Thank you for the question, Mr. Villemure.
I would echo what my colleague, Dean, said about how this act was intended to be a tool to shift the balance of power in terms of the citizens and everyday people trying to have a relationship with government where they have power to get knowledge, to learn what their government is doing day to day. Unfortunately, it also nullified the declassification system, also in the past.
The way that this act was designed 40 years ago did not do that. It failed, and now we have 40 years of evidence that shows this. If we were to do this over again and press “reset”, which I believe we need to do, we would pursue something like the Citizens’ Forum on Canada’s Future, called the Spicer commission. It should be citizens themselves who participate in the formulation of a piece of legislation that is for them. It's not for bureaucrats and government officials; it's for them to say how they want their information.
Right now, it has resulted in obscurity for so long that you have to wonder why people have such problems knowing clarity around residential schools, for example, elements of history, and current events. This transcends so many different areas about how people learn about what this nation is.