Mr. Conacher, there is talk that citizens will be able to send their complaints directly to the Integrity Commissioner, as is the case with the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages. For our part — and I think that the same is true for the Liberals — we want to eliminate the obstacle that would prevent citizens from proceeding that way.
Will we run the risk of seeing as specific lobby group block the process by filing 58 000 complaints in order to prove that the act is ineffective. As was the case with the Canadian Firearms Registry? People had decided to fill out the forms in a haphazard way, which revealed the ineffectiveness of the act, but in a way that was somewhat questionable.
Would allowing citizens to file their complaints directly with the commissioner enable a group to nail a political party? Could a group like that, under this amendment, take advantage of the opportunity and do something like that?