Mr. Chair, as all members know--and I would expect Mr. Dosanjh, as a former premier and a former cabinet minister, would know--we receive information from numerous sources, including, of course, reporting sources on the ground, but also our deputy ministers, our assistant deputy ministers, and in the case of a national defence minister, from military leadership. That information is presented to us with a mind for making decisions, making policy, making determinations, assessments of program options, and considerations for final decisions. So just to be clear, this information flows up through various government departments and government officials to a minister for decision.
We receive that advice, advice that has been synthesized, advice that is often drawn from various other sources and then presented to ministers for action. So we see the mission, in this case, through the prism of our senior diplomats and our military leadership, and we act upon that information. That is the way the process has always worked.
In so doing, some of the information that we've heard presented before this committee came from e-mails that were sent in. Again, I expect that members who have served in cabinet posts would know that departments, and even ministers' inboxes, receive thousands upon thousands of e-mails, which are then, as I said, synthesized, processed, and brought forward for decision.
In conclusion, we fully expect to receive the type of advice and information needed to make informed decisions on the ground. I take responsibility as a cabinet minister for those decisions, but they are drawn from various sources within departments, including independent reports that are made available into the Department of Foreign Affairs, for example. I'm sure members would agree that it's the responsible thing to do: to glean information from those various sources before deciding what action should follow.