Information & Ethics Committee on May 11th, 2010

[Carole Freeman, Bloc, Châteauguay—Saint-Constant, QC]

Mr. Togneri, you sent an email requesting that a document not be released, that it be recalled. No doubt, it was a document whose content might have been disturbing to some. So you intercepted it. In fact, you gave the order to have it intercepted. Once it was intercepted, who took possession of the document to censor it?

[Sébastien Togneri]

I have to say.... I....

The last time I was here, I said that I made an error in judgment and that I....

[Carole Freeman, Bloc, Châteauguay—Saint-Constant, QC]

I agree that you made an error in judgment. I am not questioning that.

[Sébastien Togneri]

Yes, but....

[Carole Freeman, Bloc, Châteauguay—Saint-Constant, QC]

What I want to know is this: Who was the intercepted 132-page document given to to be censored? You sent an email to have the document intercepted. So someone intercepted it and brought it to you. If the person did not bring it to you, who did they give it to to be censored?

[Sébastien Togneri]

I did not request that a document be censored. And....

[Carole Freeman, Bloc, Châteauguay—Saint-Constant, QC]

No, you asked that it be intercepted. You had a document intercepted so that it would be returned to your offices. Who was the document given to?

[Sébastien Togneri]

I do not know. I am not sure where the document went exactly.

[Carole Freeman, Bloc, Châteauguay—Saint-Constant, QC]

Do you know who censored the document?

[Sébastien Togneri]

I have no idea.

[Carole Freeman, Bloc, Châteauguay—Saint-Constant, QC]

You have no idea? You are admitting under oath that you have no idea what happened to the document that you requested be intercepted in order for it to be returned to the minister's office. You have no idea what happened to the document.

[Sébastien Togneri]

I do not know.

[Carole Freeman, Bloc, Châteauguay—Saint-Constant, QC]

You are not aware of anything?

[Sébastien Togneri]

I do not know what happened to the document.

[Carole Freeman, Bloc, Châteauguay—Saint-Constant, QC]

You did not handle the document? You did not read it, withhold it or make changes to it? You did not do anything to the document in question?

[Sébastien Togneri]

Thank you for your question.

Again, I do not know. The....

[Carole Freeman, Bloc, Châteauguay—Saint-Constant, QC]

That is interesting because you did not receive any order. According to your claims, according to your testimony, you did not receive any directive to intercept the document. You intercepted it. The document came back to the minister's office. The 132-page document was censored on 32 pages. And you are not aware of anything that happened.

[Sébastien Togneri]

No, that is not....

[Carole Freeman, Bloc, Châteauguay—Saint-Constant, QC]

So who gave you the order? Someone gave you the order. You made a mistake, as you said. If it were just a mistake, you would have handed over the document, you would have given it back in its original 132-page form.

Did you receive a directive to retrieve the document so that it could be censored?

[Sébastien Togneri]

The document was not returned to the minister's office.

[Carole Freeman, Bloc, Châteauguay—Saint-Constant, QC]

Where did it go?

[Sébastien Togneri]

I do not know. I imagine....

I do not know, I really do not know.

[Carole Freeman, Bloc, Châteauguay—Saint-Constant, QC]

But, Mr. Togneri, you requested that the document be intercepted. Surely, you followed up on the document, did you not?

[The Chair, Liberal, Paul Szabo]

Fine, thank you.

[Sébastien Togneri]

No. I do not know where it went.