You have cited a precedent and a rule that forbid anyone from tampering with witnesses. In this instance you decided that you wanted to make a media circus out of Mr. Soudas's appearance. As proof of that, I point to your admission that you ran to the media to talk about a summons before you even informed Mr. Soudas. You tell me a court of law in Canada that would operate in that way. You have basically launched a media attack on a witness before even informing the witness that he was being summonsed to testify. That is entirely inappropriate.
No one is suggesting that you should not be allowed to speak to members of the media. That would be ridiculous. It's part of all of our jobs to communicate with members of the public, and we do that through the media. But the very basic respect and decency that you could show to witnesses of the committee would be to wait until those witnesses have been informed of the information that you are sharing with the media about them.