Mr. Speaker, it is essential that members of the House of Commons be free to attend their duties and represent their constituents without influence from any outside body or group.
It has been my experience while appearing before the justice committee to witness a letter sent to the chair of the committee and copies distributed to members, apparently for their information, immediately prior to the calling of witnesses speaking in favour of the bill.
This letter bore the letterhead of the Canadian Bar Association and the signature of a lawyer who was the chair of the national family law section.
This letter gave misleading information to the committee members and strongly urged the members to defeat the bill. I know that this was not an isolated circumstance.
My concern is the influence the Canadian Bar Association appears to have on legislation in this House. In this case, for example, I believe that since most of the justice committee members were also members of the Canadian Bar Association, they were placed in a questionable position, maybe even conflict of interest.
Who is in charge of this country, elected members of Parliament or the Canadian Bar Association?