Mr. Speaker, that matter is before the court. I do not think the subject matter of this question is necessarily before the court and therefore I feel at liberty to respond.
It is a very important principle in the administration of justice that attorneys general ought not to be directly involved in police investigations. The reason the department wisely did not consult me and ask me to go over the letter to Switzerland or to review the state of the investigation, to decide whether it should proceed to the next step is that politicians and police investigations do not mix.
Politicians should not run police investigations. That is an important principle of law. It is an important principle of government. It is fundamental. If I were directing police investigations, this House of Commons would be the first place to call me to account.
That is the reason the Department of Justice wisely did not involve me. In fact, in documents that were made public under access to information late last year, it became clear from internal memoranda that the Department of Justice officials consciously decided not to involve me out of respect for that very important principle.