Thank you, Madam Chair.
I'm very honoured to be here at the committee.
Let's put this in perspective. We were in the midst of the biggest medical and economic crisis in the century. The role of Parliament in that crisis was to reassure Canadians that we were there for them, that we were putting their interests first. That got all blown out of the water when the Prime Minister signed off on the $912-million WE scandal.
The decision to prorogue was not about the best interests of Canadians. It was done in the summer, when two key committees were starting to raise very serious questions about getting access to documents. The Liberals tell us it was so important to tell Canadians we were shutting down Parliament so we could.... I think Mr. Turnbull said he had three meetings with stakeholders in that time. What an important reason to shut down Parliament. Mr. Turnbull would have been home in his riding anyway.
What was happening was that Parliament was trying to get answers on what happened, where the WE group, the Kielburger brothers, were able to call right in to Bill Morneau's office. In the email we got on the eve of prorogation, we were given the 5,000 pages of documents, but we were unable to use them in our report. That is obstruction of the work of Parliament.
Contrary to my learned witnesses, I think the problem with prorogation is that it toxifies trust. I remember in 2008, when Stephen Harper prorogued. His relationship with the Canadian people was never the same after that. As someone who's been permanently in opposition, I watch governments come and go. They come in and they're idealistic and then they decide power works for them. I see it in the Liberals. I see the arrogance of the Liberals because they got away with it. What did they get away with? They learned they couldn't shut down Parliament entirely. It's an old political trick. If you can punt a problem down the road, and you punt it far enough, you feel you've won. That's what the Liberals think they've done.
As it was the same with Stephen Harper's government, the Prime Minister, Mr. Trudeau, has toxified his relationships with Canadians. He might get by this time, but it creates—