Mr. Chair, I find your talk of courtesy a little strange. I am not very religious, and if someone slaps me on the cheek, I am not turning the other one.
You say that we should let the deputy minister appear first out of courtesy. Given the letter that he sent to us, why would we be showing this man any courtesy? He can appear last as far as I am concerned.
It is Tuesday today. We have already wasted our day, and we are also going to waste Thursday “out of courtesy”! I do not agree, I do not want to waste a day “out of courtesy”, especially courtesy to a man who sent us his letter late yesterday afternoon so we would only find out about it this morning. I do not think that we should be so courteous to these people and I do not do not believe that the committee should be wasting another day. We have a list of witnesses and we can have them come on Thursday. If we come back next Tuesday, we can hear from the deputy minister. There is no way that we are going to waste two days because of Mr. Edwards' inaction and be courteous as well.
I can take a slap on the cheek, but I am not turning the other one, you can be sure. If you keep me waiting until next Tuesday, and you make me waste another day, I swear that, when the deputy minister arrives, he will get what is coming to him.