Mr. Chair, the point in time we have arrived at is one filled with questions. There are half-truths. There are changing stories. People around the country are watching what's happening and, unfortunately, today they don't have answers to many of the questions they are posing.
Ms. Wilson-Raybould has been asked to come back and testify. If the Liberals don't want to hold an independent public inquiry, which is something on which we've been clear that we believe is an important step, then they must allow this committee to do its work and that means inviting Ms. Wilson-Raybould back. The Clerk of the Privy Council, Michael Wernick, was allowed to come back and rebut testimony, and Canadians are viewing his return as being fair in the same way that they're viewing Ms. Wilson-Raybould's return as being fair and an important part of the rest of this story. To be quite honest, it's categorically unfair not to extend her the same courtesy.
She has also said herself that she would like the order in council amended so that she can speak to the matters after January 14. I will quote from her testimony here at the justice committee on February 27, in which she said:
My narrative stops here. I must reiterate to the committee my concern, outlined in the letter to the chair yesterday. That is that Order in Council 2019-0105 addresses only my time as the Attorney General of Canada and therefore does nothing to release me from restrictions that apply to my communications while I proudly served as the Minister of Veterans Affairs and in relation to my resignation from that post or my presentation to cabinet after I resigned.
Those are her own words about her desire to be able to speak about what happened past that period.
Mr. Butts' and Mr. Wernick's testimony was, at times, inconsistent with what we heard from the former attorney general, and it's imperative that she have the opportunity to address these points in the same way that was afforded to Mr. Wernick.
Liberals really need to treat this with the seriousness it deserves. It can't be something that is pushed to the side under the guise that this is typically discussed in camera, or the fact that it hasn't happened before. We are in uncharted waters here in what's taking place around this particular issue, and so we need to behave appropriately, in a way that will reflect that, and that means having her come back to the committee.
This is something that New Democrats have heard when we've been in our constituencies the past couple of weeks. It certainly has been dominating headlines across the country. All of the major news outlets are writing stories on the fact that we don't have the full truth, and that is because we don't have testimony about the period of time that Ms. Wilson-Raybould simply cannot speak about.
This is about transparency. This is about accountability. These are things that the Liberal government ran on, as the Liberal members know well here at the committee, and this is a test of that. This is a test of whether those are just words or whether there's actually meaning behind those words, and today is an opportunity for the Liberals on the committee to revisit having her come before the committee, and the importance of that to Canadians.
I can tell you that we New Democrats are being flooded with people coming to our offices. I've had people walking into my office talking about what is happening and asking questions that we simply don't have answers to. That's what we're seeking to do here: to be able to have this lifted off her so that she can speak, as she has indicated publicly and here at the committee that she has a desire to do.
Canadians want the other half of the story from her, and she deserves an opportunity in the same way that Mr. Wernick had, to come and speak to what has been said about her and to things that she has not had the privilege to be able to speak about.
Last, the committee must recognize that there is a degree of urgency around this, and there is no good reason that can be presented today for why Ms. Wilson-Raybould can't return to the committee to testify.