Thank you, Chair.
It has been made clear that it's the Prime Minister's responsibility to act on this recommendation of board of management accountability. The Reform Implementation Council, which he appointed, stated that it was their first, primary, and most important thing that they'd like to highlight. They stated, “Indeed, the difficulties encountered by the senior leadership of the RCMP in recent months make us all the more convinced of the need for such a mechanism—an independent body that works in good faith to push, prod and challenge the Force constructively...”.
It's almost a cry for help, as diplomatically as they could word it. We've seen over the last few months the terrible cost to the RCMP in the upper echelons—good men and women in the RCMP paid a terrible cost—because this has not been acted on. We know clearly from everything you've stated that it's the Prime Minister's role to make this decision. The decision hasn't happened. The buck stops with him.
Let me just make a final point on why this is so important. In a democracy, it's critical that there not be political interference in our federal police force, or vice versa, and we saw during the last election campaign what happened when the commissioner--