Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I guess you'll allow me the same liberty, because the parliamentary secretary's comments were certainly not on the motion. I do feel obligated to deal with the political spin that the parliamentary secretary tried to put on the table when he was dealing with this motion of Mr. Allen's. He first accused Mr. Allen of going fishing. Mr. Chair, I submit to you that it's what public inquiries do. They look for trails, they look for documents. It's from those documents and those trails that you find discrepancies in terms of the evidence that has been provided.
He made some comments on the so-called independent investigator. I can tell you that from my perspective on her performance before this committee, she's a wonderful woman. However, the terms of references that she has been given clearly indicate that she doesn't have the authority to investigate one of the most important aspects of this whole listeriosis crisis. That was the political control at the time the crisis occurred. She hasn't investigated the minister as yet. That really concerns me. He should have been the first person investigated. We know that there was an election just about to be called at the time, and we know from comments made by his own communications director that the minister was more concerned about the political fallout than he was about the food safety of Canadians.
I am concerned, certainly, that the independent investigator—yes, she may have a report in terms of how to fix some of the things in the system—will not get to the political involvement or lack thereof, in terms of her investigation.
On the verification reports and the spin the parliamentary secretary tried to put on that, Mr. Chair, I would ask him to read them. There is clearly a question here when you look at the verification report starting on February 11 right through to August 6. All of them, Mr. Chair, were changed, amended on August 26, 2008, after it had been confirmed there were 12 deaths in this country due to listeriosis. That seems to me rather strange. These are not simple amendments, Mr. Chair. I would question whether or not this is actual tampering of the evidence.
So I differ from the parliamentary secretary on that point. The minister has been, if anything, not open or transparent. Giving a parliamentary committee an hour to question him today, coming here without having a written submission translated when he has the full resources of the department, not having provided this committee with all the documentation that we asked for previously so that we get it half an hour into the hearing is not open and transparent, Mr. Chair. In my view, that's kind of covering up. I just outline those points, Mr. Chair, to deal with the parliamentary secretary's spin. And that's one of the difficulties that we have with the parliamentary committee versus a public inquiry—which I am more and more learning towards—because the government, for whatever reason, rather than trying to get to the facts of the matter, is trying to provide cover to the minister. That does indeed concern me, so I will certainly be supporting this motion.
It's not about going fishing. It's about finding—and I certainly thank Mr. Allen for doing the investigative work—so we know these documents are out there. They should be brought forward. We need to see them so that we can get to the bottom of this issue in a comprehensive way.