Mr. Chair, with respect, I don't take the floor very often in this committee, relative to many other members, and I'm speaking to a point that's very relevant to the amendment at hand and the main motion at hand.
The issue is this. Dr. Qiu trained people at the Wuhan Institute of Virology so that it could be registered as a level 4 lab, the only level 4 lab in China. Why is that relevant? It's because the State Department of our closest ally and trading partner said earlier this year that the standards at the lab were not upheld, that they weren't operating to level 4 criteria, that they were often operating with very dangerous viruses at level 2 or level 3.
That's why we need these documents. We need to know what the Government of Canada was doing through the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg with respect to co-operating with the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan, China.
That's why we need these documents. We are a parliamentary democracy, and under two sets of conditions we have the right to these documents. As my colleagues have outlined and as the law clerk has outlined, there are precedent-setting rulings that Speaker Milliken issued in—