Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I simply want to make the point I was trying to make a few minutes ago, that if this committee is going to investigate this matter, I do not want to see it turn into a circus, as it seemed to begin to do last Tuesday. We'd prefer that we investigate this matter in an orderly and reasonable fashion.
I think to do so we need the advice of Professor Johnston, who is currently setting the terms for the public inquiry that the government has chosen to proceed with. He's reviewing the volumes of documents relating to this matter as we speak, and I believe he would be in the best position to provide advice to this committee as to how to approach this subject.
He has a deadline of January 11, but there's certainly the possibility that he could be completing his work well before that date--in fact, even possibly in short order. If that's the case, what better way is there to approach this matter than to have the individual who's most aware of all the issues at stake come before this committee and provide us with his advice and his guidance as to how we should approach this?
Therefore, it would be my recommendation, moving forward, that this committee adopt the procedure of having Mr. Johnston speak first before any other witnesses come before the committee.