Mr. Speaker, let me seize on the idiom the member used. What is going to come first, the chicken or the egg: the study proposed at committee or getting the documents? The chicken needs to lay the egg, that is, the documents are needed first, and then the study can be done. If we send this to a committee without having the documents, the committee will be severely limited in the work it can do.
It is an established principle that Parliament has a right to order the production of documents. We are prepared for this privilege question to end right away, today, in five minutes, if the government hands over the documents. For the public accounts committee and other committees that have been studying this issue to properly do the work, the government needs to be responsive and forthcoming in adhering to what Parliament has asked for. In this case, that means documents that the law clerk can provide to the RCMP and allowing committees to proceed with the work they need to do.
It is very clear where we are right now. As soon as the government hands over these documents, we can proceed to other business. The government has refused to recognize the long, well-established privileges of Parliament and the principle of parliamentary sovereignty in our system of government. By the way, the government has failed to recognize that principle on a broad host of other cases as well. Starting with the Winnipeg labs documents and in many cases since, the Liberals have failed to show respect for this institution.