Declaration of Emergency Committee on June 7th, 2022

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

Solicitor-client privilege, which covers not just the advice but also the mere fact that the advice exists, or the number of times the advice has been given—

[The Joint Chair, NDP, Matthew Green]

That is aligned with Crown privilege. Is that correct?

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

It's solicitor-client privilege.

[The Joint Chair, NDP, Matthew Green]

Which is Crown privilege.

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

No, it is not

[The Joint Chair, NDP, Matthew Green]

I'm going to take a moment and just recess. I'm going to come back to this.

[Glen Motz, Conservative, Medicine Hat—Cardston—Warner, AB]

Chair, before you do that, please, can I suggest that we put this in abeyance for now, and consider it at some point down the road. There are questions we need to ask with limited time, and I want to ask that we just—

[The Joint Chair, NDP, Matthew Green]

I'll pass the chair and I'll—

[The Joint Chair, Bloc, Rhéal Fortin]

Mr. Chair, Mr. Virani tells us that the witness is invoking solicitor-client privilege. I understand that, but it does not apply in the case before us.

Mr. Daigle is not here as a lawyer for the Minister of Justice. He is here to represent the Department of Justice in his position as Deputy Minister. In his position as Deputy Minister, he does not enjoy solicitor-client privilege when he speaks with his boss.

I'm not going to spend any more time arguing here, but we will continue this debate in the House of Commons or the Senate in due course. I am just saying that solicitor-client privilege, in Mr. Daigle's case, in spite of all the respect I have for him, does not apply. He is not Mr. Lametti's lawyer, he is a Department of Justice official.

[The Joint Chair, NDP, Matthew Green]

That's duly noted.

At this time, I will pass the chair over to you, Mr. Fortin, so that I can engage in my five minutes of questioning.

[The Joint Chair, Bloc, Rhéal Fortin]

The floor is yours, Mr. Chair.

[The Joint Chair, NDP, Matthew Green]

Thank you very much.

Mr. Daigle, are you familiar with the duty of candour as applied in the CSIS Act?

[François Daigle]

I am very familiar with the duty of candour, yes, and you have my promise to be as candid as I can be here today.

[The Joint Chair, NDP, Matthew Green]

In refusing to answer questions as put before you, do you consider that to be in keeping with the duty of candour, as defined?

[François Daigle]

Even the Federal Court and the Supreme Court of Canada would recognize that solicitor-client information is confidential and privileged. By claiming solicitor-client privilege, I was not refusing to answer. I was explaining that there are limits to the information I can provide.

[The Joint Chair, NDP, Matthew Green]

In the lead-up to the declaration of the emergency, how did your department assess the threat to public safety and security posed by the blockades and the convoy?

[François Daigle]

As I explained in my opening remarks, the government looked at the definitions in sections 3, 16 and 17 of the Emergencies Act. They summarized, in the section 58 report they tabled in Parliament, the reasons and the facts that led them to come to the conclusion that there were reasonable grounds to believe that the threshold had been met.

[The Joint Chair, NDP, Matthew Green]

You referenced the government, but when you were a part of these discussions, you would have been privy to the nature of these threats presumably beyond the scope of what has been reported in the summary. Is that correct?

[François Daigle]

The government summarized that information in the document, so I would refer you to that—

[The Joint Chair, NDP, Matthew Green]

My question, through you, Mr. Chair, to Mr. Daigle, is this: Would you have been the recipient of a body of evidence that you would have balanced these risks against to check for proportionality?

[François Daigle]

As I said, I participated in discussions that included Commissioner Lucki and others leading up to this. I received oral briefings of what was happening on the ground.

[The Joint Chair, NDP, Matthew Green]

Were notes taken of those briefings?

[François Daigle]

Notes were undoubtedly taken. Notes were taken. I took my own notes of—

[The Joint Chair, NDP, Matthew Green]

Would you be willing to share those with the committee?

[François Daigle]

We took note of the committee's request for documents. There are some documents that are being prepared to be shared with the committee in response to the motion, and—