Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to you as well, Mr. Boissonnault.
In small passing, I note the absence of Ms. Wilson-Raybould on your witness list. That clearly is somebody Canadians would be very keen to hear from. As she has been obviously a central figure to this, her omission on your list is more than interesting to me. I'm comparing the two motions, because I think that's fair to do. This is your response, I essentially assume, to what the Conservatives put forward. There are a number of key people who may be absent.
Mr. Chair, if I may, as I've expressed to you, I found the current Attorney General's comments this past weekend in the public, in the media.... Without having spoken to Ms. Wilson-Raybould, as he admitted, or to anybody, really, about this, only hearing the Prime Minister's public comments, he has decided that there was nothing to investigate here. That's troubling for me. As Canada's chief prosecutor, his remarkable lack of curiosity over a potential obstruction of justice occurring in the Office of the Prime Minister, for him to essentially pass judgment.... With great respect to my Liberal colleagues on this committee, I could not help but see how his comments were an attempt not to influence what happened at this committee. Suggesting that he saw no grounds for investigation before we had even met and had our conversation I found to be incredibly unhelpful and inappropriate.
With regard to what we are talking about, I hope all my colleagues would agree that the matter at hand here goes to the very heart of our democracy—how the halls of power work and how they interact, if they do and when they do, with the independent judiciary that we pride ourselves on as Canadians. I think this case, Vice-Admiral Norman's case, and others have started to call into question the commitment from this government to the independence of that judiciary.
To Mr. Boissonnault's motion and his argument, in the preamble he suggested—or perhaps that was you, Chair—that the public comments from the Prime Minister were solid and verifiable. My trouble with this is that the central proof that the Prime Minister of Canada used as to why there was nothing to see here evaporated within 24 hours. When asked directly by a member of the media if any undue influence was put on Ms. Wilson-Raybould, his comment was that her continued presence in cabinet speaks for itself. That was the proof offered up. I would assume, then, that the opposite is also true, that her decision to resign from cabinet is also telling as to what is occurring in front of us.
I will try to end here, Mr. Chair. All I will say is that I'm not satisfied with the motion as it's written. I think there may be a combination, perhaps. I think an understanding of sub judice rules...that other committees have dealt with before, by the way, when there's been something before the court that the committee wants to investigate: How do we make sure we don't negatively affect the court process? I think that's important. I think understanding solicitor-client privilege is also important. But I am not interested, and I doubt Mr. Rankin—for whom I'm doing a poor job filling in today—would be interested, in some seven-month wandering expedition into the deep bowels of Canadian law and jurisprudence to understand minutiae. That wouldn't be helpful to us. We need to get to the substance of the matter, because that's what Canadians expect of us. I wholly concur on the quality of the work done by this committee and its collegiality.
I will end with this. With all due respect to my Conservative colleagues, I thought the use of social media directed at my Liberal colleagues across the way, with phone numbers and emails, was inappropriate. I understand there has been a fair amount of hate expressed toward some of my Liberal friends. If there is any attempt to do right by Canadians here, we need to rise as best we can above the partisan interests that each of us brings to the table, to acknowledge them and yet stand above them.
What we see here, the case that we have in front of us, is one of the most troubling I've seen in my years of politics. The allegations in The Globe and Mail were serious and the fallout that has occurred since then has only increased my worry. I think I reflect the worry of many Canadians, wondering what exactly is happening and why this has been allowed to happen.
I think this motion, if it were to be considered, would need amendment. Perhaps there's a combination between the two that committee members would find acceptable.