I'm wondering if it would be possible for the clerk or someone to get for the committee the written protocol on “confidential”, “classified”, “secret”, “top secret”, and also what the rules are around these things. In my experience, the difference between a letter marked “confidential” and a document attached to it that is not marked “confidential” is really whether it's a classified document or not, in that all of us can send letters to one another and mark them confidential. So I would just like to have the Government of Canada's rules on this. To my mind, it is the health of Canadians I'm most worried about; but I think for the sake of Mr. Pomerleau's career, it would be important for this committee to know these rules.
On August 19th, 2008. See this statement in context.