Correct. In the broad sense, they're not judicial and they're not legislative. So they're in the executive branch. But that doesn't mean they don't enjoy the independence that may be sufficient to the satisfaction of members of Parliament and that there's no wrongful interference by the government. So it's a judgment call on the part of this committee in the case of C-2 as to whether there is anything here that concerns you.
But if I could, Mr. Chairman, just briefly respond to Mr. Martin relative to the overall picture, there are two principal themes here. One is the constitutional position of the House, and the second is the fact that there is a lot of legal uncertainty, in my view, that develops by virtue of the legal duties placed on members and legal powers given to the Ethics Commissioner, which, when put into action, can give rise to legal processes of a kind that leave everybody in a roomful of lawyers. Then you end up with a problem where you don't know what you've decided when you decided it, because you're now into a legal process that has to work itself out.
Traditionally, the House does its business as it sees fit and the courts stay out of it. You want to minimize the intrusion of any outside officers into that business or you run the risk of being dragged into court proceedings pertaining to the propriety of the actions taken under the authorizing statute.