This trial separation has been hard on all of us.
Since submitting my motion two weeks ago, the CBC has cooperated by providing the committee with documents. We appreciate that.
We've also had some advice from the law clerk that was clear in indicating that while my motion.... My motion contained conditions for all documents to be viewed in camera. The law clerk indicated that the ethics committee would avoid any offending sub judice convention if we were to proceed in that fashion. And I appreciated that.
Over the time period, the CBC has publicly released some of the information that was part of my motion. This information was previously deemed to be under section 68.1 of the Access to Information Act, specifically. I have the listing of their vehicle fleet, which was publicly released. We appreciate that, as well.
It demonstrates to me that the concerns about how section 68.1 was being applied and the allegations that were specifically levelled by the Information Commissioner in this regard were in fact valid. That was the reason behind the motion in the first place.
Secondly, in a separate process to this committee, the Federal Court of Appeal noted in its ruling yesterday, in paragraph 13, that
...for 13 of the 16 files, no records were examined to justify the refusals, the CBC having determined that the exclusion under section 68.1 of the Act applied from a simple reading of the access requests.
This is again validation of the testimony made by the Information Commissioner at this committee.
All this is to say, Madam Chairman, that I do not see the need at this point to open any sealed envelopes that have been provided to this committee. I want to make sure the concerns raised by the CBC and others in this regard will be respected. That being said, the balance of the information will be viewed in camera at this committee to help inform members, and members of the Conservative Party will keep all information contained in those documents strictly confidential.
Thank you.