Thank you very much.
I believe that our whole committee is indebted to the excellent work of Mr. Davies, who explained it in extremely explicit terms, but I will reiterate it, probably not as eloquently as Mr. Davies has done.
The call for the vaccine contracts is fairly simple. There is a House motion that calls for documents that it says should be redacted. It says explicitly that they are to be redacted by the clerk and not by the government or any part of the government.
There is then Mr. Barlow's motion, which calls for those documents to be redacted in accordance with that motion. This is dead simple. This is not difficult to understand, and in fact, the government is blatantly disagreeing with it.
Yes, it's parliamentary supremacy, and that's clear. As Ms. O'Connell said, we've heard it over and over again from the Speaker of the House, from the previous speaker of the House, from Liberals, from Conservatives, from NDP members. It is beyond a doubt. We've heard it from the law clerk that Parliament is supreme.
However, that's not really the critical part of this because we are to be governed by the people, and Parliament is merely a function of the people. When this government decides to blatantly and blazingly disobey the Parliament, they are saying to every one of my 100,000 plus constituents, “We don't care. We're going to do what we want. We are unresponsible.” This is the height of irresponsible government. This is why our country was founded. This is the reason for the Magna Carta. This is the reason that we formed a responsible government.
If government—if the executive—is not going to listen to the committee, why do we even exist? Why is this committee here? If we have no power, if we have no authority over the bureaucracy, we're just wasting money. We're just a dining club. We're not a function of the people, which is what we are supposed to be.
When, Ms. O'Connell, you call into question parliamentary supremacy, you are calling into question the very foundation of our country, of our nation, which I believe is the greatest country in the world. It is absolutely incumbent on all of us—and I say this not just to my colleagues in the NDP or my fellow Conservatives but also to my Liberal colleagues. You are the stewards of responsible democracy. If you don't vote for this, you are literally disregarding all the men and women who sacrificed their lives so that we could have responsible government, so that we could have a government that responds when people's voices are heard. We are saying, “You know what? The law clerk doesn't get to see those documents.” There are all sorts of provisions that are there to protect national security.
Whether it be MP Barlow or MP Rempel Garner, they have used that power with precision. They haven't said, “Let's go ahead and have these documents all go out to the public.” They're aware of the impact of this power, of the unfettered absolute power to require any document, any witness from the civil service, at any time.
What they've done is protect our national security. They have protected the ability of any type of privacy by giving it to the law clerk first, who is a creature of Parliament, and giving him the ability to censor it so that we make sure that no unnecessary documents.... On top of that, they even go the next level and say, “We'll have the committee in camera so that we don't inadvertently allow some information, some privacy or other documents....”
In conclusion, the law is absolutely clear. We, as parliamentarians, have the unfettered, absolute power to have any documents that we want when we want them, and we have asked for them. The government has disregarded that. This is not just a slap in the face to Parliament. It is a slap in the face to every one of the 37 million plus Canadians who send us here to Ottawa, who we represent. Shame on you if you don't vote for this motion.
Thank you.