Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I want to thank the committee for having me today. It's been a very interesting meeting.
First off, I want to say to you, Mr. Chair, regarding the initial comments of the parliamentary secretary, that I do not drone and I do not engage in conspiracy theories. When I say something, I mean it.
It's clear that transparency is paramount to the proper functioning of democracy in Parliament. If the government were really sincere about its claims of national security, it would have engaged in meaningful conversations with all opposition parties to come out with a way to have these documents provided. But that, simply, has not been the case. It's hard to draw any other conclusion than that there are problems in these documents that the government does not want made public.
It's important that, as parliamentarians, we work together, and that's not what's happening here. It's time to stop suing the Speaker. That's just sheer desperation on the part of the government.
I want to turn to the excellent cross-examination by Mr. Davies today. I think at one point he touched on the United States court case, the United States versus Richard Nixon, regarding the release of the Watergate tapes, which was a seminal decision by the United States Supreme Court. Of course, I recognize that it's not jurisprudence here, but it's a very important case.
More important than that, it reminded me of a widely known, reported conversation that took place between former White House counsel John Dean and former president Richard Nixon. John Dean said to the president that there was a cancer upon the presidency.
Mr. Chair, I want to say to you today that it's time to turn over these documents, because there is a cancer on this Prime Minister and on this government.
Thank you.