Procedure and House Affairs committee  Mr. Chairman, of course I can't comment on what may or may not have been the motivation of the minister or anyone else involved in this matter in whatever they did or did not say, but I take Mr. Martin's point about it being of interest to Canadians generally, the basis on which

Procedure and House Affairs committee  That did pass through my mind, but I thought I wouldn't say that.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  The committee has to weigh how important that is in a situation where we are talking about deliberately misleading. It is a serious offence. It's a hanging offence. It's a capital offence, and we reserve capital punishment--when we had it, anyway--for serious offences, and there

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Yes. It is up to you to decide whether these other matters are relevant to your finding. It is up to you to determine whether these other incidents, such as what happened at Statistics Canada, are merely versions of the same thing. That is up to the committee to decide.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I cannot say that here, as a law clerk and parliamentary counsel. Mr. Franks is a private citizen and a former professor who is highly respected. He is entitled to have his point of view. I, however, am restricted in that it is not my place to make decisions that are up to the co

Procedure and House Affairs committee  —whether she did or not. Mr. Franks has a different take on the situation, but that is for him to say.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  You used the word “sufficient“. You asked if the amount of time that elapsed was sufficient reason to find that the minister was in contempt. That is up to you to decide. Are we convinced that the minister really had the opportunity to explain the situation, but chose to say not

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Not quite. Showing the intent might be conclusive of the question. Not being able to show the intent may not be conclusive insofar as we are all responsible for the normal conclusions or the natural, reasonable conclusions one may draw from our actions or statements or omissions

Procedure and House Affairs committee  In my view, the critical consideration here, going to your point, is not just reading the document, but asking yourself what use was made of the document. This is not unlike the element of the Afghan detainee controversy, where one of the points of privilege was the legal opinio

Procedure and House Affairs committee  It's an observation you might well make as a member of this committee, but it wouldn't be my place to make that same observation, except to bring your attention to the evidence, which includes question 106. I think you're saying the answer to that by the minister was incomplete,

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Mr. Chairman, I would agree with Mr. McKay to the effect, as I said earlier, that if you show a pattern of incomplete answers or even partially mistaken or false answers, after a while you've got to say that this is not an accident; the person must have done this by design. In t

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Forgive me if I don't answer the question in its own terms. Whether it's contempt is for the committee to decide. But in looking to the witness's position, 24 hours later, as you say, the witness learned what she could have said, didn't say, and might have said, perhaps because

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Mr. McKay, speaking now as legal counsel in the context I earlier suggested I would be doing this, I have to stay within the confines of what we're here about, which is an allegation of misleading the House. There may have been a whole host of comments about that document and the

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have an opening presentation to make. I encourage you to stop my presentation when you've had enough or if you think members may want to ask some questions rather than listen to me any longer. Lawyers, as you know—hopefully you don't know from direct

Procedure and House Affairs committee  There is another principle in the parliamentary domain which you are well acquainted with, I believe, and that is the freedom to say things in debate, according to what is necessary and as one sees fit. I am not in a position to comment on the words used in parliamentary debate.