Declaration of Emergency Committee on Feb. 27th, 2024

[The Joint Chair, Hon. Gwen Boniface]

Senator Carignan, you have five minutes.

[Claude Carignan]

My question is for both ministers.

Do you have something to hide?

[Dominic LeBlanc, Liberal, Beauséjour, NB]

It's a pleasure to see you, Senator Carignan.

No, I have nothing to hide.

[Claude Carignan]

Why won't you give us the legal opinion, then?

[Arif Virani, Liberal, Parkdale—High Park, ON]

Because it's protected by—

[Claude Carignan]

No, but that's—

[Arif Virani, Liberal, Parkdale—High Park, ON]

May I respond, Madam Chair?

[Claude Carignan]

No. You've repeated it eight times now.

[Arif Virani, Liberal, Parkdale—High Park, ON]

That's because it's protected by solicitor-client privilege.

[Claude Carignan]

Understood.

I'm a lawyer myself.

[Arif Virani, Liberal, Parkdale—High Park, ON]

Yes, I remember.

[Claude Carignan]

I've studied the issue of solicitor‑client privilege rather extensively. To whom does the privilege belong? Who benefits? Cabinet benefits.

[Arif Virani, Liberal, Parkdale—High Park, ON]

It benefits the client.

[Claude Carignan]

Why, then, doesn't cabinet simply relieve the minister of his privilege or duty of confidentiality, if you have nothing to hide? I think that you're heavyweights in cabinet. What's preventing you from providing the legal opinion?

You wouldn't give it to Justice Rouleau. You said that Justice Rouleau made various decisions, that he examined everything and that it's all good. However, he didn't examine the legal opinion, because you wouldn't give it to him.

Why hide it? There are two possibilities: either the legal opinion states that the measures taken were legal, or else it states that they were illegal. If it states that they were legal, what's preventing you from giving it to us?

[Sherry Romanado, Liberal, Longueuil—Charles-LeMoyne, QC]

I have a point of order, Madam Chair.

Whenever Senator Carignan bangs on the table, it hurts the interpreters' ears.

[Claude Carignan]

I apologize. I certainly don't want to hurt them.

What's the holdup? If the legal opinion says that it was legal, give it to us. We'll close the file right now and move on to something else.

[Arif Virani, Liberal, Parkdale—High Park, ON]

Mr. Carignan, I would expect you, as a lawyer, to appreciate that it is not the contents we're trying to protect. What is critical in protecting solicitor-client privilege is a relationship that has existed, as I mentioned, for hundreds of years between solicitors and their clients and that promotes candour and free, full and fair advice.

[Claude Carignan]

In this instance, cabinet is the client.

[Arif Virani, Liberal, Parkdale—High Park, ON]

It's understanding that this privilege is sacrosanct between that professional and their client. It is important to the functioning of law—

[Claude Carignan]

You know—

[Arif Virani, Liberal, Parkdale—High Park, ON]

—in this country and in the British common law.

[Claude Carignan]

Don't speak to me like that. It feels like you take me for a fool.

[The Joint Chair, Hon. Gwen Boniface]

Senator Carignan and Minister, would you take turns, because the interpreters cannot interpret?

[Arif Virani, Liberal, Parkdale—High Park, ON]

I'm just trying to finish my answer, Madam Chair.

[The Joint Chair, Hon. Gwen Boniface]

Please do, and then Senator Carignan can go.