I know, Mr. O'Toole, that you are new to this committee because you are not a regular member, and you're here as a fourth member when there are only three, but of course, any member of Parliament is welcome to come, and we're glad to have you here.
Our committee has not operated like that historically. We have worked through things when we have not had agreement to find compromise, so I apologize if we're dragging on and you have somewhere to be, but I am not here reading notes. I did not come here with a prepared speech. I have not read anything. I'm genuinely listening, trying to respond and asking questions so that I can further my position on this.
I apologize to you if this isn't moving along fast enough for you, but there is no charade here that we're just suddenly going to be whipped and vote a certain way. At least that's not my perspective.
I do think something that Mr. O'Toole said is extremely germane to this discussion. He said that this is politics. This is what happened. This is why it's been brought up in question period. The PCO did this and that. The PCO is not a political organization; it is a department of the Government of Canada. Its job, when stuff like this comes up, is to be able to respond, and what the PCO did was respond by contacting the RCMP, so I take great exception to the fact that you would suggest that this is all politics.
What we do is politics. We're supposed to create policy. We're in the middle of creating policy on inclusion in the armed forces. That's what we do. That's the policy that we work on. Our job is not to be political and to try to weigh in on the work of independent organizations of the RCMP and the PPS. For that matter, the Privy Council is a department of government.
I apologize if you don't see it the same way, but that's certainly the way that I have always looked at it.
Thank you.