Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Good morning to committee members and especially to the vice-chair, Joël Lightbound, our former colleague.
First I'd like to introduce ourselves. I am an associate with the law firm Fasken Martineau. In the Montreal office, we both work in access to information and privacy protection, with respect to both federal legislation and Quebec provincial legislation.
In the private sector, I've had the opportunity to argue cases, lecture and publish papers on access to information. My most recent article, on notification requirements when there is a breach of confidentiality, was published in the latest issue of the Revue du Barreau.
My colleague Marc-André Boucher published his master's thesis, entitled La Loi sur l'accès à l'information et la protection des renseignements personnels commerciaux en droit fédéral in 2014 through Éditions Yvon Blais.
This is my second time appearing before a parliamentary committee this year. I also appeared before the National Assembly as part of Quebec's review of the act respecting access to documents held by public bodies and the protection of personal information.
We would like to address three subjects with you. The first is the issue of notifying third parties. The second relates to access to Cabinet documents, and the third is the administrative framework, including the procedure and deadlines set out in the Access to Information Act.
I'll start with the first subject.
I would refer you to the 2012 Supreme Court of Canada decision in Merck Frosst Canada Ltd. v. Canada (Health), which discussed the matter of the notification requirement for third parties. The Supreme Court of Canada decided to recognize a criterion that access to information officials were not systematically required to notify third parties when they intended to release documents if they were of the opinion that there was no possibility of harm within the meaning of section 20 of the act, which we think leaves a loophole.
We represent public bodies and access requesters, but we also often represent third parties. We have several points of view. In terms of federal legislation, we often represent third parties, and we found that it left an uncertainty. What we told the companies that are going to provide information to the government or to departments is that it might be possible to release the documents without the knowledge of the individuals involved. This is something that we are asking you to review and that you must question, to determine if it's the right mechanism to ensure the protection of third parties, when the access to information official is not an expert in third-party business affairs to be able to judge the applicability of section 20.
With that, I would refer you to pages 69 to 78 of my colleague Marc-André Boucher's book, in which he addresses notice to third parties. That's the first subject we feel that the committee should consider for reforming the Access to Information Act.