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Dean’s Thanks: Interpreters, Witnesses, MPs, and Family

Day 4 · 8:06:52 · Dean Allison · Shawn Buckley

  • 🎧 Allison thanks Hill interpreters who worked 8:30–5:00 all week, room attendees, and listeners at home.
  • 🤝 Buckley interjects thanks to Dean for simply wanting to listen despite unknown political cost; Dean thanks witnesses and experts for context.
  • 🏛️ He credits MPs who came or supported privately, his wife, and staffer Phil for parliamentary logistics under a tight room calendar.

Chair’s opening closings thank the people who staffed, testified, and backed the four-day hearing.

← “We Are All in This Together”: McNair and a Call to Listen | Silence Broken: Compassion Must Never Be Controversial →

Transcript

Dean Allison · 8:06:52

Thank you, Sean. I, I do want to thank a few people before I get into some closing remarks. Um, we have a great, uh, group of people on the Hill, uh, that work behind the scenes normally. That was volunteers here, and I'll talk— thank the volunteers in a second. But we, we still have interpreters that were here all week. Thank you so much. They do. They do a great job. And they've been here, you know, from 8:30 to 5:00 every day. And thank you very much. I do want to thank all the people here in the room and those that are listening at home. Well, go ahead.

Shawn Buckley · 8:07:28

I forgot to thank MP Dean Allison.

Dean Allison · 8:07:39

Yeah, so, so, but I know, I just announced it.

Shawn Buckley · 8:07:45

He, he has such love for people, and he truly just wanted to listen, and he didn't know where this would go. He didn't know that you know, that everyone would get behind him and defend him online and all of this, but he just had the heart to listen, and I thank you, Dean.

Dean Allison · 8:08:06

So now I have to thank you. No, I'm just teasing. I was going to thank him anyways, okay? It was in my notes. Uh, you know, so listen, I, I do thank everyone in the room, and, you know, the witnesses that took great, uh, pain. Like I said, I can't say it enough, you know. I, I, my part of my job is to listen to people. That's what I do in my office. I, I listen to, you know, 10 or 12 people, whoever comes in, and they get a half an hour and they tell me their stories. And every one of their stories to that person is the most important story that they could be. So if I can listen to people's stories privately, why can't we listen to people's stories publicly, right? So that is, um, really what this is about. So to the witnesses, thank you. Thank you for your stories. To the expert witnesses for helping us, you know, give a little context, right? I— we talked about this. I said we, we have to have a little context of what's going on, because if, if we don't have any context, then people won't know why people are hurt, why they're injured. And so to the witnesses, to the expert witnesses, thank you.

Dean Allison · 8:09:09

To the MPs that took time to come out, you know, this, uh, this schedule is really around, uh, Sean and mine's schedule. Right? I mean, we picked a date that would work based on the fact that I got caucus next week in B.C. We're going back to Parliament the week after. We can't get a room. More than likely we won't be able to get a room because there'll be meetings back in these rooms in just 2 or 3 short weeks. So I do want to— I do want to mention that I'm grateful for the MPs that have come out. I had a number of my colleagues reach out to me and say, Dean, we are so grateful for what you're doing. And we just can't make it. Our schedules are jammed. Like I said, everyone in Parliament, I tell people this all the time, there's 343 Members of Parliament, there are 25 different committees. Everyone's got a special something they work on. And so, why can't my special something be you guys? Like, why could not that be the case? And so that was really sort of the genesis behind having that conversation. So I need to thank my wife who's been very supportive.

Dean Allison · 8:10:10

She's been here. Helping out this week. I want to thank Phil from my office. Phil has helped coordinate everything from the, uh, the parliamentary back end of stuff. So I need to thank all those people. So I, I do want to say a few words just as we close though.