Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the Minister of Justice for rising on a point of order and bringing forward this agreement into the House so that all members can be aware. It is very important that we report this back to the House.
On behalf of the NDP, I would like to say that we believe this is a very important step forward that has been taken. It was five years ago that the NDP first started raising the issue of what was happening to Afghan detainees in terms of what happened with the previous Liberal government and now the current Conservative government.
The important issue here has always been, and remains, to tell Canadians the truth about the handling of Afghan detainees. We believe that this agreement is a critical step in holding the government to account, following the historic ruling that you made, Mr. Speaker.
I would note that part of the agreement in our discussions is for the committee that has been outlined today by the Minister of Justice to periodically report to the House. That is a very important element of keeping this within Parliament and making sure that all members of the House are advised.
We in the NDP will work very diligently on this issue to ensure that relevant information is released while respecting security concerns. We see today as an important victory for parliamentary democracy and for upholding the public interest.
I would like to thank the members of our negotiating team, the member for St. John's East, the member for Windsor--Tecumseh and the member for Acadie--Bathurst for their very hard work in helping negotiate this agreement.
I would like to reference one small error, as details are important. With respect to the fifth bullet on page one, we did agree that committee members will have access to all documents. I think that is something that we put in. We got down to the wire, so in the written form that needs to be reflected.
Mr. Speaker, thank you very much. We look forward to working in good faith with other members of the House who are on the committee in making sure that this job is done and that the public has the information that is required.