Madam Speaker, I thank the hon. member for his question. It is quite clear that the commission will be stretched for financial resources for its own needs without even contemplating paying legal fees for the students.
The court has made a ruling on that. Unless that ruling is appealed it does not really allow flexibility for the commission to use its very tight resources to pay lawyers fees for the students.
It also undermines the commitment the federal government needs to make in the fairness of the process. It has been suggested by other colleagues of mine on the opposition side that if the federal government were really concerned about fairness and not prepared to use taxpayers' funds to fund a student, in that acceptance of fairness it should take its lawyers out of the courtroom.
The lawyers are not required. The process can function quite well without them. It would at least give the appearance to Canadians that the government accepts the concept of fairness, equality and justice being served.