I think, Mr. Chair, you suggested something there that could provide guidance. I have enormous respect for all public servants, including those who perform the role of clerk. The clerk is incredibly able. Otherwise, she would not be tasked with being the the clerk of probably the busiest—and with due respect to many of my colleagues serving on other committees, the most important—committee on Parliament Hill, or if not the most, then one of the most important. This is particularly so now, as we deal with the challenge of COVID-19.
Your suggestion a moment ago that perhaps the clerk could go back and confer with other parliamentary colleagues on the matter could be a useful suggestion.
I also think we have to be remarkably careful here when we see a mention, in what basically counts as our guiding bible, if you want to put it that way—House of Commons Procedure and Practice—making very clear that matters of privilege do relate to papers and to records.
When those papers and records are not present and accessible, then issues of privilege arise, in my view.
I think Mr. Samson also put a very good point forward when he just spoke, saying that—