Mr. Chair, you make a point, but you're assuming that the minister has had no part in this. These two Conservative members have been appointed by the minister, according to the article. A Bloc member has not been appointed. A Liberal hasn't been appointed. Ms. Bell has not been appointed. So this is a sanitized, filtered study, which is being carried on apparently at the same time as the all-party study.
You're right. We can deal with the press in whatever fashion we want.
If the minister saw fit to conclude that this committee will not do its job properly, and that's one clear inference to be taken from this parallel study having been undertaken, would that he had seen fit to appoint not just Conservative members but members, for instance, from the Bloc and from the Liberal Party. Mr. Boshcoff has driven a study on the forestry industry arguably more than anybody else on this committee.
I think Mr. Ouellet is correct. The rest of us should take personal and professional offence at having been excluded from the short list the minister is seeing fit to favour.