Technically, the answer would be no, because somewhere in our mandate it says that for matters that occurred before 1998, this office--I--may not investigate unless I obtain the minister's authorization. So in this particular case, Mr. Chairman, I would have had to go to the minister, or my predecessor, and seek the minister's authorization to do that.
By the way, I think that as long as this office has existed, any time the ombudsman has gone to the minister asking for that kind of authorization, it has been given.