Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you for being here. We certainly appreciate the advice you've provided, Mr. Law Clerk.
We've heard some of the conversation over the last little while from the committee, and some members have been a bit alarmist. You've heard that there is some sort of constitutional crisis or that this is somehow immoral. I just want to put it a bit into perspective.
When the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada deals with any piece of justice legislation, for example, there will always be witnesses who appear saying that this provision or that may or may not be constitutional, that there may or may not be a challenge at some point in the future, that there may be some hypothetical court case. We take that advice, and as parliamentarians it's our job to enact legislation. That's something we're used to. Anyone who has ever sat on any committee dealing with any subject matter knows there is always the possibility that some piece of that legislation could end up in court.
Also, there's been a great deal made about your particular office and your not being consulted, but I guess from the evidence I've heard from you today, it wouldn't be the normal practice with any piece of legislation that a department would call you up to say it was thinking about a piece of legislation and to ask what you thought about it.
Nonetheless, we hear members say “immoral” as though there's some constitutional crisis. From the evidence I've seen you provide, I don't think that's the case. For one thing—this has already been quoted a number of times—you say:
Notwithstanding our view that some of the proposals of Bill C-2 are contrary to the Constitution as they fail to respect the constitutional position of the House, it is not unconstitutional to enact legislation that limits the constitutional privileges of the House.
Also, today you've mentioned that of any potential flaws you see, most are curable. To get to the specifics, in the interests of working to have a bill that's a good piece of legislation and a House that stands, how many amendments would you be talking about? What specifically would you like to see changed, and what are we talking about, as far as time goes, to make those few amendments?