Mr. Chair, I'd like to respond to the Liberal speaker, Mr. Ehsassi.
You started by saying the government understands this is serious. I don't see any evidence of that. What are you doing about it? I asked the justice minister. He said there's nothing here. He's not doing anything about it. If it's serious, that usually means something is done.
The suggestion that there is a parallel to the Nadon situation, yes, there was partisan politics. I regret that. The Liberals were very much an opposition part of that. Don't pretend you weren't. I was with the official opposition then. I remember it well. It doesn't make it right. It doesn't make it the correct thing to do.
When there was a leak of another sensitive matter, Mr. Goodale, dealing with the Omar Khadr leak, said it was “very, very serious”. He didn't blame journalists for reporting it, but considered it very serious and said “the individuals, whoever they are, that took it upon themselves to release confidential information in an unauthorized manner should reflect very carefully on the consequences of their behaviour for the course of justice and also for their professionalism in the roles that they are presently filling.”
This isn't about calling journalists here. I'm not interested in hearing from journalists. I don't know who suggested that. That's the first I've heard of it.
I want to hear from the official. I want to hear from people in the Department of Justice. I want to hear from people in the Prime Minister's Office. Somebody leaked it. It was either my Conservative friend, me, or an official. Whom they leaked it to is irrelevant to me. I'm not interested in hearing from journalists. That's a bit of a red herring, in my humble opinion. I don't know why we would have to turn this into politics.
To quote you, Mr. Ehsassi, you said, ”Let's just make sure that all those safeguards are in place”. I agree. What are you doing about that? What comfort are you giving to the next Mr. Justice Joyal, or someone else who has their reputation smeared as collateral damage to some other agenda?
As Mr. Cooper said, this process is not perfect, but a flawed process at this committee is certainly better than no process at all, which is what I hear you're leaving Canadians with. If you can tell me what the process is, I'd be happy, but I certainly don't know of any.
Ms. Khalid said we're here to frighten Canadians. The conclusion is the state of our rule of law is very much intact. Thank you for that conclusion, but I have no confidence in your conclusion. I have evidence that there are very serious consequences here. When the spokesperson for 125,000 lawyers agrees, I think I have reason to have those concerns.
If the leak is not unprecedented, Mr. Casey, I don't really know what that adds to the debate. Just because we made errors in the past, does that mean we shouldn't try to correct them in the future?
This is very serious. If the government wants to pretend there's nothing here and tells me that safeguards are in place, that the rule of law is just fine in Canada, that there's nothing to see here, I've been to this movie before because I used to be on this committee, and I saw how you dealt with another issue. I suppose we're going to go to a vote very much like that now. I don't look forward to it. I hope Canadians realize the gravity of what the Liberals are about to do.
Thank you, Chair.