of it. They used to be members of an opposition that could hold the government to account, and now they have been silenced. We do not have to look very far to see that they have been completely ineffective at prosecuting the government's failure on foreign interference. After all, it is the Prime Minister who turned a blind eye when foreign interference was coming from Beijing, when a Communist dictatorship was spreading misinformation and even buying Liberal Party memberships to influence nomination races. To that I say release the names.

This is the Prime Minister who took six years to declare the IRGC the terrorist organization that we all know it is, and it still uses Canada as a safe haven to fundraise, to recruit, to intimidate our own citizens and to possibly play a role in our electoral process. To that I say release the names.

It is this Prime Minister who employed the Emergencies Act, trampling on the rights and freedoms of Canadians for purely political opinions when they did not agree with them. To that, Canadians say release the names.

This is the Prime Minister whose ministers mysteriously sat on a CSIS surveillance warrant for a Liberal power broker for 54 days. To that I say release the names.

This is the Prime Minister who appointed Liberal insiders and personal friends to investigate the misdeeds of his own government. These are the things that happened under the Prime Minister's watch, and his weak leadership is the reason they are happening more and more.

Our adversaries know that Canada is an easy target and that they can get away with almost anything here. The Prime Minister is actively in the process of proving them right at every single turn. We have a common-sense ask of the Prime Minister. It is to release the names. Canadians want to know. He should release the names of the individuals who have collaborated with Beijing against Canada, the individuals who have collaborated with India against Canada and all the people who knowingly and wittingly worked with hostile foreign states for personal gain.

It is an easy thing to do. The Prime Minister did it once in the House of Commons already, and he can do it again. However, he will not. The Prime Minister does not seem to want to do that. He seems to want to continue the sideshow and political theatre as long as possible; this allows him not to talk about the issues that he does not want to talk about. He has lost all semblance of control. He looks unhinged. The Prime Minister continues to insist on some nonsensical argument about secret briefings when he can walk over here, two sword lengths away. He is pretty tall, so it is probably fewer than 10 steps. He can walk over and tell the Leader of the Opposition exactly what the problem is, but he will not do that. Why is this? It is because he is using this for political gain.

If the member for Carleton takes the briefing, by the admission of the Prime Minister's own chief of staff, he will be unable to speak about the results or act upon them, just like the Prime Minister has failed to do. He cannot do that in any way. His own office says that. In fact, the former leader of the NDP says that too. He deserves the information and not the handcuffing. The CSIS Act actually allows for this. It allows for anybody to offer any information on anybody about risks of foreign interference without forcing them into sworn secrecy.

I want to repeat that. The CSIS Act actually allows the Prime Minister to walk over here and tell the Leader of the Opposition everything he needs to know. Why is he not doing that? It is because he does not want to deal with the problem in his own caucus. The government insists again and again on secrecy without ever telling us why. I will tell members why. It is because the Prime Minister is hiding things from Canadians once again. It is because he is scared and because he has benefited from it politically. What is the Prime Minister hiding? What is he so scared of?

We know there are individuals from all parties who are rumoured to be implicated, but Conservatives are not scared of anything. If the government acted, Canadians would not be asking questions about why it is keeping secrets. I think everybody would be better off, including every single member of Parliament, who has now had the Prime Minister cast aspersions on them. That is irresponsible behaviour from a Prime Minister. The sooner the names are released, the sooner we can take action to ensure that our institutions and our political parties are free from interference. Otherwise, it is going to get way worse from a variety of actors, from a variety of places. As I said, they know that Canada is an easy place to do their dirty deeds.

Tonight's debate is another example of how the Prime Minister has failed on foreign interference. At the Hogue commission, the Prime Minister admitted that our intelligence agencies have been gathering information for years and that India has been committing foreign interference on Canadian soil. However, it is clear that he did nothing to act on it, even after a real and present danger to Canadians was known. An act was carried out; people have lost their lives. Even when provided with the opportunity to protect Canadians against extortion, one of the violent actions that the RCMP has accused Indian officials of engaging in, the Liberals voted against the bill.

