Again, I think if your staff are acting on your behalf...of the top government officials, which cabinet appoints and which, unfortunately, makes the top level of the public service partisan, because they're all serving at the pleasure of the cabinet. If those people are acting on your behalf, then I don't think the plausible deniability defence should be allowed unless you can truly prove that they went rogue.
That's the key. It's part of our whole notion of ministerial responsibility and accountability. It's stated in the Prime Minister's code and the Treasury Board code that staff are acting on behalf of ministers and have no authority to act otherwise.