Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Obviously I still think it would be very helpful to have the advice of the legal officer of Parliament that what we're doing is within the purview. But we've had that discussion. Hopefully we'll hear from him later today. Then we may be in a position to revisit this discussion.
However, you mentioned in the description of your ruling from the last Parliament that you had come to the conclusion that some of the members involved in the events the study looked at became public office-holders after the fact and they filed candidates' returns. For the record, I note that it's a candidate's return; it's not a public office-holder's return. Every candidate for office, whether or not they are elected, files that same return. It seems to me that's putting a retroactive interpretation on the term “public office-holder” that is not mandated by the standing order
How far back would you go if your ruling were to stand? Somebody might have done something 40 years ago in an election and then subsequently become a public office-holder. If returns were made, they were done as candidates, not as public office-holders.