Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Good afternoon, Ms. Platt, Ms. Schellenberg and Mr. Fraser. I find it interesting that you quote Mr. Barack Hussein Obama in your brief. That's good; it's a breath of fresh air from the south. I'd like to know whether we could also cite our previous prime ministers, if they said as much about such fundamental things as access to information. That will be a job for later.
When I think of the Access to Information Act, the image I have is that of an individual who, in accordance with the rules he must obey because he is a government employee, draws lines on sheets of paper with a big marker pen to make sure no one has access to much in that document, but the semi-colons don't disappear.
The minister recently appeared before the committee. We asked him when his government would be introducing a new access to information bill to modernize the current act. Requests have been made for that purpose for 20 years now, if not more. The committee has even introduced motions in the House of Commons asking the minister to table a bill to modernize access to information by May 31, 2009. Just back from Niagara Falls, he absolutely wanted to have nothing to do with it. It was a case of logorrhea in a desert of ideas, which boiled down to the fact that it was out of the question.
The fact nevertheless remains that you've done a certain amount of work. I was a good student; I read your brief. I'm a teacher by training, not a lawyer. I found your remarks interesting. Ms. Pratt, earlier you made a good presentation. If I had to make a brief comment, I would say thank you very much for the work you've done with regard to Mr. Marleau's remarks.
Today, we know that Mr. John Reid, Mr. Marleau's predecessor, previously drafted a bill to suggest amendments to the Access to Information Act. Historically, you probably know more about the subject than I do. You don't seem to agree on Mr. Marleau's three recommendations. You agree on certain points, such as points 7, 8 and 11, which you cited earlier, which deserve to be reconsidered, in your view.
For my part, I wonder about point 8, which concerns Cabinet. If I correctly understood the documentation I read for the meeting with the present Minister of Justice, Mr. Nicholson, in some Canadian provinces, people have access to documents from the cabinets of those provinces. Are you aware of that situation? If that's the case, why would people be able to access those documents at the provincial level, but not the federal level? I'm speaking to the three of you. You're experts.