Mr. Speaker, with regard to parts (a) to (k), the historical section is a research unit within Global Affairs Canada, GAC, whose mandate is to increase public understanding of the history of Canadian diplomacy and of GAC. The section has published a three-volume administrative history of the Department of External Affairs, as GAC was previously known, and is responsible for the “Documents on Canadian external relations” series, found at https://gac.canadiana.ca/view/ooe.b1603413E. The section also hosts internal history-related events for departmental staff. The current head of the section was appointed in 2020 through the external selection process 19-EXT-EA-KD-1023312, found at https://emploisfp-psjobs.cfp-psc.gc.ca/psrs-srfp/applicant/page1800?poster=1317318. The classification standard, including a benchmark description of duties, for the head of the historical section, HR-04, can be found on the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat website at https://acoc-acco.ca/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/HR-eng.pdf.
There is no complete publicly available listing of records currently held by the historical section, which, it should be noted, is neither a departmental archive, nor the departmental repository for security and intelligence records or for official communications between Canadian posts abroad and headquarters in Ottawa from 1950 to 2000.
Records created by the historical section in fulfilment of its mandate are maintained within the department in accordance with government record-keeping policy, while records of the section that have been identified as having historical or archival value are transferred to Library and Archives Canada, LAC, once they no longer serve an ongoing business need as per sections 12 and 13 of the Library and Archives of Canada Act.
All records transferred to the LAC are under the care of that institution, subject to any agreements on transfer agreed to between GAC and the LAC. The records specific to security and intelligence that were transferred in 2016 are under the care of the LAC, and the finding aids for this material are available publicly and free of charge from that institution.
Finally, the records held by the department related to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender, LGBT, purge from the 1950s to the 1990s, including but not limited to references to file 50207-40, references to records about the impact of these discriminatory policies, references to records about the extension of equal employment benefits to gay and lesbian employees, and references to records about senior public servants in the Department of External Affairs in relation to these discriminatory policies, have been captured as part of the department’s response to the Fourth Supplementary Agreement, from phase II of the archival research project, of the LGBT class action litigation. Lists of these records have been provided to the parties, in accordance with the terms set out in the Fourth Supplementary Agreement for selection and eventual public release upon the conclusion of this process.