Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Sir, when the committee met on several occasions to appoint an ombudsman, the Bloc Québécois, among others, was in favour of the latter being accountable to the House of Commons, like Ms. Sheila Fraser.
I don't want to play politics, because we usually don't do that in committee. However, it would seem that the main parties that are usually in power do not like having someone who is completely independent.
I know that the Bloc Québécois fought for this. We even met with the former ombudsman of the Department of National Defence and the Canadian Forces, who resigned and who is now the provincial ombudsman for Ontario. In Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, we met with the ombudsman there, and it was the same thing. Pardon the expression, but he was working for the Sainte-Anne Hospital. Everyone got along well with him, because everyone reported to him.
My question is simple. You were appointed ombudsman so the government could say it had done the right thing, or something like that, perhaps to give it good conscience and allow it to say that now the ombudsman is appointed, everything will be fine, and all the problems will be settled. As I see it, the problems are not settled at all, at least not anymore than they were before. Am I right?