Thank you, Madam Chair.
I have a couple of concerns with this motion. We've heard from witnesses who have appeared before this committee on this topic in the last several meetings, including Mr. Walbourne, that people are reluctant to come forward for a variety of reasons. One of those reasons is the perception that their name might be disclosed and there might be retribution in some form.
On all sides, all members of this committee have commented on the importance of protecting those who wish to come forward. I'm very concerned about this. I know there's language in the motion suggesting that the law clerk remove anything that could help identify a person, but to be frank.... I don't know what would be within these documents. I can only imagine I would find it incredibly.... I'm having trouble understanding what information from these documents that would be useful to this committee the law clerk could leave in without risking a breach of the confidentiality we've talked about preserving for those who are coming forward.
I guess what I'm saying is that I don't know if that's practical. It's not just about names of people, it's about dates, locations and whatever is being discussed. All those things have the potential to allow someone to be identified so that they face exactly what they don't want to face and exactly what we've all talked about, which is protecting their anonymity, if they wish it, and protecting them from any kind of potential retribution.
I'm very concerned, very practically, because this information would come through a number of people's hands. As I said, it's impractical for someone to completely eliminate any information that could possibly be used to identify the people concerned. That's my first concern.
The second concern I have is along the lines of what Mr. Spengemann spoke to, irrespective of what I just said, although the two issues are linked. The signal we are sending here is that if someone comes forward with an allegation, now or in the future, there's a risk that a parliamentary committee could request documents that may lead to [Technical difficulty—Editor] public or known to people and therefore being made public after the fact. I would think that would have a very chilling effect on those who want to come forward.
From my vantage point, I really want to make sure we come out of this process focused on solving the problem. This motion would not help to solve that. It would contribute to part of the problem that we've heard about from Mr. Walbourne and others, which is the importance of protecting the people who have come forward or who want to come forward in the future.
Those are my two concerns, and I would urge us not to go down this path for those reasons. I think that if we're serious about protecting the people who are coming forward, we should start by hearing from the witnesses we've all agreed should be invited to the committee. Let's hear from them. I think this would be incredibly risky and do potential harm to serving people who want to come forward in the future.
Thank you, Chair.