Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I will support this motion, based on my short experience as a member. I was elected in 2011, and this is the third committee I am sitting on. I can tell you that in camera proceedings were used excessively, as meetings were closed for just about anything in some of the committees I sat on—which I will not name. People were constantly asking to go in camera, so that meetings would be closed. I saw some people, including aboriginals, come to testify and be given barely 20 minutes because the meeting would go in camera, so that their testimony would not be heard. In certain cases, witnesses were not given their due respect. Some of them had to travel for four or five hours to appear before us. Yet, as soon as they would start talking about a topic that the government did not like, someone would ask to move the meeting in camera. I am not talking about in camera meetings for voting results, but about cases where what was being said in camera was different from what was being said publicly.
It would be important for Canadians to know about the actual content of the comments and arguments underlying our decisions. We are asking that this motion be adopted because in camera meetings are being used excessively in a number of committees.