Thank you, Mr. Brock.
I put my name on the list. So I will give myself the floor, if the committee will allow it. I know that Senator Cordy also wants to speak to this.
I agree with Senator Carignan. What bothers me here is that we will never be able to know whether the redaction is justified or not if no one talks to us about it. In other words, agencies could provide us with completely redacted documents, and we won't know whether the redaction is legitimate or not.
So there needs to be a process for validating redaction. That process may consist in submitting the original and redacted documents to the law clerk or someone else that the committee trusts for that person to review the proposed redaction and give us their opinion. This is one possibility.
On the other hand, we are all bound by certain confidentiality rules as part of our duties as senators or members of Parliament. In addition, prior to serving on this committee, each of us signed a confidentiality undertaking in relation to some of the information that may be provided to us. To date, we have never invoked this confidentiality undertaking to obtain information other than what we would normally obtain. Is there not an opportunity here to do so?
As an example, if the Canada Border Services Agency decided that some of the documents needed to be redacted, couldn't we subpoena their representatives in camera to explain to us why certain information needed to be redacted? We could then decide whether or not to accept that redaction, and then intervene in the House or elsewhere as needed.
One thing is certain: we cannot receive redacted documents without justification. We are not talking about two or three words that are redacted, but entire pages. We cannot receive that and say nothing, otherwise our mandate is meaningless. We have to be given the full information or be told why the full information cannot be made public.
That's my opinion.
That said, I give the floor to Senator Cordy.