Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you to both witnesses for being here today. It's a pleasure to hear from you, as always.
I have numerous questions, as always. I want to start with this one. It relates to section 27 of the current code, “Request for an inquiry”. I see a challenge here. One of my concerns that's come up throughout the last Parliament and continues within this Parliament is that the conflict of interest code seems to be at least vulnerable to being used for political purposes from time to time.
Subsection 27(1) stipulates that a member can request an inquiry. That inquiry has to have some “reasonable grounds” for contravention of the code. When you look at subsection 27(2.1), “No public comment”, it really stipulates that members who have filed for an inquiry or have made a complaint about another member cannot make public comment, but it's really only until 14 days have elapsed.
In fact, although the Ethics Commissioner needs to look at whether or not a complaint or inquiry is merited, whether or not it is reasonable, this allows members of Parliament to, if they so wish, go out into the media and claim that they've made a complaint when there is no reasonable grounds to justify the complaint. This opens up the code, I believe, to being used for political purposes, which is not the spirit of a conflict of interest code. That does not enhance public trust.
I wonder, Mr. Dufresne, whether you think there could be some adjustments made there to prevent the code from being used for political purposes.