Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I have serious reservations about the motion put forward by Mr. Hiebert.
People should be aware that right up until late last evening, we were trying to convince the Speaker to allow Mr. Schreiber to go to his home and stay there under supervised house arrest, where he would have had free access to his documents and to his clothes and hopefully where he would have an opportunity to have a restful night's sleep in his own home. I still think that's the direction we should go, but seeing as we couldn't convince the Speaker to release him into that kind of supervised custody, I think he has a valid point about access to his documents. I think a lot of this testimony will rely on verification by documents.
Having said that, there's no point in adjourning this meeting at this time because I believe there's a great deal to be gained from Mr. Schreiber by asking questions of a general nature, or outlining the types of questions that our various parties might want to pursue in the future, and in effect serving advanced notice of the types of documents and research Mr. Schreiber might want to look into in the coming days.
Having said that, I would like to add one final point. Mr. Schreiber has said he is not willing to speak to us or answer questions at this meeting. I think perhaps we should ask the law clerk to remind Mr. Schreiber that he does not have the right to remain silent in this setting. This is quite different from a court of law, as I understand it. I would like that verified by the senior law clerk, perhaps.