Thank you, Madam Chair.
We've truly entered the theatre of the absurd. When ministers are called to committees, they don't show up, and when you don't call them, they bang down the door looking to testify.
There are serious allegations in front of this committee that the public has a right to get answers to--serious allegations of corruption, of money changing hands in inappropriate ways.
The concern I have, Madam Chair, is that the precedent the government is attempting to create today is a dangerous path that the government walks down. We've seen it in many examples around the House of Commons and at committees. Whether it's through prorogation, shutting down debate, firing officers of Parliament, or cutting funding to groups that have the audacity to actually criticize the government, this is more than just the concern of the political machinations of the Conservative Party. These are the foundations on which this place is based, the foundations of fair and open transparency--democracy, for heaven's sake, which this party apparently ran on to get elected. What we are seeing here today is undermining the power, role, and in fact responsibility of this committee.
The point is that under the guise--we've heard this protestation from ministers before—of protecting staff, under this guise, under this false premise, ministers are appearing when they are not called. They are refusing to allow their staff to appear.
This is the same government that, when a minister is in trouble, finds no problem throwing various staff under the bus. We saw this with Minister Guergis, we saw this with Minister Raitt, and we saw this with Minister Ambrose. When something got into the press, when something went wrong, the first person to walk the plank was the staff. The ministers weren't demoted. They weren't fired. They weren't called to account. They simply sought out the staff person most likely associated with the problem and got rid of them. Now we see the reverse.
Clearly the argument being made, and I'm sure it will be made by the minsters here today, is that they want to protect staff from some sort of attack by the opposition. What we are looking for is answers--i.e., who knew what, and when? Who signed off on which projects with regard to Rahim Jaffer and Helena Guergis? That's what the committee is looking for. We're looking for it from the people who actually made those decisions. That may or may not be these ministers.
We'll call you when we're good and ready. The people we called here were the staff who actually made those decisions, who are implicated, who are drawn in; we've heard from testimony that these staff made these decisions. It seems incumbent upon them and incumbent upon this government to allow the truth out.
The best disinfectant is sunlight, and we're allowing the sun to shine on this case. That's what this committee is attempting to do.
Now, my mom always considered it rude to show up to a party you weren't invited to.