All right.
Now, a question was raised in the House yesterday by my colleague on the other side in reference to Mr. Braun not coming on a certain day. If I understand correctly--and this is for the clerk to decide--it is a matter of scheduling and not a matter of stating that the person can come or not. In the past, we have always accommodated somebody whose schedule does not permit them to come on that day. Out of these five meetings with all the proposed witnesses, we are going to have a similar issue where somebody is not available on certain days and may not be able to be accommodated.
I want to make it very clear over here, as a response to the question that arose yesterday, that whether a witness can come or not has nothing to do with the Government of Canada. It is up to the witnesses themselves and their own schedules. As a committee, we can do what we can under the rules of the House of Commons on how to call in witnesses. I want to make it very, very clear that it has nothing to do with the government doing anything on this.
The question is, what is the availability of all the witnesses who have been proposed? I think we will also propose one additional witness. Maybe the better picture would be for the clerk to call all the listed witnesses to find out when they can be fit in.
The issue at hand now is what are we going to do on Thursday during the second hour? If it is possible, I would recommend that we call many of the witnesses and see if there is a possibility to do the Rights and Democracy again on that day. There is a possibility one witness may be available on that day. As soon as we are done with Rights and Democracy, then the steering committee will be able to fill up the other dates in reference to G-8 and other motions we have put forward.
I think that's the way we ultimately would like to proceed.