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OTTAWA -- The Liberal members on the House of Commons ethics committee have stalled a vote on whether to study the nature of the government’s WE Charity contract and review past speaking appearances of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his family.

After nearly four hours of discussion following a Conservative motion to investigate the issue, Liberal MP Greg Fergus put forward a motion to suspend the meeting until the earliest time next week to deliberate on an NDP amendment.

The NDP amendment proposes that the committee share the speaking records and the associated fees or reimbursements by Trudeau, his wife Sophie Gregoire-Trudeau, his mother Margaret Trudeau, and his brother Alexandre Trudeau with the ethics commissioner.

The amendment, put forward by NDP ethics critic Charlie Angus, also asks that Trudeau testify before the committee.

Five Liberals and Angus were in favour of adjourning, while the remaining four Conservative and Bloq MPs opposed.

Tory MP Michael Barrett accused the Liberals of a cover-up.

"So its laid bare for everyone to see that the Liberals have attempted to filibuster this committee," he said.

"If playing hardball is filibustering the committee, waiting and running the clock until two o'clock and slyly passing a point of order to try and adjourn the committee, that's clumsy, but I’m not sure if that's hardball."

Barrett and Angus pointed out that the Liberals took the time allocated to vote on the motion on Friday to instead give lengthy history lessons and to speak about their alma maters.

"We’ve heard today the history of Athens, the personal history of Liberal MPs, we’ve learned about the Medieval Era, we’ve learned about everything except the fact that WE is very implicated with the Trudeau family and the Trudeau government is now under investigation. We need to get answers," said Angus.

Fergus and his colleagues argued that the scope of the Conservative’s motion goes beyond the boundaries of the committee’s mandate. He raised the importance of having an independent, third-party investigate the issue.

"It’s up to the commissioner to take up that investigation, to obtain all the information he needs to draw a conclusion, and then to reveal that information to Parliament," said Fergus.

"Do you really want to politicize this type of information?"

Liberal MP Élisabeth Brière delivered a long speech about democracy, the rule of law, and the role of the committee at large. She also said it would be inappropriate to involve Trudeau’s family members in the study.

Angus agreed that family members should be void from committee questioning, but that key members of the prime minister’s inner circle should be held accountable.

He mentioned Finance Minister Bill Morneau and Trudeau’s chief of staff Katie Telford as vital witnesses.

"It’s Katie Telford, his chief of staff, who should have been looking after a prime minister and putting some kind of big ethical mitts around him so he didn’t keep putting his finger in the conflict of interest socket, that’s what I’m interested in," he said.

"But I’m not interested in our committee being used to go after the individual members of the Trudeau family and I agree that we can put a limit on how that’s done." 

Barrett confirmed the only member of the Trudeau family he’d like to see appear before the group is the prime minister himself.

"I’m not looking for Margaret Trudeau to come to this committee. I’m not looking for Sophie Gregoire-Trudeau to come to this committee, nor am I looking for his brother Alexandre to come to this committee, but he’s put them in a terrible, terrible position," said Barrett.

The opposition agreed the central question the committee must seek to answer is whether there was a successful attempt to buy political influence by the WE Charity.

If the motion is ultimately passed during the next meeting, it would become the second Parliamentary committee to take up the issue; MPs in the finance committee are also reviewing how the contract came to be.

Morneau has agreed to testify before the committee next week.

"I will always cooperate with the finance committee, and I will be with them in order to discuss. I don’t know what date, but it’s something that I will do, yes," he said on Friday during a separate press conference.

On Thursday, Youth Minister Bardish Chagger was the first MP to testify, fielding questions about the lead-up to the government’s partnership with WE Charity, how their proposal to administer the program was reviewed and processed, and whether cabinet members were aware of the inner workings of the deal.

Trudeau’s mother and brother were paid nearly $300,000 collectively for

Trudeau’s mother and brother were paid nearly $300,000 collectively for WE speaking engagements since 2016. His wife has also spoken at their events and was paid prior to Trudeau becoming prime minister.

Morneau’s daughter Clare has spoken at WE events and his daughter Grace is currently a contractual employee.

The temporarily stalled program would have dolled out up to $43.53 million to WE Charity for recruiting charities, vetting applicants, and placing eligible volunteers within organizations across Canada.