Thank you very much, Madam Chair.
Mrs. Romanado's amendment guts the substance of the production motion now before us. Mrs. Romanado asserts that the basis for her amendment is supposed concern that classified information would somehow be brought into the public domain when, in fact, if one were to read the motion, it is very evident that it would not be the case. This motion simply provides that the departments and agencies—the PCO, the PMO, ministers' offices—turn over the documents, one set that they redact and another set that is unredacted.
The parliamentary law clerk, who is completely independent and who has a full national security clearance, would then make the final determination as to what remains classified and what can be released to the committee. In other words, instead of the Prime Minister's Office making that decision, it would be the independent law clerk. In other words, it's an independent process that removes the politics with respect to the production of documents.
With respect to the access to information standard that Mrs. Romanado, if her amendment were adopted, would provide for in the way of production, that has resulted in virtually nothing being produced to this committee. It has resulted in pages and pages of blank pages and, as a result, we as a committee have received nothing. It is an effort to gut the motion, to cover up for the Prime Minister's Office and ministers in this government who were aware two years ahead of time that MP Chong and his family were being targeted by Zhao Wei and the Beijing regime, and did nothing about it and kept MP Chong in the dark. That's the substance of what Ms. Romanado is bringing forward. It's a cover-up attempt.