I'd like to second that. In fact, I pulled the blues and the committee Hansard from Wednesday, February 17, 2016, when we first discussed in this committee when it would be appropriate to go in camera or not. Members may remember that I had a motion that would explicitly say that committee business was conducted in public at this committee other than when we were considering draft reports or when it was necessary to discuss witnesses' evidence or names in a free and open way, or for confidential or personnel matters. I said that the consideration of committee business should always be public.
At that time, Mr. Chair, you very generously reached out and stated your very clear position that this would be the general thrust of this committee. Now, obviously, the general description of the dates and subject of the study on the cannabis bill doesn't fall within any of those parameters where we discussed it would be appropriate to go in camera. I notice that there are members of the media here. The cannabis legislation was a major policy during the last federal election, and there should be no reason whatsoever that the public can't listen to our different views on how we choose to engage public input into this committee.
Of course, once we get into the study and discuss the witnesses and who they may be, that of course appropriately would be in camera, but at this point, it's not appropriate to go in camera, and I would ask that this portion of the meeting be public.