It's very interesting that the key actors, Mr. Butts, Ms. Telford and others, were not contacted. It says a little bit about maybe where the Liberal members on this committee want to go.
I have to say in response to Mr. Boissonnault that before I came here today, I was really hopeful, given the work we have done together as a committee, that Liberal members on this committee would be as concerned as I and my Conservative colleagues are, as well as New Democrats—Mr. Rankin—and I think most Canadians, about the very serious allegations which, if proven true, speak to corruption at the highest levels of the PMO.
I was hopeful that in light of that, the Liberal members on the committee would want to put the public interest ahead of the interests of the PMO and the interests of the Liberal Party. What we see today, in fact, is just the opposite.
Mr. Boissonnault, in his comments, spoke about the need to dig in and hear about the remediation agreements and deferred prosecution agreements. Well, you know what? I have to say that it's quite ironic, because I wish our justice committee had had the time to examine deferred prosecution agreements. I wish that had come to our committee, where we could have heard from witnesses, where we could have looked at the merits of deferred prosecution agreements, but guess what? That didn't happen.
Why didn't it happen? The finance minister, through the budget omnibus bill, decided to sneak it in, so there was no debate. There was no consultation. There was no consideration, and now we know it was because SNC-Lavalin was busy begging and pleading and lobbying officials in the PMO.
The fact that Mr. Boissonnault wants to go on at length studying these remediation agreements I think speaks to the fact that Liberal members aren't interested in getting answers. They're not interested in getting to the bottom of this, because guess what? The policy around deferred prosecution agreements has nothing to do with the issue at hand. The issue at hand relates to whether officials in the PMO put pressure on the former attorney general, Ms. Wilson-Raybould, to interfere in an independent prosecution, a criminal prosecution of SNC-Lavalin. That is what the issue is.
Let me cite, need there be any clarity, the Krieger decision of the Supreme Court, which says:
It is a constitutional principle that the Attorneys General of this country must act independently of partisan concerns when exercising their delegated sovereign authority to initiate, continue or terminate prosecutions.
Let me also cite the Supreme Court in the Hinse decision, where the court says, at paragraph 40:
The decision to initiate or continue criminal proceedings lies at the core of the Crown prosecutor's powers, and the principle of independence of the prosecutor's office shields prosecutors from the influence of improper political factors.... Prosecutors must be able to act independently of any political pressure from the government and must be beyond the reach of judicial review.... This independence is so fundamental to the integrity and efficiency of the criminal justice system that it is constitutionally entrenched....
That is the issue before us, not the policy issue about deferred prosecution agreements that the government didn't bring before Parliament in a transparent way. It snuck it through.
Mr. Boissonnault talked about solicitor-client privilege. Well, we've said it before, and I'll say it again: The Prime Minister can simply lift the solicitor-client privilege. He has the power to unleash Ms. Wilson-Raybould so that she can come forward and speak the truth, but he doesn't want to do that. Do you know why? I think when she does, and if she does, he's not going to like what she says.
To the point that was made that we've always had these discussions about witnesses in camera, we normally had these discussions in camera, but guess what? This is not a normal matter. This is about corruption at the highest levels of the PMO, and if Liberal members on this committee want to whitewash it, want to cover it up, want to shut down the opposition and our ability to bring these individuals forward to committee so that we can ask the questions and try to get the answers that Canadians deserve, they're going to have to do it in public. And they can be answerable to their constituents, and they can be answerable to Canadians.
With respect to the point about having a meeting to discuss witnesses, I see the Liberal motion. It has three witnesses on the list. We can talk about witnesses. We don't need to wait until another meeting. Why don't we just discuss the witness list today? Let's get on with it. Let's get on with it now. Canadians deserve to have us get on with it so that we can bring these individuals before us at the earliest possible opportunity, something that this motion doesn't provide for, something that our Conservative motion does provide for.