Public Accounts Committee on May 14th, 2007

[D/Commr Paul Gauvin]

Yes, I was.

[John Williams, Conservative, Edmonton—St. Albert, AB]

If I recall, Mr. Estabrooks, the last time he was here, said that it was highly unusual for someone who was mentioned in the report to be given the opportunity to critique the release before it went out.

Is that correct, Mr. Estabrooks?

[Keith Estabrooks]

That's correct.

[John Williams, Conservative, Edmonton—St. Albert, AB]

Was this report critical of your work at the RCMP, Mr. Gauvin?

[D/Commr Paul Gauvin]

Was it critical? I think the—

[John Williams, Conservative, Edmonton—St. Albert, AB]

Or have a negative impact on your reputation, or it was less than positive, shall we say?

[D/Commr Paul Gauvin]

Yes.

[John Williams, Conservative, Edmonton—St. Albert, AB]

Did you ask for these items to be removed?

[D/Commr Paul Gauvin]

No. I didn't ask for anything to be removed. I just said that not only my name but others...that there could have been some concern regarding the Privacy Commissioner. There could also have been repercussions for the RCMP in terms of civil actions. That's it. But I had no authority to do anything more than that. It was strictly an opinion, and I had zero authority over what's released or what's not released.

[John Williams, Conservative, Edmonton—St. Albert, AB]

I'm still confused why they even would ask.

Mr. Lavoie, do you have any idea why Mr. Gauvin was asked for an opinion on something where he has no line authority, where he's mentioned in the report, shouldn't be seeing it, and so on? Why was he asked for an opinion?

[Supt Pierre Lavoie]

Sir, it wasn't unusual. We were just a processing centre, so whenever we had a request we would either, up front, go to the policy centre to request the materials and ask them to provide any concerns that they had to assist us in processing the file—

[John Williams, Conservative, Edmonton—St. Albert, AB]

Mr. Estabrooks is your employee within your department. Am I correct in saying that?

[Supt Pierre Lavoie]

We have a processing unit that orders the materials before they get to—

[John Williams, Conservative, Edmonton—St. Albert, AB]

Yes, I know, but my question was did Mr. Estabrooks report to you?

[Supt Pierre Lavoie]

Yes.

[John Williams, Conservative, Edmonton—St. Albert, AB]

He said that it was unusual to send it up to someone who is named in a report.

Are you right, or is he right?

[Supt Pierre Lavoie]

There was nothing that would prevent me from doing that, to consult before releasing the report, if it assisted me in processing the information request. Additionally, we can't lose sight of the fact that under the Privacy Act, Mr. Gauvin or anybody else named in any document in the RCMP—

[John Williams, Conservative, Edmonton—St. Albert, AB]

My question was, are you right or is he right?

He said it was unusual to send the report to somebody who was named in the document. You're saying it was fairly common practice.

[Supt Pierre Lavoie]

No, I didn't say it was fairly common practice. I agree it was unusual.

[John Williams, Conservative, Edmonton—St. Albert, AB]

It was unusual.

[Supt Pierre Lavoie]

It was unusual, yes.

[John Williams, Conservative, Edmonton—St. Albert, AB]

To send it to somebody whose name was in the document to be released.

[Supt Pierre Lavoie]

No, I didn't say that. I said it was unusual to send a report of that nature before it was released.

[John Williams, Conservative, Edmonton—St. Albert, AB]

Send it to whom?

[Supt Pierre Lavoie]

Period.