If the Minister were available on July 18th, I would have no objection to our meeting with him then. However, we know full well that this is a highly political issue. Consequently, officials will say they can't answer certain questions and that it is up to the Minister to respond. The individual parties may well ask officials to hold briefing sessions, but what we want to hear are the Minister's political answers, because we're already aware of the technicalities and of the various interpretations of the agreement. However, we do not know what the Minister thinks.
For example, we have heard that the Vienna Convention is inferior to what has been negotiated in this case, since it provides for a two to three year opt-out period. In fact, nothing in the Vienna Convention provides for the agreement to be terminated other than through agreement between the two parties. I don't know where the Minister got his information, but I would really like to know. Departmental officials will not be in a position to tell us why Mr. Bernier, in particular, has been spreading that bit of misinformation.
In my opinion, every party should already have received a briefing, but it's the Minister we are interested in hearing from in committee. We can easily organize briefing sessions in the coming days. I will therefore vote against this motion.