I'm sorry, but based on some of its previous actions it's pretty hard to take this government at its word—we'll just make sure it doesn't happen again—without having some indication that there was something done to look into whether they were the source of the leak in those offices, as was done in the Minister of Justice's office, to ensure that they were doing something to make sure it's not happening again. If that has actually happened and that has taken place, I don't understand why government members would be so afraid of letting those people come here and tell us what has been done, what steps have been taken, and tell us and tell the Canadian public what they were doing to make sure something so serious does not happen again.
I would certainly hope that there will be a change in tune, that there will be an openness to being open, and accountable, and transparent on the part of the government members here today.
I'll just remind members one last time of something, Mr. Chair, and I think then we can move on and hopefully come to a positive resolution on this. But I'll just remind members one more time before I do yield the floor. When this was raised in the House of Commons, the chief government whip indicated, “Our government will work to ensure that this does not happen again”. All we're simply doing is giving the government an opportunity to indicate what it is doing and what it has done to ensure that this doesn't happen again. To be able to hear from who has had access to the contents of the bill would be a first step in that.
Of course, there are other motions on which we need to hear from some of the specific people who were mentioned by the Minister of Justice. I would certainly think that knowing that they had access to the bill at their departments—that the Prime Minister's Office and the Minister of Health had this access—I would assume the government members wouldn't want to leave the clouds hanging over the head of the Prime Minister and his office; they wouldn't want to leave the clouds hanging over the Minister of Health.
The Minister of Justice was able to come here and indicate what she had done to take steps to ensure that the leak wasn't from her office, to take steps to ensure it wouldn't happen again, and we appreciated that. Why would we not want to afford the same opportunity to the Minister of Health or the Prime Minister's Office? The only thing I can imagine—and I would certainly hope this isn't the case—would be that there's something to hide. That would be the conclusion that any reasonable person would draw if they're not called to come here and have the same opportunity that was given to the Minister of Justice. Certainly I would think that government members would want to ensure that they clear up those clouds that hang over the heads of the Minister of Health and that hang over the Prime Minister and his office. So I would certainly hope that we will see a change of action and a change of tune.
I know that the government has made in the past—and I'm sure it will make again today—all kinds of justifications such as, some of the things that were in these media reports were items that were not specifically in the bill. That was one of the justifications. Certainly, Mr. Chair, I think that being able to talk about what specifically isn't in the bill would imply that someone has the information about what is in the bill. So that's not a credible argument that's being made on that part.
I know certainly there were also some arguments made by some of the government members that the information that was printed wasn't exactly the same as what was in there. But it was along the very themes of the bill, and key themes of the bill. To have that knowledge of the key themes of the bill would indicate that someone has given some information that wasn't available to all members of Parliament, which obviously—as has been ruled by the Speaker—would be a breach of the members' parliamentary privilege.
I certainly hope that these government members today will decide to enable their government to be open and accessible, and accountable and transparent, and give those officials—the Minister of Health, the Prime Minister and his office—the opportunity to clear up those clouds hanging over their heads. If they don't do that, this will be a permanent stain on their government.
I certainly hope that they are going to change their tune today and choose to vote in favour of these motions, so we can continue the investigation. Nobody here wants to do anything other than to ensure that these kinds of breaches do not happen again. I would hope that government members would join with us as the opposition in trying to make sure that those rights and privileges of all members are respected and that those clouds hanging over the heads of the Minister of Health and the Prime Minister are cleared up.