Accountability is something that starts with us and Parliament in annual reports. It goes into corporate reports. It goes to us in front of these committees. It goes to us in front of the CRTC. It goes to a new website where we now will be posting all of the information that is available and of interest to Canadians.
We were bombarded, as I said, by an inordinate number of requests under ATIP, 400 or so from the same group working for the same organization, in the first months after we became subject to the Access to Information Act. It was so much so that we had to sit down with the commissioner to try to figure out how we were going to deal with this, because this was not only about CBC; it was about the commissioner being swamped, and his office--well, it's now “her” office, but not at that time--not understanding how we were going to do this.
Today, as of November 26, 2010, of the 1,202 requests we've received, we have met 1,202. Since April we have received zero complaints on our timing for the requests that we are receiving. We have improved. We have not always been very good, but we are improving, and we have been learning from the situation.
I would like to remind you that 1,000 or so--because this is the information they've put out to the public--are coming from one office: two people. David Statham was actually in front of the Federal Court again and lost in front of the Federal Court. Both courts, the first court and the second court, actually declined Mr. Statham's request to blame us for our conduct in this file. Not only that, the appeal court endorsed the findings of the first judge and said--and I'm quoting--that Mr. Statham's conduct was less than exemplary.
When you put all of that in context, I would like to tell you, sir, Mr. Armstrong, that we believe in accountability. We're doing a better job. I'm very proud of the work we have done to handle this massive number of requests we have been the subject of.