I appreciate Mr. Comartin bringing his motion forward, and I believe that his motion asking this committee to find that there is a possible breach of parliamentary privilege is one that in fact should engage all members of this committee, because we did receive a determination, a commitment, on the part of Commissioner Head that he would provide the information requested and provide it in sufficient time that the committee would have it before we went to clause-by-clause consideration.
Now, if there was some impediment on the part of the minister, some difficulty in reviewing the information before it was forwarded to the committee that meant he would be unable to provide it to the committee prior to our moving to clause-by-clause, knowing it was asked precisely that it be in the hands of the committee members before we moved to clause-by-clause, it would have been proper procedure on the part of the minister, through his parliamentary secretary, to inform the committee that unfortunately the minister was unable to review the information provided by Commissioner Head to him and to then release it to this committee prior to clause-by-clause.
I have been a parliamentary secretary for one Prime Minister and two separate ministers. I have been in a position where information has been requested, sometimes by government members, other times by opposition members, and that information was requested to be in the hands of the committee prior to moving to clause-by-clause. There have been situations where the minister has been unable to get through the review of the information to then approve its release to the committee, and I have been in a position where I've had to inform the committee, prior to going to clause-by-clause. It was then the committee members' decision whether to delay clause-by-clause until it received the information or to move forward with clause-by-clause. In fact, we were informed that the information had been sent to our offices.
I know I assumed that there was a screw-up in my office and that's why I had not seen the information, and it's quite possible that my other colleagues were under the same misconception. It was only after we completed clause-by-clause that we were then informed that in fact the information had been sent to the minister and that the minister had not completed his review of that information before releasing it.
So I believe there is a possible breach of parliamentary privilege that impedes my ability to work as a parliamentarian, and the ability of my colleagues, and I intend to support Mr. Comartin's motion. I would like to see the members of this committee do so, so that we can make a report to the Speaker of the House that there's a possible breach of parliamentary procedure. The Speaker can then take the process through as the procedures and rules of the House allow.