Hopefully I won't take longer than Nathan, but he covered a lot of ground here, so let me just try to go over some of the points that Nathan was raising.
First, with respect to the calendar, I do agree that we have a lot of work in front of us. If we did a straw poll of most committee members, I think the majority of committee members would like to get to the study on MP expenses as quickly as possible, I agree.
I also agree with what Nathan said, that because we have the prima facie case as found by the Speaker on Mr. Bezan's case, they normally take precedence. If we try to do even a parallel track, as Nathan is suggesting, to deal with both the James Bezan case and the transparency case, we will have to figure out some sort of a schedule.
However, on the Bezan matter, and I don't know if we're going to get into a debate on when we might approach that, I will be arguing, based on the sub judice convention, that we should probably postpone that until after some legal resolve has been made. I know that according to Mr. Bezan, who approached me last week, his lawyers and Elections Canada are meeting as we speak. I think they started actually last Thursday.
I assume that most of the discussion, if we have it here in committee, would at least partially be in public, but if you know the sub judice convention I think the spirit of that convention—and it is a convention rather than a hard and fast standing order by design—would prevent us, frankly, from getting too involved in that, because it may be prejudicial to the court cases ongoing. I think that sub judice convention alone requires us to delay that somewhat.
Frankly, I think if one were to approach Mr. Bezan, I don't think he'd have a problem with that. Nathan was saying that maybe it would be detrimental to James to have this hanging over his head. I don't think it would be. I think he would prefer to have the court case dealt with, because that in itself might resolve our need to go further. That's number one.
Two, on the in camera motion, certainly we can have some discussion on that, but to go back to my point, I think our priority should be on the motion to examine transparency issues and MPs' expenses. If we need to schedule additional meetings to meet the December 2 deadline, we're certainly wide open to discussing what we need to do to get that done to meet that order.
Clearly we could ask for an extension. House orders before on many occasions have been extended. I'm not saying we're going to request that; I'm saying that's an option, obviously. If we want to meet the December 2 deadline, as we do, then we're going to have to start talking about what we need to do to amend our schedule. We're open to that.
With respect to Mr. Reid's motion, which is before us now, or at least the amendment, we have to conclude that today. We did pass a motion at the last meeting, as you know, Mr. Chair, to have that resolved at the end of this meeting at the very latest. We have to have a vote on that. We can certainly vote earlier if it's the desire of all committee members to do so.
Just as a quick response, Nathan, in terms of why the government hasn't given a reason why, clearly the motion as presented gives the members.... We call them “Independents”. I know that some of the independent members, or the members not recognized as an official party, have objected to that. They feel it is some infringement upon their rights as parliamentarians.
We don't see it that way. Clearly all those members in question would have the ability to present amendments at respective committees. That gives them something they don't have now. So rather than taking rights away from parliamentarians, in fact that would give them that right.
Yes, it will preclude them from giving a bushel of amendments at report stage, but the fact is that the Speaker has already said that if there were a way to allow members to present amendments at committee, the report stage process would adapt to the new reality. Those were his words.
So this is in fact giving those members not recognized as official party members the ability to go to committee to present amendments, to discuss those amendments, and to have them dealt with at the respective committees, as opposed to the House dealing with them en masse at report stage. I think it's actually giving rights to the members that they didn't have already. That's the position of this government.
What I would suggest, though, because I keep going back to the study—which I think is paramount that we get into it right away—is that we finish the discussion on Scott's motion. We'll obviously allow the opposition members all the time they wish. We have a deadline at the end of this meeting. Knowing that we have to vote on it—and I think the opposition members know where the vote is going to end—I would like to see us deal with it as expeditiously as possible. Then we could perhaps go to Madam Turmel's motion, discuss that as long as committee members feel it's necessary, dispose of that by way of a vote, and then finally get to the study on MP transparency and expenses. I think that's where we need to get to as quickly as possible.
Also, Chair, Mr. Preston will be gone I think for the remainder of the week. I'm not sure if committee members know the reason why, but it is a personal issue that he's going to have to deal with, a family issue. He may not be back until next week, which puts you in an awkward position if you have an amendment on the floor but are acting as chair. I'm not sure how you can act—