Thank you.
Ms. Sabourin, the Access to Information Act is very important legislation for consumers, for the population, for citizens and for voters. The act was created for them and it is an act that is intended to ensure government transparency.
For the last little while, you have said repeatedly that you have restricted your criteria, that you have drafted your own guidelines in order to impose limits on yourselves. You also say that in 2006, you eliminated the word "torture" because it would have been illegal to disclose the fact that there had been torture in Afghanistan. On the other hand, in 2004, you kept that word. Was it in 2004 or in 2006 that you were yourselves in an illegal position?
Then, you boast about the fact that 81.3% of the requests you receive were dealt with on time, whereas the legislation demands 100%. That is another form of illegality. You arrived here without files; I cannot believe it. You do not even have a copy of the legislation in hand. It seems incredible to me. I do not know who advised you before your appearance, Ms. Sabourin, but I must tell you that I am very disappointed.
Moreover, you told Mr. Attaran that this kind of a report does not exist whereas you know that these reports are produced by country, and he asked for a global human rights report. You did not even tell him that such country-by-country reports exist. That is the worst response that a citizen could get. You know and yet you did not tell him. You were waiting for the precise question, as if this were a quiz. That is unacceptable.
What is really bizarre in your case, Ms. Sabourin, is that you are drawing all of the blame upon yourself. It is as if you are preparing to experience a very difficult, even dramatic, I would say, final stretch in your career. It seems that for the last little while, you have been attempting to show us that you are incompetent. Mr. Wallace's congratulations would be the Judas kiss of the Conservatives. I'm telling you that they are not real congratulations.
I cannot believe that you are whipping yourself like this in public and that you have decided to end your career on the issue of the Department of Foreign Affairs' internal report on the prisoners tortured in Afghanistan. I cannot believe that. I imagine that you must have received marching orders from someone. It is not possible. When did you or someone on your team decide to review your guidelines in order to delete the word "torture"? When did you decide to do that? Do you have a document or some e-mail to submit to us on the issue? Do you have the minutes of a meeting, perhaps, that it would be in your best interest to send us? Can you swear to me—because you are under oath—that the people who participated in this decision did not speak to anyone in cabinet directly or indirectly? Are you absolutely sure that throughout the whole process, there was no political interference of any kind?
In subsection 15(1)—I know that you do not have a copy of the legislation with you, as you go to war without a gun—there are exactly 10 paragraphs, from (a) to (i). The first deals with military tactics or strategy. Could torture fit into that definition? Is it part of defence materiel? No. Is it part of the characteristics, capabilities, performance, potential, deployment, functions or role of any defence establishments? No. Could we find the reason in paragraph (d): information obtained or prepared for the purpose of intelligence relating to the defence of Canada? No. Is it part of the information for the purpose of intelligence respecting foreign states? No. I could read them all. There is no reason.
The only reason I can imagine is that some political person said that it would not be very good if Canada and our ministers were aware of the fact that Afghan prisoners had been sent to Afghan prisons and were tortured with the full knowledge of this country, because that goes against the Geneva Convention. That is the only reason why we might believe, Ms. Sabourin, that you or someone on your team would have suddenly decided... If you are the one who did it, I can assure you that it was not very bright.