Mr. Speaker, freedom of the press is not something that a government can just claim to support, because as the minister himself has just pointed out, it is enshrined in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Yesterday, the minister said that “The utmost care must be taken by law enforcement when criminal investigations and journalism intersect”. We are not talking about police stumbling into journalists. We are talking about police surveillance of the media in Canada in the 21st century.
How can we believe that the government respects press freedom when the minister refuses to say whether or not other journalists are currently under surveillance?