I'll make four comments. First, it's said that the commission
is not accountable.
I think that's an insult to Parliament. Section 6 states, in referring to the commission:
We are accountable to Parliament through the Minister of Justice. We have appeared in front of this committee over the years many times. We always file our annual report. We have filed a performance report and a report on plan and priorities. If you look at the last report of the Public Service Commission, which was issued right after the closing of the commission, in terms of staffing procedures, the commission is one of the top-rated agencies in the government.
So I find that insulting to Parliament.
Second, with all due respect, I find that Mr. Carpay is using the logic of the absurd. He says that Parliament can take on our mandate and that the commission is therefore unnecessary.
He says there's actor A, actor B, professors and actor C. So his logic is that of the absurd. We could eliminate everyone, and Parliament could do everything. In fact, you could decide that one day it's the commission and the next it's Parliament. That's not very constructive.
Thirdly, on duplication of work, for law professors the record is clear. Law professors work with the commission. Many centres have worked with the commission. You can look at many statements since this announcement, and certainly they felt that our work was useful. When I think about electoral reform, in terms of the duplication of work that report has been used over and over again. I would not say that this was a duplication of existing work, just as one example. Certainly in relation to the abuse of children by public institutions, the first report, which was a reference by the government, was not duplication.
The last thing I would say is that you mentioned a lot of our recommendations. I think my colleague here was shaking her head, because we don't recognize these recommendations of the Law Commission of Canada. When we're talking about an increased budget, I would hope that it would help to improve the information that is given publicly here today as to what the commission has recommended in the past. I think we have to set the record straight on that.
Thank you very much.