Absolutely.
I will start by saying that I am not questioning the privilege of the House of Commons to order the production of documents, and my office, as I stated in my letter, will produce the documents. We have already started to produce some of those.
Fundamentally, the documents being sought belong to the departments or to the foundation. They belong to a third party. They need to decide whether they will produce those documents before I can produce them. It's kind of like being the caboose on a train. Because they are the owners of the information, I need to see what they will do with that information.
There is an ongoing dispute between the government and Parliament over documents, and I should not become a mechanism by which Parliament receives government information. I believe my independence would be compromised if I become that vehicle. There is also the unintended consequence that this could have a chilling effect on departments and agencies sharing free and unfettered information with my office. I have very broad access to information, and I need to preserve that broad access.