Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I want to thank the witnesses for being here this evening.
Mr. Stewart, I want to thank you for providing the documents, which may not be as complete as we would have liked. We'll have the chance to talk about the documents this evening. I also want to thank you for the explanations that you've provided so far this evening, even though we may find them unsatisfactory.
In any case, on a personal level, I mainly want to know why, if the transfer of these viruses to Wuhan was done properly, the two scientists in question were terminated anyway. This evening, you clearly established—I think that this resolves part of the issue— that the transfer of these viruses to Wuhan isn't related to the termination of the scientists.
That said, we're still waiting for the reasons for these terminations. You seem to consider parliamentarians as mere individuals subject to the law under the Privacy Act, who can't be given information regarding citizens. However, as Mr. Chong pointed out, this act allows certain authorities to request and obtain documents and information.
I suspect that you would never have dared to turn over redacted documents or to refuse to respond to a court. However, in its own way, Parliament is a court. The Privacy Act, like all legislation in Canada, must be constitutional. It must comply with the provisions of the Canadian Constitution, which includes a specific provision called parliamentary privilege that often takes precedence over certain legal provisions. Based on this parliamentary privilege and the provisions of this act, we believe that we have the right to request these unredacted documents and answers to our questions.
Of course, parliamentarians aren't irresponsible. Parliamentarians understand that some personal information shouldn't be publicly disclosed, and that information shouldn't be publicly disclosed if it involves national security issues or criminal investigation matters. As a result, we gave you the option of sharing this information with us in camera, so that we don't disclose the information to the public.
Despite this option provided by parliamentarians, you chose not to respond to any of their requests. Of course, you provided a number of clarifications. However, you failed to provide unredacted documents and to answer the fundamental questions that parliamentarians have been asking since the beginning.
My next question is for Christian Roy.
What's your legal basis for believing that the Public Health Agency of Canada can refuse to respond to a request from parliamentarians in violation of the sections of the Privacy Act referred to by Mr. Chong and in violation of parliamentary privilege?