I worked on this file for a number of years as well, and I've expressed concerns about proposals to open this up completely. One of the specific comments that I've made publicly in the past is on the issue of cabinet confidences when I wasn't a cabinet minister. I said this is a deep concern and that you simply don't want to open up cabinet documents to that kind of proposal. To suggest that my comments here are somehow new and that I haven't expressed reservations about simply opening up things is just wrong.
I view the right to access to information in much the same way as I do the relationship between the substantive rights in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the limitation in section 1. We have freedom of expression in paragraph 2(b) of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms 1982, but what we also have is section 1 of the charter, which says that the rights and freedoms set out in this document are limited in such a way as can be demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society. I'm paraphrasing a bit, but that's generally the import of section 1.
All I'm saying here today is that I am passionate about freedom of speech, for example, and freedom of expression, and yet we all acknowledge that there have to be limits on freedom of expression. What I'm asking is, how does one define those limits? I think we're having that discussion. In the discussion paper that I've tabled in the House, and in the comments that I've made here today, I've said I'm in favour of an open government. How do we define the extent of that openness in a manner that is consistent with our other obligations and responsibilities?
I've given you some very clear indications of some of the things I think should be addressed by this committee. I think the Information Commissioner, in his general principle, is correct, but he hasn't addressed what the appropriate context is. What we're trying to do here today, in much the same way that section 1 does for the freedoms set out in section 2 or the rights set out in sections 7 through 11, is establish a context. That's what I would hope this committee could look at.