Mr. Speaker, the first charge that my hon. colleague has levied against me is that I may not have come through on the commitment to meet with religious organizations. I have a list of almost 30 in front of me now that I met with during the holiday break to ensure that we heard their perspective.
The second charge that he has levied against me is that we have not listened to the feedback. I would correct the record again. We were willing to take their feedback and put an amendment in the bill, an amendment, by the way, the Conservatives seemingly were going to put forward. They decided to continue their filibuster only when they realized we agreed with their position and wanted to add clarity to ensure that communities of faith would continue to be able to read their holy texts, preach the lessons of their faith of choice and live freely in Canada.
The position of the government is that the ability for Canadians to pray freely and practise their faith should continue fully, not only by virtue of the charter protections that exist but also by reflecting the feedback that I personally heard from religious leaders to change the language of the proposed bill to make this eminently clear.