Information & Ethics committee  That was one of her staff.

Information & Ethics committee  I'm sure I read it at the time, but I haven't read it since. I'm not familiar with its contents.

Information & Ethics committee  I might have read it.

Information & Ethics committee  When there are news articles and stories and so forth in the media that impact upon the department, of course they are immediately looked at and we investigate. By “we”, I mean the department officials look into it to see what the truth of the matter is. Then we prepare media res

Information & Ethics committee  What I went back and determined for myself was that what we have been discussing here is an apparent misunderstanding between the requester and the ATIP officers as to what Mr. Esau was requesting. The chairman has discussed this case already, and in fact the ATIP officers though

Information & Ethics committee  Your question—

Information & Ethics committee  Your question has to do with more than whether or not there's a single report or a number of reports. I went back to determine whether or not the allegation was true in the report, that they had been denied access to a report. That's what I went back to check.

Information & Ethics committee  Well, I guess, Mr. Chairman, I'll probably end up repeating myself as well.

Information & Ethics committee  The thing is, it's the word you're using: “directed”. That sounds as though somebody said, “Thou shalt take out these items”. The process is much more iterative than that. The process is one through which the document is sent to the office of principal interest. In that office th

Information & Ethics committee  Mr. Chairman, again, we seem to be moving, with all respect to the member, well beyond the discussion of ATIP requests and into the functioning of the department and the providing of advice to the minister. First of all, to go to your point about confirming or denying, I can ne

Information & Ethics committee  Hypothetically. Mr. Chairman, I want to be helpful. Please don't get me wrong. I'm prepared to take the approach you're suggesting, although it does not seem that we're now talking about the Access to Information Act request and how we dealt with these particular requests we're d

Information & Ethics committee  You ask a pretty tough question. Those of us who work in the public service do so because we're motivated by public service. Right? It's not because we're afraid of being criticized. It's not because we don't look forward to moments such as this, when we get senior positions, to

Information & Ethics committee  Yes, I have been in this job for three months.

Information & Ethics committee  I know it does, but I'm just wondering if that's really what's meant here, because like you, I know it shouldn't take hundreds of hours to locate.

Information & Ethics committee  Yes.