Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I want to address some of the things that have been said by my colleague, first of all, about how this particular committee is maybe not the appropriate place. I want to again reiterate that the ethics committee deals with lobbying. At the heart of this story what we are talking about is extensive lobbying by SNC to influence the Prime Minister, the Minister of Finance and Michael Wernick to intervene and to go to the former attorney general to pressure her to change her mind. Lobbying is absolutely within the scope of this committee, and I believe it really does firmly belong in this committee as a study.
Committees may not be the best place to hear this, and I completely agree that the gold standard is a full public independent inquiry, but if the Prime Minister were going to do that, he would have already initiated it. We are seeing clearly that that is not going to happen. If it were going to happen, we'd have it launched. This is seven weeks of torture for Liberals. Every single day the story changes and becomes worse. If you truly believe that the Prime Minister wants to have a full independent public inquiry, we would already see evidence of that. Canadians would already see that, so I agree with you that committees aren't the best place but this is the only place we currently have to be able to have a forum, to create space for people to be able to speak who very publicly have indicated that they would like the opportunity to do so. It may not be the best but it's the only option before us right now, as parliamentarians.
Before I leave committees, I have to say that the justice committee has been very clear. The study is done. There is no further conversation or study. There have been multiple attempts to bring this back to the justice committee, which have been voted down by members of the justice committee. No one in Canada believes that the justice committee is going to revisit that, and I say that as a member of the justice committee, as vice-chair of the justice committee. There is absolutely no indication that they will entertain any further conversation.
The letter from Ms. Wilson-Raybould to the justice committee is very narrow in what it represents. She was asked a direct question by Mr. Rankin during her testimony, and the letter she has sent is a response to that direct question. It's very limited. I do not believe that we will anticipate some big long full statement from her coming to the committee. She has indicated that she will provide the text messages and the emails as requested of her by Mr. Rankin. That is what we can expect to see inside of that communication, if you will, but that communication will land at the justice committee and nothing will be done with it. There is no study that indicates that something must be done with it. There is no will to do anything with it. It will come, but how meaningful will that be if there is simply a letter that becomes public?
What I think is going to happen is that it will raise even more questions than we currently have. The idea that this letter is going to clear everything up.... I think that is not the case at all, and it is being taken out of context in the spirit that it was delivered. She even references a report. There is no report. There is no study at the justice committee, so there is no report to come forward. The justice committee is not going to revisit it. I think Canadians understand that and see that clearly and, as a member of that committee, I'm telling you that I do not believe there will be any further efforts at the justice committee in terms of this particular focus.
So we land back at the ethics committee, which is just another space for us to have this study, and it's entirely appropriate to have that here, regardless of what she may say. If there is an order in council for this committee, then I'm certain that Liberal members can go to the Prime Minister and say we need an order in council for the ethics committee and we need him to expand it and not limit it in a way that leaves so many questions unanswered. Your own members are going out publicly saying there are things to say beyond this scope, so please let us say them.
I think in the interest of fairness that you should pursue the study here. You should allow the study here—that is really what we're talking about; let's be honest—because you hold the majority of votes, and we can all count. Ultimately you're holding the fate of this truth coming to light for Canadians in your vote today, because the justice committee will not revisit this. There have been multiple attempts by the opposition parties there to see that happen. What other options are we left with? There are other committees on which Liberals have majorities, where you will continue to listen to, I think, very reasonable arguments that any reasonable Canadian can see a path forward on and yet vote along your party lines in order to support your Prime Minister and keep the truth from Canadians.
I would like you to consider those things, because I really believe that all that we have at this point is this committee. The Liberals have been out and talking about parliamentary privilege and saying, “they can just stand up” and “they can just say this”.... If you really want them to be able to speak their truth, if you really want them to have a space, here it is. We're offering it to you on a silver platter. We're saying that here's the space for something you're telling Canadians you want. You want them to be able to speak. You would like that to be able to happen.
Here it is, all packaged up for you to be able to say, “Yes, we also would like our colleagues to be able to have an opportunity to speak, and yes, we would like the truth for Canadians.”