First of all, what I would want to mention is that in both cases--as a matter of fact, in all five cases--I'm mentioning these things and bringing them to your attention so that people understand when they're passing a law what the consequences are, at least to the extent that I can read the consequences. That doesn't mean that the change is necessarily undesirable. It just means that people have to be aware of the consequences of what they're doing. That's why I focused on only five areas. They are the five main ones.
In terms of access to information, it may well be that one could make it a test under the statute that the Information Commissioner would have to apply instead of a judge in terms of access to documents. That may well work.
The other aspect of the access to information consideration that I want to bring to your attention is under the present system there is some access to information, but it's determined by the Chief Electoral Officer. What will obviously happen is that during an election there will be access requests and they will be processed through the Information Commissioner under this scheme and not under the Chief Electoral Officer. If you understand this and agree with it, it's not a problem. I know that the Chief Electoral Officer, whoever he or she will be eventually, can make this happen. That is not a concern.
With respect to the Director of Public Prosecutions, again, the comments were made in the same spirit--to bring this to the attention of the committee, Mr. Chair, so there is a recognition that there is a slight change. I do not foresee that there would be abuse, but there is a condition that would exist that does not exist at the present time, even though it would have to be done in writing by the Attorney General, if somehow he or she wished to provide direction on a prosecution specifically or general instruction. I cannot say that I'm aware of any case where there has been abuse of this in the past in terms of how our system has worked so far. All I know is that our system has worked well under the commissioner, so it behooves me to bring this to the attention of the committee.