Madam Speaker, this is indeed what the Conservatives are trying to do. What they cannot control, they destroy. We have seen this from authoritarian governments around the world. There is no independent journalism practised in Russia. Hungary saw independent journalists being attacked. We are seeing now an attack on public radio and public television in the United States with the triumph of Trumpism. The reality is that they do not respect the kind of journalism that is a vital part of democracy.
When we stand up to do a scrum, as my colleague is well aware, we get tough questions sometimes, and Canadians expect us to answer those tough questions. For Conservatives to refuse to go on panels, for Conservatives to refuse to stand up for their positions and for the leader of the Conservative Party, the member for Carleton, to be thin-skinned whenever he is asked tough questions by legitimate journalists shows a singular disregard and disrespect for democracy that I think Canadians should heed.
The reality is that journalism, like the kind of journalism we are seeing from CBC/Radio-Canada, which has won hundreds of awards, is very much the foundation of democracy, and that the Conservatives do not respect it shows how much disrespect they have for our democratic system.