Mr. Speaker, I read that article as well, and I worry that Mr. Coyne is correct in that we are seeing what really amounts to a lack of respect for Parliament, for what we have been in power to do and for the privileges and power that we have as an opposition to hold the executive branch accountable.
Our House leader, the member for Regina—Qu'Appelle, did an excellent speech on the ancient parliamentary tradition that we have, which is what really provides the power of the opposition to hold the government accountable. He quoted quite an interesting book, The Power of Parliamentary Houses to Send for Persons, Papers and Records, and he really summed it up quite nicely. It reads, “Based on principles firmly established in constitutional parliamentary law...a House of parliament has the full authority to summon and compel the production of any document.”
However, the Liberal government is acting like it does not have to. We saw this with the WE Charity scandal, and we saw it with the Winnipeg lab document scandal. It is a running theme for the Liberals not respecting the will of Parliament, and it is shocking to see the demise of respect for parliamentary traditions.