It was a bill by my co-deputy leader, the member for Edmonton Mill Woods, Bill C-381, the protection against extortion act. Every single one of them voted against it. Some did not show up, but the rest voted against it.

The United States managed to thwart an assassination attempt on American soil. Canada was unable to do so. When the issue of Chinese interference came up, the Prime Minister tried to claim that it did not exist, and then that had been exposed as an outright falsehood. His government stalled for years on the creation of a foreign influence registry. It was only ever introduced as a result of Conservative pressure.

The government also did everything it could to avoid a public inquiry into foreign interference. Do members remember the special rapporteur, the friend, the ski chalet neighbour? Conservative pressure made sure that this was a full and open public inquiry so that everybody could see.

It is clear that the Liberals have been ignoring the issue of interference. Just let us look at what is happening in our streets right now. Let us look at the international terrorist organizations parading their slogans through Canadian streets, the organizations designated as not-for-profits not so long ago. Let us take a look at the increasing violence and crime driven by multinational gangs and cross-border smuggling. Let us take a look at the country's reputation, lying in shambles on the floor of the international community.

It is only going to get worse, but the government continues to sit around and pretend nothing is wrong. The Liberals passed Bill C-5 and Bill C-75, making it easier for violent criminals to be released back onto the streets again and again, while only being punished with a slap on the wrist. The Liberals repealed mandatory minimums for crimes like extortion with a firearm. They voted against Bill C-381, which would bring back this mandatory minimum punishment for extortion and implement even more tools for prosecutors and police to go after ringleaders and multinational gangs.

Extortion is five times higher than it was 10 years ago, but the Liberals are voting against the very things that they could be doing to stop all of this while pretending to have a debate, to say the right things, to placate the Canadian public, leading them to believe that they have acted when they have not.

Is the government going to empower CSIS or the RCMP to be able to do their jobs, instead of interfering in the work of those security agencies? Are they going to do a better job at screening the individuals coming into our country? How about tracking down the one million people the government lost and still cannot find?

We need real, decisive action to fix this problem. We need to enforce laws that we have on the books. We need to stand strong against interference, not cover up allegations and hide the evidence. We need Canadians to trust that everybody here is doing the right thing. We need our rights and our integrity back.

A common-sense Conservative government will put those criminals in jail where they belong. We will take action whenever and wherever we are notified, despite the Prime Minister's inability to walk across the floor and tell the Leader of the Opposition what the problem is. We will work with the RCMP and CSIS, not against them, and we will uphold the integrity of this country by running a government for all Canadians.

It starts with releasing the names. For the good of our political system, for our values, for our country, for the good of accountability to the people, release the names, I say to the Prime Minister. Anything short of that tells everyone what they already know: The Liberals are hiding from accountability. Canadians simply deserve better.

[Sukh Dhaliwal, Liberal, Surrey—Newton, BC]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member talked about political advantage.

It is well known that there is only one leader who took political advantage, and that is the leader of the Conservative Party. India intervened to make him the leader of the Conservative Party. It is not only that: If we open up any media outlet today or the social media in India, they are saying “Invest hundreds of millions of dollars to make sure that the leader of the Conservative Party becomes the next prime minister of this nation.”

The second question from the hon. member was about releasing the names. If the Leader of the Opposition takes the secrecy oath, then he will be able to get that information right from CSIS and the RCMP. The only reason he is worried is that six of his caucus members are the candidates who are passing information to India. That is why he does not want to take an oath: He does not want to expose his own members.

[Melissa Lantsman, Conservative, Thornhill, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the member opposite. The Leader of the Opposition won his leadership race with such a huge margin that he did not need help from anybody. The fact is that he is going to be the prime minister of the country, actually with help from the members of Parliament who continue to drive this country further and further into the ground.

With respect to the second question, the member opposite has been here for a while longer than I have. He might not have known this before the current debate, but if he was paying attention then he would know that the member for Carleton does not have to take a secret briefing. The Prime Minister can walk over here and tell him all the information. However, do members know what? The Prime Minister is doing this for a political reason: to keep that secret. That is absolutely true, and every single member on this side of the House, whoever has not signed the letter and whoever is not revolting against him knows it is true.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I have been listening all night to the debate. As members can imagine, I am deeply engaged with the foreign interference file as someone who has been targeted.

