Mr. Chair, first, I want to say that I am not satisfied with the way the committee is operating. We have a lot of questions to ask, and the ministers will be leaving us shortly.
Also I invite my journalist friends in the room to come and give us their questions, which I will then put later to the ministers. I hope that the ministers will be able to respond through you, because we don't have the time to do it here, as you can see.
Ms. Lalonde was questioning you on your responsibility to know; I would like to question you about your responsibility as a minister. You haven't talked about that. The Minister of National Defence has only talked about "we need to rely on" our document, "we need to work", "we have the duty to".
Mr. Chair, when I say "we", I'm speaking inclusively by including all government representatives. What about the responsibility of these three ministers as ministers, Mr. Chair?
However, they sometimes decide to intimidate witnesses. I would ask the Minister of Foreign Affairs to listen carefully to what Mr. Shawn Barber said to Mr. Colvin:
The Government of Canada does not share the opinion of the legislative clerk on the application of legislation to parliamentary work and we are relying on you in your capacity as a public servant to comply with the interpretation of the Government of Canada.
There is worse:
If the committee members express grounds for concern, those grounds should be provided to the government's legal counsel.