Again, speaking without the files in front of us, Mr. Esau's original request to the department was for a global report. The access to information division went to the division responsible for human rights. They came back and said we don't do such a report, similar to the type of global report that the United States and the United Kingdom produce.
The ATIP division then challenged that by also consulting the legal bureau in the department, which also has a section that covers international humanitarian law and human rights law; they similarly said.
We went back to the client and advised that there was no such report. The file was essentially closed.
Subsequent to that, there was an exchange of e-mails, and I believe some phone calls, between Mr. Esau and officers in the ATIP division that further clarified the question. Mr. Esau said he had thought at one point--I'm paraphrasing slightly--that there was a global report with chapters in it. He mentioned specifically a chapter on China and a chapter on Iran, I think.
We don't do a global report like that. We told him we do reports on individual countries. We also explained that if he wished to have the reports on all the countries we do, an extensive search, then at that point the client has to pay. But he was told that if he wished to identify a country or other countries or a number of countries that he wished to have reports on human rights searched for--and the years, obviously--we would be pleased to accommodate him. At that point, if I recall correctly, he advised that he had already submitted a separate request for the human rights report on Afghanistan.
Thank you.