Mr. Speaker, I do take exception to my colleague's suggestion that somehow all members of Parliament are besmirched by this scandal. What is besmirched by this scandal is our democracy, and of course as members of Parliament we care very deeply about the democratic traditions and the democratic values of honesty, responsibility and accountability that are so at risk in this whole mess of the sponsorship program.
I have two questions for my colleague. I am a little surprised when he argues so vociferously that rules cannot be changed in the middle of the game by the Parliament of Canada. It was his party that changed the rules of the budget in the middle of the game by making a deal to prop up the government in exchange for doing just that, for changing the budgetary rules in the middle of the game. I wonder how he explains the contradiction of his party changing those rules and yet somehow arguing that Parliament cannot make a change to rules in another aspect of the game.
The second thing I would like to ask him is to confirm the following. He said that Mr. Chrétien has now withdrawn his objection to Gomery, but I understand that this is simply a delay in his bringing objections forward. In fact, although he is not going to bring objections forward to Gomery at this time, it is open to him to reactivate those objections and bring them back before the court at any time down the road. It could be just before the report or it could be after the report. How can my colleague say that the objections have now been withdrawn and that roadblock is no longer there when in fact there has just been a delay and it is still very much open to Mr. Chrétien to bring forward objections to Gomery?