Mr. Speaker, a terrible precedent is being set by the chamber today. I have made my points clear in my original statement, but I would like to reiterate a number of them.
The RCMP and the Auditor General have both expressed their extreme discomfort with the blurring of the line of the separation of power between the legislative and judicial branches of government. Quite frankly, there is an abuse of the power of this place that is trampling on the charter-protected rights of Canadians. I would have liked to have thought that all members of the chamber, our hon. members, would like to live in a country where politicians do not use their extraordinary powers to bypass the judicial oversight that law enforcement requires to include on the charter rights of Canadians.
I do not know of any democracy in which politicians decide who or what is to be investigated by law enforcement. The only countries that I know of that do this are dictatorships. I, for one, believe that every member of the chamber should be as alarmed as the RCMP was when it expressed its view that it should not receive the documents without the required charter protections.
This is an extremely dark day for the House and a very troubling day for democracy in this country. I would submit that the actions we are—