Yes. On a point of order, I disagree with that decision, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Soudas is responsible to the Office of the Prime Minister. His direct superior is the Prime Minister. Mr. Baird, although he answers questions in the House, is certainly not designated as even Deputy Prime Minister.
This committee, on a motion, had asked that Mr. Soudas come. He is on our order paper as such. The government may have made a statement, and Mr. Soudas himself--an unelected and, it seems now, unaccountable individual--made a statement over the weekend. That statement was confirmed by the House leader of the Conservative Party today in the House of Commons.
This, in my view, is a subversion of not my democratic rights, Mr. Chair, but Canadians' democratic rights--