The Broadcasting Act, as you know, indicates that the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation ought to operate independently of government. I support that.
The current section 68.1 of the Access to Information Act talks about exempting or excluding documents in the power and control of CBC that deal with activities. As you no doubt know, I have deliberately changed the word “activities” to “independence”, based firstly on the Information Commissioner's testimony to this very committee when it studied section 68.1.
However, I also believe that the access act will now mirror the Broadcasting Act, in that it is CBC's independence from government which must be maintained. The public broadcaster ought to be able to operate independently of government, certainly in terms of its journalistic integrity and its programming sources. It should not be directed by the Minister of Heritage or any other government official on what it can and can't produce. I do believe that it ought to be governed and ought to operate independently from government, and this bill protects that. Any application for any access request that compromises that independence, as you know, would be exempted from disclosure pursuant to the injury-based exemption.