oldgit_gittinolder, your first sentence is funny - I hope you intended it that way.

A month or so into this 'debate', you should know that Parliamentarians are indeed elected to debate issues of national importance, and have been for as long as there has been a Canada.  As I'm sure you know by now, we have also had, for instance, similar debates about anti-semitism.

The point is to influence public opinion, at least among those with open minds.  Public opinion has a bearing on all of us, including those with weaker, possibly disturbed minds.