Honourable senators, I rise on behalf of my colleague Senator Tannas, who has had to leave the chamber, to speak about Senator Mégie’s motion. He notes that he personally supports the motion, as I do. He also notes that this is an important motion, which proposes a Committee of the Whole whereby senators would pose questions to ministers on their response to systemic and, indeed, other issues of racism in Canada.

These are his words:

As an Alberta senator, I have some questions I would like to ask about the treatment of Chief Allan Adam, as documented in that video that has outraged Canadians. I want to participate in a Committee of the Whole, and so do many of you here today, and so do many of our colleagues not here today.

He goes on to say that we must insist that all senators be able to participate. Very shortly, I will table on his behalf an amendment to the motion that proposes we conduct the Committee of the Whole as soon as the technology can be delivered for us to do so.