Declaration of Emergency committee  As I explained, my minister appeared on the 26th and said that he wouldn't be providing legal opinions, so those are the instructions I have right now. If the government is going to decide otherwise, before the 30th, we'll let you know.

Declaration of Emergency committee  As I said, I am working with Public Safety and other departments to pull those documents together. We will be providing a set of documents to help the committee with their deliberations.

Declaration of Emergency committee  I don't know if it's going to provide security assessments. You'll have to ask Public Safety and the other departments responsible for those reviews.

Declaration of Emergency committee  I can guarantee you that there are no secret orders related to the Emergencies Act.

Declaration of Emergency committee  As far as I can tell, it's a coincidence. I haven't looked at the other two secret orders, those two orders that are reported, but I can tell you that all of the orders related to this have been made public.

Declaration of Emergency committee  If there were another order related to the Emergencies Act, whether secret or not, I would know about it. I don't know about a secret order and, therefore, it doesn't exist.

Declaration of Emergency committee  I refer you to that section 58 report that talks about the nature of the threats that were being reported and that we saw. That included threats of violence and threats not to comply with the law. It included a presence of ideologically motivated violent extremism, and the other things that are referred to in the section 58 report.

Declaration of Emergency committee  I am, yes.

Declaration of Emergency committee  I am very familiar with the duty of candour, yes, and you have my promise to be as candid as I can be here today.

Declaration of Emergency committee  Even the Federal Court and the Supreme Court of Canada would recognize that solicitor-client information is confidential and privileged. By claiming solicitor-client privilege, I was not refusing to answer. I was explaining that there are limits to the information I can provide.

Declaration of Emergency committee  As I explained in my opening remarks, the government looked at the definitions in sections 3, 16 and 17 of the Emergencies Act. They summarized, in the section 58 report they tabled in Parliament, the reasons and the facts that led them to come to the conclusion that there were reasonable grounds to believe that the threshold had been met.

Declaration of Emergency committee  I did refer to solicitor-client privilege when invited by Monsieur Fortin to decline to answer his question. That's the reason I'm not answering his question. Whether we're in camera or not, I don't think that's going to change, but I take note of the motion that was passed a few days ago.

Declaration of Emergency committee  The answers to the questions about whether we gave one opinion, two opinions, or none, and at what time, are subject to professional privilege. They are not questions that I can answer.

Declaration of Emergency committee  What I am telling you is that you can assume that I did my job. That is part of my job.

Declaration of Emergency committee  As I explained, the Department of Justice has the role of giving legal opinions to the government.