Mr. Chairman, it was late on a Friday, and I received from my lawyer some numbers—strictly file numbers—that had been discussed in the committee. I couldn't make any sense of the numbers, so I asked my executive assistant to go down to ATIP to see if we could get the titles against the file numbers--that's all, just the titles. He came back and said he had discussed it with the people there—and there were very few, as it was late on a Friday afternoon. They replied that they had to make some phone calls, because the people there could not make the decision. The reply was no, that the information was not releasable—and that was the end of that.
Then I talked to the 2IC in charge of public affairs, and asked him if such a list were available. He told me there had been a meeting of a number of people that afternoon, including the legal people. I or my staff were not invited, but yes, such a list was available; in fact, it was around the department. So they gave me the list, and basically all it was—and I have it here—was just the file numbers on one side and the titles in the middle, and that was it. So I never received any material other than just the file numbers and what they meant—otherwise, the numbers alone don't mean anything.
So this was late on a Friday, and I was coming back here on a Monday. Basically, I just wanted to get prepared over the weekend to make sure that whatever was being talked about, I would have an idea and be able to answer.