One main disservice was done through testimony at the Hogue inquiry. It actually came from Erin O'Toole, the former leader of the Conservatives. The name that was tied to the testimony was actually that of a retired Conservative senator, Senator Oh. Mr. O'Toole indicated very clearly that he did not at the time want to raise the issue, because he was concerned that somehow and somewhere, somebody would attack him by saying he might be a racist if he brought the issue up.

That is one name that we know of where there is a potential concern. Notwithstanding, the member talked a lot about naming names. I fully support naming names. I called for that to happen. I raised a question of privilege to the Speaker that was rejected.

Will the member and her party support my call for the government to establish a formal process, whether through PROC, some other committee or even back at NSICOP, so we can actually go back to look at the issue, examine the names and give an opportunity for the people to come forward so there are no due process issues about their potential involvement and those who are semi-wittingly or wittingly assisting in foreign interference activities? Will the member and her party do that so we can get to the bottom of this and stop playing politics?

[Melissa Lantsman, Conservative, Thornhill, ON]

Mr. Speaker, if the NDP member wants so badly to release the names, then she should convince her leader to make the same call to the Prime Minister, rather than covering up whatever he is hiding.

[Jasraj Singh Hallan, Conservative, Calgary Forest Lawn, AB]

Mr. Speaker, I want to applaud our co-deputy leader, the member of Parliament for Thornhill, for her speech and also for her advocacy. She touched on a topic that a lot of Canadians are talking about, which is how divisive the Prime Minister is. He is pitting either one community against another or Canadians against each other. It always benefits him for there to be a distraction from his own failures. In this case it is his failure on foreign interference.

We hear the Liberals keep saying they cannot release the names, but it is actually the CSIS Act itself that says it allows the government to offer information to any Canadian about specific risks of foreign interference without forcing them into sworn secrecy or controlling what they say.

Our leader is a Canadian, and he is 10 steps away from the Prime Minister. What is possibly stopping the Prime Minister from walking 10 steps this way? He was grandstanding and distracting at the Hogue commission, and he laid down baseless allegations against the Conservative Party. He even named his own party and implicated its members. What is stopping him from walking 10 steps over this way and just releasing the names to our common-sense Conservative leader, the next Prime Minister of Canada?

[Melissa Lantsman, Conservative, Thornhill, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I do not know why the Liberals are not more furious with the Prime Minister for casting aspersions on every single one of them as he named them at the Hogue commission. He is the most divisive prime minister in the history of this country. Just look at the communities that he pits against each other. Look at how he has made this a playground for foreign interference. Look at how he has done nothing about listing terrorist organizations that he knew were functioning right here on Canadian soil, intimidating Canadians from coast to coast in every community. He turned a blind eye to that, and for that his caucus should be furious with him.

[Randeep Sarai, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Veterans Affairs and Associate Minister of National Defence]

Mr. Speaker, this is a very concerning question. In my friend's riding of Surrey—Newton, there is a very prominent Hindu temple.

The Vedic Hindu Cultural Society Surrey wrote a letter to the leader of the Conservative Party of Canada asking him to not send the Conservative MPs for Edmonton Mill Woods and Calgary Forest Lawn to its temple because of their ideological difference, but to instead send the MPs for Calgary Heritage and Thornhill. Many believe it was foreign interference that wrote this letter.

Could the MP for Thornhill please tell us what the ideological difference is between her and the MP for Calgary Forest Lawn?

[Melissa Lantsman, Conservative, Thornhill, ON]

Mr. Speaker, if the member knows anything about the kind of advocacy I do, he would know that I believe every Canadian is welcome in every single institution in this country. Under a Conservative government, we will make sure that we are not dividing Canadians as the Liberals are doing to distract from the issues.

[Randeep Sarai, Liberal, Surrey Centre, BC]

I never said anything about that.

[Melissa Lantsman, Conservative, Thornhill, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I know the member is still yelling his question out, but if he would allow me to answer.

