Thank you for giving me the floor, Mr. Chair.
The Bloc Québécois and the NDP worked very closely in fact on the motion put forward today by Bill Siksay. I support the motion, of course, but I would like to make a few comments.
In a democracy, access to information legislation is vitally important. It enables people to obtain information. When we first began looking into this matter, we suspected that a parallel system existed in ministers' offices for retaining information. The legislation was not clearly applied. The act stipulates that officials are the ones who receive and process access to information requests. So then, some kind of parallel system was in place in the departments.
I have to thank the members of the Liberal Party, who also sit in opposition, for initiating this review. I hope that they will be consistent in their actions today. I will be very disappointed if they are not.
You may recall that on March 30 last, a member of the Liberal Party tabled a motion requesting that Dimitri Soudas, Guy Giorno and Sébastien Togneri be summoned to appear before the committee. On May 11, the committee asked to see all of the emails that had been exchanged. On May 19, the Liberal Party asked that Jillian Andrews be called to testify. All of these witnesses were summoned to appear. Some did testify, including Mr. Togneri, Mr. Giorno and Mr. Sparrow, together with Ms. Finley.
I hope the Liberals will not deviate from the course of action they have undertaken. They are the ones who initiated this debate, and we have wholeheartedly supported their efforts. We have spent a good many hours on this matter and I hope the Liberal Party will not back down, as it has done in the past. That, to my mind, would be a blow to democracy. In fact, failure to support today's motion would be a blow to democracy. The public has a right to know the facts. Not supporting this motion would be an insult to Quebeckers and to Canadians, who need more clarity and transparency. Transparency has not been this government's strong suit.
That's all I wanted to say. Obviously, I support the motion, since we are more or less moving it jointly.