I would like to begin by thanking you for appearing before the committee this afternoon. Your testimony is important all the more so because, based on what we have heard, you have all been expert victims of the access to Information Act. None of you, unless I am mistaken, seems to question the fact that the name of a reporter who had placed a request under the access to Information Act was turned over to a minister's staff. If you do not agree with what I have just said, please say so. It would be interesting to hear what you have to say in your capacity as expert victims, if I may use that expression, on certain issues, be they secondary or very important.
To begin, two weeks ago, experts from the Office of the Information Commissioner came before the committee and told us that applicants were divided into five categories: corporations, members of the public, organizations; the media and people from academia. We were given a breakdown of requests in the form of percentages.
Do you really believe that there are only five categories and that there are no sub-categories? Have you ever thought about making an access to information request to see if there are any other categories?
You probably know that our committee adopted a motion, two and a half weeks ago, asking the minister to redraft the access to Information Act. We gave him December 15 as a deadline. Perhaps he is listening to us as we speak. It is also possible that certain people would like to know what you are suggesting to protect the identity of applicants. In your opinion, that is as expert victims, what sanctions do you think should be imposed on people who revealed the identity of applicants to make sure that this sort of thing does not happen again?
Lastly, two weeks ago, I presented an idea to the representatives from the Office of the Information Commissioner, namely that when an applicant is provided with the information requested, the names of the people to whom the applicant's identity was revealed also be provided to the applicant. I do not know if that is a good idea. I would like each of you to answer these questions, and please feel free to decide amongst yourself who goes first.