We are going to finally have a government in this country where everybody, no matter what colour they are, what language they speak or when they came to this country finally feels welcome instead of what the Prime Minister has created.

[Elizabeth May, Green, Saanich—Gulf Islands, BC]

Mr. Speaker, my hon. colleague from Thornhill has posited to the House that, if someone does not want to release the names, they are hiding from accountability. As somebody who has a chief top secret security clearance and never hides from anything, I want to assure her that the main concern I have is to abide by the law.

I was trained in law; the law matters, and our security laws and the protection of information require that certain information not be revealed to anyone. Therefore, while there is an exemption in the CSIS Act, it does not mean that someone can walk across the floor and take into their own hands reckless activity that could endanger our security and intelligence assets found around the world.

What would our Five Eyes partners think of dealing with a country that takes its security so loosely and, with respect to our intelligence assets, with such a cavalier disregard for their safety that we publish things? That is why it was such a concern for our special rapporteur that CSIS operatives were sending things to The Globe and Mail.

We need to have a full debate that focuses on Canadians' safety. Again, it should be country first, party second or maybe never.

[Melissa Lantsman, Conservative, Thornhill, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the leader of the Green Party has demonstrated that she wants everybody under the same secrecy as she is under, but she has been ineffective in this entire debate.

The Prime Minister has demonstrated that he has the ability to publicly communicate classified information on this issue. He did so in the House. He did so when he kicked out a member of his own caucus, which is the only thing that he did before musing about welcoming him back. He did so at the Hogue commission. He is allowed to do what the member from the Green Party is saying she is not allowed to do. She has been entirely ineffective in this whole thing, and I do not think the Leader of the Opposition should take any lessons from her.

[Parm Bains, Liberal, Steveston—Richmond East, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I will be sharing my time with my dear colleague from Brampton North.

This past week, Canadians were taken aback, as we heard in the different speeches throughout this emergency debate, by the scope and seriousness of the Government of India's ongoing efforts to interfere in Canadian affairs. Last Monday, the RCMP made public its findings that Indian government diplomats have been engaged in serious criminal activities in Canada. These activities target Canada, Canadians and individuals residing in Canada, as well as Canadian interests. They are covert, deceptive and illegal. They threaten all levels of government, the private sector, academia, diaspora communities and the general public.

Through Canada's national task force and other investigative efforts, the RCMP has obtained evidence that demonstrates these agents supported violent extremism in both nations and links agents of the Government of India to homicides and violent acts. It demonstrates they were using organized crime to create a perception of an unsafe environment for the South Asian community in Canada and interfering in democratic processes. The most serious of these criminal acts took place in June 2023 when proxies were used to murder Hardeep Singh Nijjar in front of the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara in Surrey, B.C., a holy place.

This government is determined to protect Canadians from these attacks. To push back against foreign interference, this government passed Bill C-70, amending the CSIS Act and the Security of Information Act for the first time in 40 years.

In May, I spoke to and seconded my colleague from Surrey—Newton's motion, Motion No. 112, about the real threats posed by foreign governments that seek to intimidate diaspora communities in Canada. Motion No. 112 specifically references the sharing of information and security intelligence to protect democratic institutions, maintain the rule of law and prevent violence and extremism. Information sharing with key allies is critical to pushing back against hostile actors. Since the Government of Canada made these allegations, Canada's Five Eyes allies have come out in support of Canada, because we share intelligence.

In response to the shocking revelations that Indian diplomats including India's high commissioner were actively undermining Canadian law, the Government of Canada expelled the commissioner along with five other diplomats. Evidence also shows that a wide variety of entities in Canada and abroad have been used by agents of the Government of India to collect information. Some of these individuals and businesses were coerced and threatened into working for the Government of India.

This is not the first time foreign governments have worked to intimidate diaspora communities in Canada. I mentioned this before in questions asked today. Under the previous government, the now Leader of the Opposition and Stephen Harper allowed Chinese police stations to set up shop in Canada. These became hubs where Chinese agents could intimidate, harass and even repatriate Chinese residents, claiming they were criminals.

