First, I'd like to thank Mr. Dosanjh for speaking in favour of this motion as written, when he made the point that 2011 is coming very quickly, as is stated in the motion, and at this particular point Mr. Dosanjh and the rest of this committee have absolutely no idea what the government plans are. Certainly I appreciate his speaking in favour of the amendment that we begin this without delay so that we can be doing something that is relevant to what is going to be happening in the future.
I don't think there's any question that this could very possibly drag on, if there is a lack of good will, and at this point it seems as though there may be a bit of a lack of good will. This could drag on well into 2011, probably just about six months after Mr. Iacobucci delivers his edict, as a document that could be available to this committee.
I am absolutely in the largest quandary to try to understand where the opposition are coming from when they're asking for a full public inquiry. I wonder whether there's anyone on the opposition side who could give me the name of any full public inquiry ever that has not gone over its time, and well over time.
Can you imagine a full public inquiry on this issue being able to have a commencement date before at least six months from now? Can you imagine a full public inquiry being able to go without a request for an extension? Can you imagine a full public inquiry not requiring a further extension for the writing of the actual report from the public inquiry?
We're talking about a full public inquiry. If that were ever granted, it would be in the least interest of the Canadian people, if this is indeed the pressing issue the opposition says it is, for the simple reason that we'd be looking at a time at least two or three years from now before the conclusion of a full public inquiry.
Contrast that with Mr. Iacobucci, who has been given the job of taking a look at the redactions, making available whatever documents are able to come before this committee.
If this committee wants to work very quickly with the potentially revised redacted documents and do whatever they're going to do, these are all very interesting things. But I wonder whether the people of Canada might be interested, as Mr. Dosanjh so generously advanced, in knowing what the Government of Canada prospect is in terms of 2010, how the government is going to go about doing these things so that the people of Canada can be part of the pullout, part of the end of the armed conflict side of the Canadian government and the people of Canada in the country of Afghanistan.
As I say, I'd like to thank Mr. Dosanjh for speaking against this amendment clearly, because he recognizes the importance of this committee's being able to get on with its job of going ahead and getting to what the government is going to be doing in 2011.