Mr. Speaker, I want to follow up on a couple of questions that were posed by my colleague from Gatineau.
When the minister says that he is prepared to release the poll that Canadians have paid $175,000 for in due course, I wonder if he could offer us any explanation for the delay. Is there is any good reason that it cannot be released now, in advance of the committee dealing with this matter?
Second, the last two times that the government was faced with a situation that dramatically intersected with the charter was arguably the Senate reference and the Nadon decision. In both those situations, Conservatives either sought outside legal opinions with respect to constitutionality or submitted those cases to the Supreme Court of Canada for a reference. In both those situations, they did so when they knew there was going to be a constitutional issue.
This case comes right out of the Supreme Court of Canada because of a conflict with the charter. Given how Conservatives have dealt with charter-sensitive cases before, could the minister explain why he is so dead set against taking the same approach again? Is it because of the result in the last two Supreme Court of Canada references?