Mr. Chair, in light of the fact that we haven't received documents and in light of the fact that this committee did request documents prior to Mr. Mulroney's attending committee, I just want to put forward this motion. It's a very quick one. It's regarding the documents, and we can get on to the business of the day.
Mr. Chair, I think it's important to establish, as I mentioned yesterday at committee, the importance of committees of Parliament being able to do their work, and to do that we need to have the same documents that are available to witnesses. We saw this yesterday. I mean, we had two retired members of the forces accessing documents that we couldn't access.
So I want to put forward the following motion, Chair, and I will distribute it:
That the committee report to the House that it believes a serious breach of privilege has occurred and members' rights have been violated; that the Government of Canada, particularly the Department of Justice and the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, have intimidated a witness of this committee and obstructed and interfered with committee's work by withholding the papers requested by this committee. Therefore this committee reports the breach to the House so that it can consider the matter.
Mr. Chair, we have important business ahead of us, as I mentioned. This isn't an attempt to filibuster. This is a straightforward motion. I would like to have this committee consider it, vote on it, and move on.
And if I could just explain the words in the motion, we have asked for documents, and not just once. I asked when Mr. Colvin was here for his documents. He wasn't able to provide those documents. He was told that if he did provide those documents, there would be consequences for that. I think this is, to put it mildly, unfortunate that a committee of Parliament isn't able to have information to conduct its business. I believe that's a breach of privilege.
That's a straightforward motion, and I'll stop at that.