I don't believe anyone did ask for Mr. Tognieri's opinion.
Perhaps Mr. Tognieri misunderstood his role in the process we have at Public Works and Government Services Canada. Much like other government institutions, we have a method through which requests are reviewed, in terms of their texts, to determine if any are sensitive and require communications products or briefings associated with their disclosure.
Mr. Tognieri participated in that process by reviewing the texts of the requests as we received them on a weekly basis. This particular request was identified as requiring media products, communications products, and that it would be given a heads-up throughout the department to the responsible assistant deputy minister, the associate deputy's office, and the minister's office.
Through that process there is a routing slip that simply indicates that the disclosure package has gone for this heads-up, this review. It would have been through that process that Mr. Tognieri would have seen the disclosure package to go.
So in specific answer to the question, it is my belief that Mr. Tognieri misunderstood his role in reviewing those documents, subject to release, and believed he was actually being asked for an opinion. In fact, he was not being asked for an opinion.