I was trying to work my way through Mr. Barrett's stream of consciousness, so I'm not sure exactly where I found myself at the end of all of that, but I think it goes back to Mr. Fortin because it's his motion. If we are moving forward with new language on the motion, I think we want to have the law clerk.
The motion as it was, to me, is very straightforward. It is important for us to recognize that the witnesses that were called for by Parliament did not appear. That's a fact. That needs to be part of our report. Whatever further instructions we give the House, I'm uncomfortable moving at this point without the law clerk, so I'm happy with the original motion that we had, I think, which is the original six points.
If we're going to go with a further instruction to the House, I would like the law clerk to give an opinion, but I'm willing, if Mr. Fortin modifies his motion, to vote on it because.... I agree with Madame Shanahan. We've done a lot of work on this. We need to get this thing done. I don't want to go into next week and be still arguing about this, because we have other committee work, and we have Bill C-11 coming.
I think we're at the point.... I don't see any other witnesses, but it is incumbent upon us to remark that the witnesses we asked for did not appear. That will be in the report. That's something that we need to be able to say. If we can agree on the motion and move on, I'm ready to have that. If not, I'm willing to wait until we get [Technical difficulty—Editor] or advice.