House debate  Madam Chair, as I have said repeatedly, the RCMP made the decision to investigate. The RCMP worked with the Public Prosecution Service of Canada to determine whether to begin the process and when to end it.

House debate  Madam Chair, as I have said this evening, I was neither attorney general nor minister of justice at the time, so I do not know the details. However, I do know that the RCMP is independent and operates at arm's length from the government.

House debate  Madam Chair, in a parliamentary system based on the Westminster tradition, we obviously all have obligations and duties.

House debate  Madam Chair, as I have stated several times this evening, I was not the minister at that time. The RCMP conducts its own investigations. It is a very independent institution that we are proud of. It conducts its investigations at arm's length from the government.

House debate  Madam Chair, the RCMP is independent from the Prime Minister's Office, independent from the government and independent from my department. The Prime Minister has repeatedly said that he was aware of that independence. We are proud of the RCMP and the Public Prosecution Service o

House debate  Madam Chair, I answered that question earlier this evening. As I said, I was not at the meeting. Different people do things differently at these meetings.

House debate  Madam Chair, to my knowledge, the rules do not apply in this case.

House debate  Look at me smiling.

House debate  Madam Chair, the Department of Justice set up a process for us to meet our obligations to the court with respect to third party records applications. That is what we did. Many potentially relevant documents were identified, more than 144,000, in fact. We boiled that number down t

House debate  Madam Chair, as I have already said this evening, as far as I am concerned, the answer is no. I can only speak for myself and my experience. That said, the RCMP is independent. As I have said many times this evening, it is capable of conducting its own investigations, and it is i

House debate  Madam Chair, as I have said a number of times this evening, I will not comment on this issue. As Attorney General of Canada and Minister of Justice, I might influence a matter before the courts. I will therefore not answer the question.

House debate  Madam Chair, as I said publicly and before the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights, the answer is no.

House debate  Madam Chair, as I said before the committee, the answer is no.

House debate  Madam Chair, as I said earlier this evening, this issue is a matter of cabinet confidence. This does not mean we discussed it. We did not discuss it, and I will not discuss it. That is all.

House debate  Madam Chair, I will not comment on what the newspapers reported this afternoon or this evening. Since I have no way of confirming the veracity of those statements, I will not comment on them.