Yes. One of the things I'd like to make clear is that I have never seen the redacted version of that document. I have never received anything from the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade. I have not received it from anybody in the room or outside the room. And I have never seen a copy of the uncensored report.
I just want to make it clear that I'm not coming here with any preconceptions about what may be in the report. When I get if officially, I will analyze it and I will report back to the people who have retained me.
My involvement in this particular series of events started when I was asked to inquire within Foreign Affairs about a specific report that was produced--allegedly produced at that time, because I take nothing at face value. And I was going to explore whether or not that document existed, and if it existed, get hold of it and basically do an analysis of it and write a story about it or contribute to stories about that document and the larger context in which it involved the Canadian Forces and the three-D approach that's being used in Afghanistan.
This is one of the misconceptions that I've heard today. I made two requests, and I'm going to read the wording of the requests into the record so that there's no ambiguity about that. In my first request that I sent in, which was received by the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade on March 14, 2007, I requested “A copy of DFAIT's 2005-06 annual or semi-annual report or the 2006-07, if it's been drafted, on human rights performance in countries around the world.” That was the request.
One week later, approximately a week later, I received a letter--on March 22. It was not signed by Jocelyne Sabourin; it was signed on her behalf by somebody, and I was told in the letter, “Please be advised that Canada does not produce an annual human rights report analogous to reports produced by, for example, the United States or the United Kingdom. Therefore no such report on human rights performance in other countries exists.”