Mr. Chairman, I'm not going to have opening comments, I just have a thumbnail sketch of where I'm coming from and why I have an interest in access to information.
When I retired from the military in 1992, I was appointed acting director general of corporate management services at National Defence Headquarters. At the time, the access to information and privacy function was my responsibility. I spent three or four or five per cent of time a day on it. Every day, I had those green folders on my desk. It was my task to either inform the Minister of National Defence at the time, through his staff, to let him know what kinds of documents would be released on a specific day. I did this for two years.
On retirement, I created my own consulting firm specializing in access to information and privacy. My clientele ranged from members of Parliament--from every party in fact--to corporations, individuals, academia and the like. On average, I would submit something like 1,200 to 1,500 requests a year.
In 1996, I decided to go back to school, and I attained a law degree in both civil law and common law. On completion of my articles at the Federal Court of Appeal, access to me then, if it meant what it said, that it is a quasi-constitutional right.... In my research, and in the work I did as an articling clerk at the Federal Court of Appeal, when I looked at the law library, I recognized that there wasn't a single textbook on access and privacy. I set out a course to correct that. And I did. Before I was called to the bar, I produced the first edition of Federal Access to Information and Privacy Legislation. It is now in its fifth edition.
Being called to the bar, I opened my own practice, and I actually spent a good proportion of my practice doing access to information and privacy. The majority of my clients are either media or corporations or individuals. About 20% of my practice is now devoted to access. I submit, I would say, 600 or 700 requests a year--at least, the staff do it on my behalf.
At the same time as authoring this book, I also teach at the faculty of law,
in the civil law section, an access to information course for graduate and undergraduate students.
I should also add that my experience, as far as my private life and personal information being violated — and in some cases, this goes back to 1996 and 1997 — has convinced me that every time I made a request, the authorities who wanted to know who I was, did what they had to find out, and they did it on a regular basis.
I've been intercepted at cocktail parties, or through phone calls, and in many other ways, where people say they've heard I submitted a request or that my firm submitted a request. So I've lost any of my innocence concerning the potential protection of my privacy when I submit an access request.
People come to me as a lawyer and as a law firm to submit access requests because, besides providing them with the expertise that I've acquired over the years, I'm providing them with client-solicitor protection. My name could be divulged, but the identity or even the types of activities performed for my clients would not be known. It is too bad that we have to do this, but this is something we have to do.
To me, this divulgence of personal information is but one aspect. It's a serious aspect, but it doesn't prevent me from doing my job. I've learned over the years to cope with it, understanding that I have no protection through the system and that my identity is in fact regularly revealed as and when required.
I'll take questions.