Will he or won't he.

That's the question that may be answered today at the House of Commons ethics committee.

The committee wants to hear from Karlheinz Schreiber and it wants to see him testify before Saturday, the day he could be extradited to face various charges in Germany.

But, this is all turning out to be a little more complicated than everyone expected. Getting a man out of jail and to Ottawa is not, as it turns out, an easy legal battle.

The chair of the committee has issued a summons. The NDP will table a motion today to use a House Order (others call it a Speaker's Warrant, but House Order is the correct term) to compel Schreiber to show up on Thursday. That's legally one step stronger than the summons.

The thing is, it still may not be enough. Schreiber wants to have access to his documents and potentially, to be out on bail in order to testify. And don't forget his end game in all of this: he wants to stay put. Schreiber has been fighting extradition for eight years and it's unlikely he'll stop now.

Every move he makes in the coming days will actually be an attempt to stay in Canada. His appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada has yet to be granted and his lawyers may have to file for some sort of injunction to stop him from getting thrown out of the country.

The government, which has the power to stop or delay the extradition, has done nothing as of yet.

The chances of seeing Schreiber here in Ottawa on Thursday are, well, anybody's guess.

But the clock is ticking and everyone knows it.