Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
For Mr. Saxton's information, I wish to clarify the following. What he mentioned regarding the Privacy Act does not apply to the committee. That is the first thing he should keep in mind concerning the appearance of the commission's representatives. The committee is master of its decisions, even if that does not suit the government. In the minutes of the meeting of March 11, 2010, the only element mentioned is the following:
That the Clerk of the Committee be authorized to distribute to the members of the Committee only documents that are available in both official languages.
Nowhere is the issue of confidentiality discussed. This is does not figure in the committee's procedures. I believe Mr. Saxton needs to refresh his memory. I would therefore remind him that, on February 8th, 2011, I made an intervention before the committee. There were people here. You will remember the matrix that we asked of the Public Sector Integrity Commissioner's office and which it provided to us. We had made this request a little bit before the appearance of the representatives of the office of the commissioner. I will read this intervention, in both official languages, in order to ensure that there is no distortion in the translation. It reads as follows:
Let's take this one step further. Not a single one of the 228 open cases went anywhere. If I recall correctly, based on some of the documents which were provided to committee members, about 40 cases seemed to involve fraud and misuse of government assets. The clerk can tell me if I am going too far, because I do not know whether these documents, which form a matrix, if you like, were confidential and not to be released outside the committee.
I went on. No one interrupted me. I will now read the version in the other language.
Let's take this one step further. Not a single one of the 228 open cases went anywhere. If I recall correctly, based on some of the documents which were provided to committee members, about 40 cases seemed to involve fraud and misuse of government assets. The clerk can tell me if I am going too far, because I do not know whether these documents, which form a matrix, if you like, were confidential and not to be released outside the committee.
The clerk never interrupted me and never said that I was in error. However, no member of the committee, and more particularly, no member of the Conservative Party, of the party in power, ever told me that I had disclosed information without the committee's authorization. Because it is not true that, every time the committee requests information, there is a decision made as to what can be done with the documents under cover of what authorization. That is not the case. That has never happened.
The example I have just given you is a perfectly valid one. We made a request for information. We received the information and I disclosed certain parts of the document. And no one from the government's side complained about it at the time. When it does not suit the government, or when they have something to hide, as we have seen, they say that permission must be given. And when it suits them, then they do the opposite. You cannot say, on one day, that no authorization is required to reveal information we have received.
Regarding the same principle, we had asked a government entity to provide us with the information. It was provided to us. At no point in time did a government member state that an authorization or a decision by the committee was required in order for these documents to be made public. I read out portions of the documents and no one said a word. In such circumstances, if no one says anything, it means they agree. If it did not suit you at the time, you should have said so.
I will now move on to another aspect. Before lecturing committee members with regard to the lack of information or to the appropriateness of discussing their issues, I would like to remind those committee members belonging to the government party of one thing. Unfortunately, there is a member of the committee who is absent. I clearly recall having made a comment, and, if you so wish, I will repeat it to you. A government member of the committee had told us that Ms. Ouimet was, by happenstance, on vacation. I do not remember the exact words used, so I am improvising. Nevertheless, it is odd; while we, the members of the committee, were trying to reach Ms. Ouimet, without very much help on the part of certain individuals, in order to deliver documents to her, members from the government side were, fancy that, stating publicly that Ms. Ouimet was on holiday and that we would be able to speak with her upon her return. If you wish me to dig out these comments, I would be happy to do so.
What was going on? Was it an attempt to hide information? Was it an attempt to prevent us from doing our work here, in committee? I did not make a great to-do. I raised the issue, a made a statement, but I did not make a great to-do about it. Once I had spoken about the issue, that was it. During that time, no one said a word.
I will stop there. I often intervene and go on and on. I will therefore give others the opportunity to speak and I will come back later.