House debate  Madam Chair, I was not privy to that meeting. People have different practices with respect to the way they take part in meetings.

House debate  Madam Chair, as I have said a number of times this evening, the director of the Public Prosecution Service has said on at least two occasions, including at the announcement of the stay in proceedings, that she felt there was no political interference of any kind whatsoever in the

House debate  Mr. Chair, as the Prime Minister has stated in the House and as I have stated in the House on a number of occasions, committees work independently of my ministry, they work independently of the government and they make decisions on their own.

House debate  Mr. Chair, once again, I would point out for the hon. member, as I pointed out a number of times this evening, that we put together a process. Our only role in the process, in the Department of Justice, was to meet the third party records obligations. We put together a process th

House debate  Mr. Chair, I reject the premise of that question. First, I do not believe I was ever someone who cited the jobs figure in any sort of way. Having been Minister of Justice and Attorney, I maintained a certain distance from the file for the same reasons I have already given this e

House debate  Mr. Chair, we have set up a rigorous process of judicial advisory committees across Canada that are made up of a variety of different people from different walks of life, including members of the bar. That is the first step, the first winnowing that allows candidates to progress.

House debate  Mr. Chair, I do not believe I was minister at the time.

House debate  Mr. Chair, as I have said a number of times in the House, those leaks concerned me greatly. As I said publicly a number of times, I was certain that those leaks did not come from the Department of Justice. We will have to put together a process in the very near future with respe

House debate  Mr. Chair, we have set up with two Supreme Court appointments to date an exceedingly rigorous process. We will do the same with the process as we move forward in order to avoid the kinds of situations we saw with the previous government.

House debate  Mr. Chair, I am not going to comment on that kind of ridiculous question. We will set up, as we have done with the other two Supreme Court justices who we have named, a rigorous selection committee, which will look at all the candidates who apply.

House debate  Mr. Chair, as I have said publicly, certainly within the group of people in my ministry, the answer to that question is no. Again, as I have stated earlier this evening, it was the view of my predecessor that the law was not broken. It was the view of a number of witnesses that t

House debate  Mr. Chair, I only know the people I know. I cannot possibly answer such a wide-ranging question. I would ask whether the member wants to know if anybody in Canada has been approached.

House debate  Mr. Chair, as I already said earlier this evening, I cannot comment on that matter because there is an appeal in an SNC proceeding before the Federal Court. Anything that I might say might have an impact on that litigation, therefore it is covered by the sub judice rule and litig

House debate  Mr. Chair, I thank the hon. member for his work in committee, and indeed all committee members, on this bill. The hon. member is absolutely right when he says that we have a better bill now in front of the other place because of the work the committee did. We took two pieces t

House debate  Mr. Chair, the hon. member is absolutely right, both in his question and in his comments, that there appears to be ever-increasing evidence of a violence link between cruelty to animals and domestic violence, sexual and physical abuse of children and other violent crimes. In 20