Thank you.
We were implored by the member from the Bloc to look at this from a legal standpoint, and I appreciate what Mr. Christopherson is discussing. I look at us—and I think this was mentioned by Mr. Christopherson—as the appeal court in this. Someone is bringing forward an appeal. The way an appeal works is that you have had a trial, the evidence has been presented and the decision has been made. The onus is then on the appellant to come forward and bring some evidence that the trial court was wrong.
I'll be honest that I haven't heard that, especially from the honourable member who brought his appeal forward to us, in that there was no good legal argument. I even asked, “Have you spoken to constitutional scholars about it?” and he said, “Yes, three of them,” but he wouldn't provide their names. There was no briefing. There was no background. There was no information.
I respect Mr. Dufresne and his experience and expertise and what he brings to the table. We have an argument that it could go either way.
As an appeal court would, I give deference to the original decision-makers. It's not a committee that the government has majority on. I give deference to those decision-makers who have made the decision, and I haven't heard anything to really change my mind.
I appreciate the passion and vigour with which Mr. Christopherson is arguing, but nothing was brought forward by the member to really go against what the committee had decided. I even asked him, in terms of bringing an argument.... In the argument he brought forward, he cited one case. That isn't a problem if you have one great case—that's perfectly fine—but it was based on a different section of the charter than the sections of the charter he was arguing about.
Even looking at this from a legal standpoint, I am not convinced that the original committee was wrong. That's what we have to decide at the end of the day: Were they wrong? Again, with respect to Mr. Dufresne, it's not his role and he didn't come here to say someone's right and someone's wrong. He walked a very fine line, and I commend him for doing that.
Mr. Dufresne can correct me—not that he ever has to. I'm a lawyer and would never advise my clients to waive their confidentiality, their solicitor-client privilege, but if they couldn't afford the legal advice, which is something they said, we've been told that the confidentiality could be waived with regard to the legal advice that may or may not have been provided by the parliamentary clerks, and that wasn't done. That was another opportunity for the members to come forward and say, “Here's some evidence that the original committee was wrong.” At the end of the—