Good morning. I call to order the seventh meeting of the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics, in relation to our study of the Mulroney Airbus settlement.
I also ask for silence in this room throughout the meeting, as usual.
Appearing before us is Mr. Karlheinz Schreiber, who is accompanied by his legal counsel, Mr. Richard Auger, who may advise his client but not address the committee.
Good morning, Mr. Schreiber.
Good morning, Mr. Auger.
Just a brief reminder about our translators. If the members or the witnesses have documents from which they're going to read, and if there are copies of that available, it would be helpful to them if it could be provided to the clerk, who will give it to the translators, so that we can have a clear translation of the documents.
Mr. Schreiber, the members received copies of the documents you tabled with us late yesterday afternoon. Those documents have also been provided to the press gallery and to Mr. Mulroney. As such, we will have to be a little patient with those members who are not conversant with all of the documents at this time; there was a substantial amount.
Finally, let me just remind you again that refusing to answer a question is not an option. I will, however, consider any arguments or justification you may have as to why an answer cannot be fully given at this time. I also remind you that you are covered by parliamentary privilege, which means that no testimony given by you before this committee can be used against you in any other proceeding. Perjury, however, is another matter.
I would now like to move to the first round of questioning. I give the floor to Mr. Thibault.
Oh, I apologize, Mr. Schreiber. I did offer that if you wanted to make a statement to the committee at any time, we would welcome it. So I ask you now—
