I have heard criticism about communications, and an employee from my office attends the meetings of government communication representatives. I explained that I had two roles within the government: a parliamentary role and an administrative role. As concerns my administrative tasks, I am prepared to follow the rules, but as concerns my parliamentary functions, I am not going to follow the rules. That's what I said, and I had no problem. For example, I did not send a copy of my opening remarks today to anyone before presenting them. When the RCMP report was tabled, I issued a press release. It was not approved before I sent it to Parliament and to the media. I indicated that I intended to use my discretionary powers as someone appointed by Parliament and I did not receive a negative response.
On May 6th, 2008. See this statement in context.