All right. Thank you. It's unfortunate because I think he may have some things to say that may change the way people might view the appropriateness of the study of this particular matter.
In my opinion, it is not within the mandate of this committee to review this matter for the following reasons. One, none of the people identified would have been public office-holders at the time of the events that are under question, including the Conservative party; it's not a public office-holder. I think that you stated earlier, Mr. Chair, what an appropriate definition of public office-holder is and we agree with you. It's a cabinet minister, a secretary of state, a parliamentary secretary, or other order in council appointee.
You also--on June 19, I believe--went on to say that in your view, political parties are not public office-holders and that MPs are not public office-holders. I think you were correct in your interpretation of the mandate of the committee at that time, and I certainly support that and I believe my colleagues on this side of the table do as well.
In addition, if you look at Standing Order 108(3)(h)(vi).... I'll just read the provision. It is that the mandate of this committee include “the proposing, promoting, monitoring and assessing of initiatives which relate to access to information and privacy across all sectors of Canadian society and to ethical standards relating to public office holders”
I believe, as I've stated, that nothing in Ms. Freeman's motion refers to public office-holders. Secondly, I believe the word “and” is instructive in that it is conjunctive and not disjunctive. It would suggest to me that you have to read the ethical standards relating to public office-holders as modifying the preceding part of that phrase. If the drafters of this mandate wished us to review the ethical standards of any public office-holder, regardless of the preceding language, they would have used the word “or”.
I think that's pretty clear. That's a well-understood rule of statutory interpretation.
So that's my primary argument on whether or not the mandate exists. I assume we will have a discussion at a later stage about what might constitute contempt of Parliament, and so perhaps I can leave that argument until the appropriate time.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.