Your time is up.
Mr. Del Mastro now has the floor. He also has seven minutes.
Evidence of meeting #33 for Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics in the 41st Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was carroll.
A recording is available from Parliament.
NDP
The Chair NDP Pierre-Luc Dusseault
Your time is up.
Mr. Del Mastro now has the floor. He also has seven minutes.
Conservative
Dean Del Mastro Conservative Peterborough, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Carroll, you've indicated that you alone are the author of Vikileaks. Specifically, you were tweeting extracts from the divorce records filed in the province of Manitoba. Can you clarify for the committee how you obtained those court documents?
Conservative
Dean Del Mastro Conservative Peterborough, ON
Can you tell me how it came to be that those court documents were in your office?
Conservative
Dean Del Mastro Conservative Peterborough, ON
You don't know how the Liberal Party had court documents in your office, but you're the caucus resources manager.
As an Individual
From my understanding, those documents were there before I started with the office.
Conservative
Conservative
Dean Del Mastro Conservative Peterborough, ON
It was August 2011.
According to information provided to the Minister of Public Safety, only two people have ever signed out that specific file, and this information has been provided to the minister by the court in Manitoba. One person connected to the NDP signed it out in February of this year after Vikileaks30 broke, but the other signed it out in April 2011, during the federal election. I can only assume that it was provided to the Liberal Party then.
You have no idea how the Liberal Party came to have this court document, which you indicate was publicly available, which it was. But you had to go to the province of Manitoba, specifically, to obtain it. You've never been to the province of Manitoba, or you haven't been there specifically to retrieve this file.
As an Individual
Sadly, I've never had the pleasure of being a visitor to Manitoba. I intend to be soon. I've flown over it a lot of times. Again, I don't know how those documents were originally obtained.
Conservative
Dean Del Mastro Conservative Peterborough, ON
Is this common for the Liberal Party? They have files on ministers and MPs? They collect dirt they can release when they see fit?
As an Individual
I don't know if I can answer if it's common or not. I don't know. I know that every party has what's called opposition research. There are files. I wouldn't characterize it in the way you have. We're talking about quotes and biographical data. If there is something extra—some other information—sure, that might be in the file too.
Conservative
Dean Del Mastro Conservative Peterborough, ON
Okay, but the Liberal leader said that personal lives are out of bounds. He said that we have crossed a barrier. When he apologized in the House of Commons after saying that he had just learned of this, he indicated that personal lives were out of bounds. But the Liberal Party has a copy of the Minister of Public Safety's divorce record on file. If it's out of bounds, why do they have the file? Who is responsible for gathering these documents? Who manages these documents? Who in the Liberal Party office is responsible for them? I assume you must have gotten them from somebody. Whose position is this? If it's not yours as caucus resources manager, whose is it?
As an Individual
The documents and the files are updated and added to by many people.
As an Individual
You can go on to our government directory and you will see a whole list of individuals.
Conservative
Dean Del Mastro Conservative Peterborough, ON
You can't dodge the question, Mr. Carroll. Who manages these documents? Who would you have to go to? If you wanted this file, you would say you were going to go see—fill in the blank—to get a copy of this file. Who would the blank be?
As an Individual
We don't have a librarian. The files are available in a fully accessible filing cabinet that everybody in our office is able to access.
Conservative
Conservative
Dean Del Mastro Conservative Peterborough, ON
The Liberal Research Bureau. Who runs the Liberal Research Bureau?
Conservative
As an Individual
It's actually a female. Marci Surkes is the manager of the LRB.