Hon. Claude Carignan: Minister, on April 26, you testified before the Special Joint Committee on the Declaration of Emergency, at which time you were asked for several documents that were used to support the decision-making process, and you invoked cabinet confidence privilege multiple times.

On June 28, the Public Order Emergency Commission issued a press release that read as follows:

The Government of Canada has responded to a request from Commissioner Paul Rouleau and agreed not to claim Cabinet privilege over the documents that Cabinet considered in making the decision to declare a public order emergency . . . .

I will also quote the statement by the commission’s counsel that was reported in the press release:

This exceptional step recognizes the fundamental importance of the Commission’s work and how critical these documents are in inquiring into why the Government declared a public order emergency . . . .

How do you explain this double standard? Cabinet privilege was waived for the Rouleau commission, but not for the joint committee.

Is that not disrespectful to the institution of Parliament?