Thanks to Marlene for giving up her time.
Here is one quick point and then a question, Professor. Thank you for being here.
The point I would make in respect to David's point about advice from the Speaker to the Governor General—and perhaps at the end, if you have time to comment on this, I'd welcome your comments—is that my understanding from a constitutional perspective is that there's a big difference between “advice” in the constitutional sense and just giving information. To David's point, that the letter may or may not have been read, I don't know, but how does the Speaker give information to the GG that there is a coalition, or an agreement among the opposition parties, that they can do whatever they want to do? That letter is more an informational piece, as I interpret it, than “advice” in the constitutional sense. Before you depart from the meeting, I'd like to hear an answer to that.
My question is something from our previous meeting, with Rob Walsh and Thomas Hall. I'm sure you've seen or listened carefully to the testimony of both of them.
Mr. Hall basically disagreed with you, in an article you had written in the Ottawa Citizen, on whether or not committees could be allowed to meet during prorogation. You argued that they could sit. Mr. Hall argued that it would not--in his opinion at least--be constitutional to do so, because once the House closes down, committees cease to function. In fact, if committees—he was referring to standing committees—continued to sit, then there would be nothing to suggest that a Committee of the Whole would not be able to sit. That would in fact just do an end-run on prorogation.
I'd be interested to hear your interpretation concerning Mr. Hall's point, which disagrees, I think fundamentally, with yours, and whether or not you have a counter-argument to Mr. Hall's point on the unconstitutionality of committees sitting during prorogation.