I put to you that, in my short time of four or five years here, one frustration I have—coming against the idea of open government, of being open by default and of having parliamentary privileges—is that in practice we're often left with very little information to make informed decisions as decision-makers in the House of Commons. It's something that we wrestle with. I don't think it's a partisan issue, quite frankly. I think there are members of all parties who agree. In that regard, it's part of our mandate and duty to deal with these things.
We had a situation yesterday, which was a once-in-a-century type of situation, because somebody refused to follow the very basic premises of our abilities to send for documents, order for evidence and make witnesses appear. My concern—and we've seen this with other studies that we've had right here at this committee—is that, if people know there's no consequence, then forget about “open by default”: There's going to be, I think, a culture of “cover-up by default”, “secrecy by default”, “obstruction by default”, “negligence by default”.
For that reason, Mr. Chair, I wonder if it might be wise for us to seek unanimous consent for a motion that would draft a letter from this committee to the Department of National Defence, urging them—we can't direct them, as that comes from the House—and recommending to them that they comply in good faith with our Information Commissioner. The fact that we have a cash-strapped commission having to take legal proceedings and that, in the House of Commons in the last session, Parliament had to have the Speaker of the House go after the government to get information, is a problem. In this situation—I think in a non-partisan way—by seeking unanimous consent, the letter comes from you to the Department of National Defence, asking them to comply with the demands from the commissioner, in accordance with the act and with her mandate.
It's not something I want to get into a filibuster over, but I do think the testimony we heard is compelling. One department has a pattern here. I think that should be a request. It's a very reasonable, rational request. It's not a demand.