Yes, at the Senate, and here as well.
When Ms. Meilleur appeared at the Senate yesterday, Senator Smith put the following question to her:
If you applied for a position as an officer of Parliament and learned that other candidates had met with political contacts from various departments, and that the candidate who was chosen before the recruitment firm the government had hired submitted its final recommendations, would you consider that the process had been equitable?
Ms. Meilleur then answered:
Senator, thank you for your question. As I mentioned, it is possible that that point may raise concerns, but I want to say once again that I knew the persons in question. I met with them to say that I wanted to continue to serve my country.
And so, she knows a lot of people in the Prime Minister's inner circle and in the Liberal Party, which, in my opinion, may have an impact on her ability to discharge her mandate. If that is not the case, I think we should at the very least examine this issue.
I am repeating myself, but if we don't take the time to study the process that was followed carefully, what will we do later? How are we going to be able to issue this famous certificate of nomination? How will we do that, and when will we do so? Will we do so when a complaint is filed with the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages? Will we do so when an application for review is submitted to the Federal Court? How are we going to do all that?
I am wondering about this, and I don't get any answer from my government colleagues. In this regard, if we are not going to provide the certificate of nomination immediately, or if the Liberals decide not to provide one at all—I think that is what is going to happen, and that that is the best solution—what are we going to do in the meantime? Are we going to analyze this nomination or not? If we don't want to provide the certificate of nomination, let's say so immediately. We can continue to work on our reports. I would like to know what we are going to do next. That is why I tabled this motion. If we want to issue a certificate of nomination, I think we have to go forward and support the motion. If we all agree to drop the topic, and that we do not have enough information to provide the certificate of nomination, we will simply not provide one. Tell us and we can move on to something else.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.