Evidence of meeting #48 for Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics in the 39th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was amendment.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Prof. Amir Attaran
The access to information staff will, in my understanding of the ordinary course of things--but I suggest you ask Mr. Esau because of his great experience in the matter--
Prof. Amir Attaran
In my understanding, they will see the unredacted copy and make decisions, in collaboration with others in the department, about what to withhold and what not to withhold.
Prof. Amir Attaran
I do not know what they saw, obviously, because I'm not entitled to see the document at that stage.
Conservative
David Tilson Conservative Dufferin—Caledon, ON
Sir, you made a statement that there were certain individuals in departments who told you they had seen the report, and I'm just trying to determine what report that was. Was that the clean report or the blacked-out report?
Prof. Amir Attaran
As far as I understand the process, the report begins clean and the access to information staff choose what to redact. So you will see it clean, and then they will see it as they redact it ,and then they will see it last of all in the form that is provided to requests.
Conservative
David Tilson Conservative Dufferin—Caledon, ON
Can you tell us the names and departments that you referred to, the people who saw that report?
Prof. Amir Attaran
I have given you the names of the people who handled my file. Jennifer Nixon--
Conservative
David Tilson Conservative Dufferin—Caledon, ON
So that's what you meant when you said names of individuals. It was the people in the ministry or the access to information people or the foreign affairs department, whoever. Those are the people you are referring to.
Prof. Amir Attaran
Jennifer Nixon, Gary Switzer, Jocelyne Sabourin were, at the material times, employed in the access to information section at DFAIT.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Tom Wappel
Excuse me. I'm going to get to that.
I thought, Professor, you had said that you had had discussions with people. I took it—and perhaps I'm wrong—that these were acquaintances of yours and that they had told you they had seen the report. I think possibly Mr. Tilson took it the same way. And if they were acquaintances of yours, he wanted to know whether they saw the full report or the censored report, if you know.
Now, if we've misunderstood your evidence, then I'd appreciate it if you would correct that for us.
Prof. Amir Attaran
These were acquaintances. This was not official business. What they said was, in essence—I paraphrase—“I saw the report that was on page 1 of the Globe”, which is the redacted one.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Tom Wappel
Sorry, Mr. Tilson, I'm just asking this.
The question then has to be, when they told this to you, what was your understanding of what they meant by “report”?
Prof. Amir Attaran
My understanding was that the report was not confined to DFAIT, that people outside DFAIT—
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Tom Wappel
Understood, but when they referred to the report, what was your understanding—the censored version or the clean version?
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Tom Wappel
You don't know.
Thank you.
Colleagues, we have an opportunity to go on if the witnesses are interested in staying, or we can leave. It is entirely up to the committee.
I'll ask the witnesses. Would the witnesses, or either of them, be prepared to stay a little longer if the committee wants to?
I know you want to go home for supper, Mr. Esau.
Professor?
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Tom Wappel
Are you okay to stay if the committee wants to stay? Is that okay with you, Professor?
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Tom Wappel
I'd like to know, would the committee like to stay a little bit longer? In that case, I would like to limit it at this point to half an hour and then ask again.
Madam Lavallée, you have a question.
Bloc
Carole Lavallée Bloc Saint-Bruno—Saint-Hubert, QC
I have a question, Mr. Chairman.
What are we doing with the third item on the agenda?