With respect, Mr. Tilson, I don't hear a point of privilege at all.
And I can tell you that when you have 79 witnesses to contact and schedule, and when you find out about a week and a half ago from at least two of the proposed witnesses that “the party instructed us not to appear before the committee”.... We had two or three people who basically confirmed the same thing--to decline any invitation to appear.
As a consequence, Mr. Tilson, it was going to be a situation in which, with the people who had valid reasons not to be here plus the people who just decided not to come, we would have had hardly any witnesses. The committee did authorize the chair to summon witnesses if it was felt appropriate under the circumstances. Given that I was aware that there appeared to be directives out that people not accept our invitation to appear, those summonses were issued.
Now, I can also say to you, sir, as you know--and I know you're familiar with the rules in this regard--our summonses are not enforceable without going to the House for approval for the committee to engage the Sergeant-at-Arms to bring a witness to the committee. So right now I can tell you, sir, that you are quite right, I don't know how many people we will have for each morning and afternoon session, because I don't know whether they will respect the summonses served on them by the bailiff engaged by the clerk's directorate on the direction of the chair. We may very well have similar situations like that.
It will be up to the committee to have a discussion as to what, if any, further action it cares to take and whether it cares to report to the House and seek to have these people come and explain why. As you know, a number of other committees have recommended that persons who either did things or did not do things before the committee that they should have done be found in contempt of Parliament, without further sanctions.
I was involved in the George Radwanski one, and that was certainly the same situation. We simply found the person in contempt, without further sanctions.
I don't know how that's going to go, sir, but I can tell you that we took every reasonable step and followed the rules and procedures prescribed by the House of Commons and the clerk's directorate to contact people, to give them proper notice, and to have them come before our committee.
The committee will then have to decide, if people do not show, having been summonsed, whether further action is necessary. And I think the committee should prepare itself for that discussion on Thursday, when we deal with future meetings and future witnesses.