I thank you for raising that and for bringing it to my attention. I hope there is no undue implication that you wanted people to infer from that.
I'm going to conclude by saying that in no way did the chair of this committee ever do anything other than project a vigorous position by this committee so that it could do its job.
I'm going to go back for a moment to the question that elicited Mr. Saxton's attention on Monday.
It's true that on Monday in the House I raised a question and a supplementary of the minister responsible with respect to the connection between Madame Ouimet's office and those offices. It was a question that was almost a repetition of something some two to three weeks earlier. Yes, it had a greater effect because I referred to part of the e-mail trail that appeared in the documents that all of us had in our possession for more than a week. It made reference to it, but it did not go through the entire detail.
What it did not do—and I stress this—was refer to any document that PCO had asked be kept confidential. I respected that confidentiality not only for myself, even though as a member of Parliament I can stand in the House and ask any question I want.
You're right, Mr. Saxton, that as a chair I can answer questions, but when I become chair I don't lose my privileges as a member of Parliament. I've been judicious in ensuring that I do not infringe on anybody else's. But my rights as a member of Parliament to ask a question, which I had previously asked but this time with greater specificity, were not unencumbered.
Mr. Saxton—and I want to thank Madame Faille for raising this point—if you think there was a breach of privilege, surely the place to do that would have been in the House. In this committee—even if I wanted to exercise that authority as the chair—the chair doesn't have that authority to provide a consequence for a breach of privilege, and neither does the committee.
I've been around here long enough to know that's the last thing I want to do, anyway.
Mr. Saxton, I'm going to suspend in a moment because I want to give Mr. Christopherson an opportunity to come back to what he wanted to do subsequent to my intervention. Then after that I think we'll proceed with the rest of the issues.