Evidence of meeting #22 for Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics in the 40th Parliament, 3rd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was siksay.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Rob Nicholson Conservative Niagara Falls, ON
Can I answer that? Okay. Thank you.
This matter is being investigated by the Information Commissioner. I understand the question because I get this sort of thing all the time. I get people who ask me about crimes that have been committed and want me to come to decisions, for instance, and publicly express those.
In my capacity as Attorney General and justice minister I'm very careful not to come to a decision unless I have been given that... So if you have information or testimony that you think is of relevance, presumably you will give that to the Information Commissioner.
But again, with respect to my responsibilities and with respect to this act, it is given to the minister, and I delegate this to dedicated public servants who go through this on a regular basis, and I think—
Liberal
Judy Foote Liberal Random—Burin—St. George's, NL
Minister, we're talking about ministerial accountability—
Conservative
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Paul Szabo
I'm going to ask all of the people at the table to respect the fact that if two people talk at the same time the translators are unable to do their job. So I'd ask members to have questions and answers.
Conservative
Rob Nicholson Conservative Niagara Falls, ON
Again, with respect to... We give these to dedicated public servants and I think it's a system that works well.
Liberal
Judy Foote Liberal Random—Burin—St. George's, NL
Well, Minister, it still goes back to ministerial accountability. I mean, we can pass responsibility on to officials and to political staff, but at the end of the day it comes back to ministerial responsibility, and my understanding from the Prime Minister's chief of staff is that there was no permission to give delegated authority to exempt staff to do anything with respect to the ATIP process.
In this case, we had Mr. Togneri, in fact, who directed that a report be unreleased, and he's admitted to that. He's admitted to breaking the law, so where does ministerial accountability reside in this instance? How is it that we still have a minister who is still performing as a minister and we still have an exempt staff member who still has a job with this government when he has admitted to breaking the law under the act for which you have responsibility?
Conservative
Rob Nicholson Conservative Niagara Falls, ON
You may have come to that conclusion, Ms. Foote, and again if you--
Conservative
Conservative
Greg Rickford Conservative Kenora, ON
Yes. This is just a clarification. She just accused both the minister and the staff of admitting that they broke the law. I'd like her to retract.
Liberal
Conservative
Conservative
Greg Rickford Conservative Kenora, ON
I'm not going to take your years of experience today. I'm not feeling well either, so it's garbage. I've looked through the book--
Conservative
Greg Rickford Conservative Kenora, ON
--and I've called a point of order on the basis of a clarification.
Yes, shut the mike off; I'm still going to talk.
You're not being responsible--
Liberal