Mr. Speaker, I have listened very attentively to the points raised by the hon. two members across.
On one hand we heard a number of remarks on the government. Even the government's motive is being questioned by the hon. member from the Conservative Party. While I totally reject the premises and indeed the allegations behind the government's sincerity, what the government is seeking to do and what it asked the committee to do and what I believe the committee did in all sincerity is provide valuable input which I am sure this report will be. I have not read it yet. I suspect neither have most people.
There are two points in particular which I would like to address. One is that the hon. member for Medicine Hat has just said that it wanted to provide a minority report before seeing the report of the majority. He then went on to say that it was wrong for the majority to pretend that it would not agree with the minority report. At the same time he said that he wanted to file a minority report without having seen what he believes was the report of the majority. Mr. Speaker, one cannot have it both ways. That is not logical in the thought process.
On a more fundamental point and where I do agree with hon. members, and hopefully we will all agree, is the following. That a leak from a report from the committee is not appropriate before the House is seized with the report. I believe that the first group of people who should see a report prepared by any committee are hon. members of this House. That is why we have been sent here. This is our mandate. It is our sacred duty. I believe, Mr. Speaker, that you are the custodian of our rights as members of Parliament. To that extent I agree that no one should ever make a report accessible to someone who is not a member of Parliament prior to members of Parliament—