The question brings to my mind the central issue for this hearing—very simply whether the impartiality of the Ethics Commissioner and the Clerk of the Privy Council is sufficient to provide Canadians with the confidence that the ethics screens in place for our prime ministers and cabinet ministers will work.
Some of you will know that I started as a reporter in British Columbia. My work led to the Cullen commission into money laundering. Justice Cullen credited my investigations, savvy reporting and questioning with leading to that commission. One of his top three recommendations was that the British Columbia government had effectively demonstrated that it needed an independent, anti-money laundering commissioner who did not report to the premier or serve at the pleasure of the premier's cabinet, because there was simply a loss of trust that B.C. would be able to police its own money-laundering institutions.