Regrettably, efforts by Mark Flynn, the deputy commissioner of federal policing, to meet with his Indian law enforcement counterparts and discuss violent extremism occurring in Canada and India were unsuccessful. I call again on all levels of the Government of India to co-operate with these investigations. It is the only way forward.

This is a particularly sad time for the Commonwealth and all allied nations. Together, Canadians and Indians resisted the forces of 20th-century dictatorships in both the First and Second World Wars. They did this not to conquer but to preserve their way of life and build a better, more peaceful world based on co-operation, respect and a mutual commitment to a rule-based international order.

The beginning of the Commonwealth Charter reinforces:

the commitment of member states to the development of free and democratic societies and the promotion of peace and prosperity to improve the lives of all the people of the Commonwealth.

I was born and raised in Canada, but this would not have been possible if it were not for members of my family, Sikhs who served in both India's and Canada's armed forces to fight for the safety and freedoms we enjoy. The Government of India's actions represent a gross breach of international law and also of its commitment to the principles that bind the Commonwealth of Nations together.

These are difficult revelations. I know that there is a real concern in the South Asian community. I urge anyone who has been victimized by threats or knows of others who have been threatened to come forward and report these threats to the RCMP. The safety of Canadians, regardless of their background or beliefs, is the top priority of the RCMP and of this government.

The actions being perpetrated by India and other foreign states are a threat to Canada's national interests. They undermine Canadian sovereignty and social cohesion, diminish trust in our institutions and degrade the rights and freedoms to which all Canadians are entitled. This is why the Government of Canada will continue to denounce these actions as deplorable and unacceptable in the strongest possible terms.

Up to 30 arrests have already been made, and our public safety agencies will not stop working. We will not be intimidated. We will not be harassed, and we will have justice and answers for the flagrant disregard of Canadians as well as of international law. We need to remain united on all sides of the aisle and show leadership to protect our nation and our way of life.

[Heather McPherson, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

Mr. Speaker, before I start on a question for my colleague, I have a question for the Speaker with regard to how he will be allocating questions, considering that there are only two parties represented, that there are no Conservatives in the House right now—

[The Deputy Speaker, Conservative, Chris d'Entremont]

The hon. member is a learned member and should know better.

[Heather McPherson, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

Mr. Speaker, on a point of clarity, I am just wondering how you will be allocating the questions this evening, considering the number of members who are in the House at the moment.

[The Deputy Speaker, Conservative, Chris d'Entremont]

When people catch my eye, I will be more than happy to recognize them.

[Heather McPherson, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

Mr. Speaker, all night tonight, we have been talking about very serious issues and why this is impactful for so many Canadians. I guess my question for the member has to come down to this: We brought forward a motion today. The leader of the NDP brought forward a motion asking for us to have a committee so that we can actually look at this in depth, these issues that we are facing. It would be an India-Canada committee, similar to the Canada-China committee.

I know that many members so far tonight have said that they did not stand up against it, but the Liberal Party shut that unanimous consent motion down. It was the Liberal Party that shut that down.

I am wondering if he has talked to his colleagues and if he can give us a rationale for why there was no support for that committee, which could have done some very important work for Canadians.

[Parm Bains, Liberal, Steveston—Richmond East, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for her hard work on these issues of human rights. On the issue she has raised, I did not oppose it, but it is something that we are working on, on this side of the House, with a justice inquiry that is currently going on. I am a member of the ethics committee, where we are studying foreign interference, misinformation and disinformation, and there are several studies currently going on. I actually look forward to participating in what was suggested today by the leader on her side of the House. I believe that once many of the measures that are being taken right now are exhausted and we get recommendations from there, something of that nature could take place.

[Tim Uppal, Conservative, Edmonton Mill Woods, AB]

Mr. Speaker, as I have asked before, we are debating a very serious issue today, an issue of foreign interference, an issue of Indian government agents interfering in Canada, using organized crime, extortion, murder and assassinations.

Does the hon. member not think that Canadians who have tuned in and who have been paying attention will be disappointed that most of the arguments made by the Liberals, most of their speeches, are actually about the opposition leader and not about solutions and ideas and thoughts about how we can curb and stop foreign interference?

Why are they playing politics over the safety of Canadians?