Thank you very much.
Notwithstanding the eagerness of our colleagues on the other side of the House, on the government side, to simply sweep aside parliamentary privilege and the constitutional autonomy of Parliament that has existed for over a century, going into two centuries.... You are in fact the parliamentary counsel and the law clerk. You have clearly made the point in your brief that some aspects of Bill C-2 would in fact impede on parliamentary privilege and the constitutional position of the House and its members. You then state that if the House wishes its parliamentary privilege and constitutional position to be subject to Bill C-2 as it now stands, it needs a clarification, and you can show us or provide us with an amendment.
On the other hand, if the House and its members decide they do not wish to throw close to 200 years of tradition out the window, there's a different amendment that can be put into place. My question to you, as the legal adviser to Parliament, specifically to the House of Commons, is what advice do you give to the members of this committee as to which option we should choose?
When I go to a lawyer and I pay a lawyer, I expect the lawyer to put out all of the various options, with the pros and the negatives. Then I expect my lawyer, whom I'm paying, to come up with a recommendation. You have option one: here are the pros, here are the cons; option two: pros and cons; option three: pros and cons. I recommend you go with option two.
Do you recommend to the members of this committee that we throw parliamentary privilege and the constitutional position of the House and its members out the window, subject to the Conflict of Interest Act, as it is now stipulated, or do you recommend that we maintain parliamentary privilege and the constitutional position of the House and its members as it now stands, in which case it would require a different amendment?