Thank you.
It's the deputy minister, not the assistant deputy minister. It's the person who reports directly to the minister.
If I understand the procedure, we would pass a motion agreeing to summons—we don't use the word “subpoena”, I believe—certain officials by name, and we would ask them to appear at a particular meeting and to remain until they're required, so that if we don't get to them at a particular meeting, they can come to the next meeting. I agree it would make sense, given that the deputy minister has agreed to come, for us to schedule him for the meeting of Tuesday the 19th—assuming we're here.
We would make it clear to the deputy minister that if, for some reason, Parliament is adjourned, there may very well be a meeting in the summertime, depending on the wishes of the committee. In that event, we would hear from him at that time.
I don't think it would be prudent for us not to issue the summons to the other witnesses. I think we could agree to hear the deputy minister first, but I think it would be wise to let the deputy minister know that his letter did not in any way, shape, or form affect our judgment, and that we do want to hear from these particular witnesses. They can sit in the back, and when we're finished with the deputy minister.... Or in fact they can offer him the advice, because you can bet your life the deputy minister doesn't have time to go through 10,000 ATIP requests at DFAIT on an individual basis. Anything he's going to tell us will be what he's been told by the officials below him. They can just as easily tell us directly; there's no need for him to run block for them.
So what I would suggest is that we have a motion to summons the people I've named—there are four of them—to appear at our next meeting, and to invite the deputy minister to appear at our next meeting. Then we can agree that we'll hear from the deputy minister first.
The four names are Gwyn Kutz, the head of GHH in Foreign Affairs, the division that dealt with this request; and Francine Archambault and Jennifer Nixon, the initial people who dealt with the requests; and Gary Switzer, who took over on one of them.
You weren't here, Mr. Wallace, but we also agreed that after we've heard everybody, we may decide to call Madame Sabourin and Ms. Thomsen back—after we've heard from everybody—depending on what the evidence is.
That's how I would suggest we proceed.
We have Madame Lavallée, Mr. Van Kesteren, and Mr. Tilson again.
Madame Lavallée.