Again, the threshold for a breach of privilege is incredibly high. We have to take this incredibly seriously when it occurs. Again, running down the list, there's falsifying; deliberately misleading; falsifying documents without reasonable excuse; refusing to provide information or produce papers formally required by the House without reasonable excuse; disobeying a lawful order of the House; interfering with or obstructing a person who is carrying out a lawful order of the House; bribing or attempting to bribe a member to influence the member's conduct in respect of proceedings of the House; intimidating, preventing or hindering a witness from giving evidence; assaulting, threatening or disadvantaging a member or a former member on account of the member's conduct in Parliament; and divulging or publishing the content of any report or evidence of a select committee before it has been reported to the House.
I would love to understand, when Mr. Bains comes and says, “I don't recall”, how that amounts to a breach of privilege. It might be insufficient. I say let's have him back to answer an additional two hours of questions. No one's hiding from accountability. Let's have him back.
What is happening now is a waste of our time. You might say, “Well, you guys are wasting time at the committee.” Do you know why we're spending time at this committee? To make sure that this doesn't become a waste of House time. We all know what's happening in the House right now. We have privilege motions through which the Conservatives have a weaponized process to ensure that the House cannot function.
If this privilege motion were to pass, which would be absurd because it's not anywhere close to a breach of privilege, the Speaker will swat it away, but if it were to pass, if we as a committee were to send it to the Speaker, we are going to waste countless hours. We're going to waste days. We know this because we see it right now. We're going to waste days of House time on something that is absolutely frivolous. If we want to get answers from Mr. Bains, let's have him back for two hours within 14 days.
Please, let's stop wasting our time and making a mockery of the process of the House.