Mr. Speaker, first, I make no apologies for the four months of personal consultation that I conducted across the country.
During the course of the last several months, I have been in continuous touch with senior officials and indeed with provincial counterparts, attorneys general and ministers of justice, exchanging views about the proposals that will be decided upon and announced this afternoon.
May I make it clear that any leaks to the media were entirely beyond the control of the Department of Justice. What steps we took were as a matter of courtesy to furnish representatives of the hon. member's party and of the official opposition with advance copies of the material so that they could see it before this afternoon.