That's a very good question.
I think that is one of the motivations for having a committee of parliamentarians that can be briefed on classified information. It creates a dilemma, as we found, because what do those parliamentarians then do with that information? I think it's useful to have the leaders of the opposition parties briefed in and accept security briefings when it's recommended to them.
I'm not a lawyer, but I do know that there are provisions in Canadian law for declassifying and releasing information. The guardian of that is actually the Clerk of the Privy Council, which is the secretary of cabinet papers.
I signed off on releasing papers for the trial of Vice-Admiral Norman. I signed off on releasing papers for other reasons. With regard to the Rouleau commission that looked into the events in Ottawa last year, I believe my successor as clerk released classified documents to Justice Rouleau. There are mechanisms in Canada for that. It's always possible to amend those in the future.
I'd be careful where you go because one of the conventions is that you do not release the documents of a previous government. I was the guardian of the documents of previous governments when I was clerk, and there were requests for documents from the Harper government to be divulged for that trial. I had to go and communicate with Mr. Harper and get his consent to do that.