Evidence of meeting #38 for Procedure and House Affairs in the 40th Parliament, 3rd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was may.
A recording is available from Parliament.
12:20 p.m.
Liberal
Marcel Proulx Liberal Hull—Aylmer, QC
Ms. Block did not offer you permission. Since you don't have it, you can't act.
12:20 p.m.
Chief Information Officer, House of Commons
No, my staff and I were not involved in that discussion.
12:20 p.m.
Liberal
Marcel Proulx Liberal Hull—Aylmer, QC
Mr. Bard, imagine that Ms. Block gave you permission to provide the committee with the information you were able to give her after doing the search, immediately or before the end of the day today. What would it be, exactly? What would you be able to provide?
12:20 p.m.
Chief Information Officer, House of Commons
We would be able to give you what we have already given the member: the list of emails sent externally on that day.
12:20 p.m.
Liberal
Marcel Proulx Liberal Hull—Aylmer, QC
I am familiar with your systems because I had the privilege of visiting some gigantic and very impressive facilities. Is it possible to trace the emails sent from an employee's BlackBerry, as in this case? This is an employee of Ms. Block. We're talking about emails sent using a BlackBerry in the conventional way or by what is commonly and intelligently called BlackBerry PINing. Do you have the capacity to trace those messages?
12:20 p.m.
Chief Information Officer, House of Commons
If a BlackBerry is used in conventional mode, it's the same as sending an email from an office, whether you're sitting in the House or in an office. But we don't keep any record of it, there is no log in the case of origin and destination.
12:20 p.m.
Liberal
Marcel Proulx Liberal Hull—Aylmer, QC
Do you have access to faxes sent? If something was sent from the member's office by fax, do you have access...
12:20 p.m.
Chief Information Officer, House of Commons
No, it isn't recorded, we have no log of that kind of activity.
12:20 p.m.
Liberal
Marcel Proulx Liberal Hull—Aylmer, QC
Would you have a log of the numbers to which her fax machine sent faxes?
12:20 p.m.
Chief Information Officer, House of Commons
No, but we could look at what happened on the local machine. There is no central system that manages the faxes on machines individually.
12:20 p.m.
Liberal
Marcel Proulx Liberal Hull—Aylmer, QC
The phone lines that are used to send faxes are managed by Bell, Rogers or Telus?
12:20 p.m.
Liberal
Marcel Proulx Liberal Hull—Aylmer, QC
How long do you keep the records, if you like, of electronic messages, emails that were sent by BlackBerry or computer?
12:20 p.m.
Chief Information Officer, House of Commons
Every night, we take what is called a snapshot. We take a "photograph" every night, between 8:00 p.m. and 1:00 a.m., of what is in the system at that time. That is kept for a year.
We also do what is called a journal of what happened during the day. That is what is received from the outside and what is sent to the outside. That is kept for 30 days.
12:20 p.m.
Liberal
Marcel Proulx Liberal Hull—Aylmer, QC
So if I send an email and delete it 30 seconds later, you still keep it.