Information & Ethics committee  Are you referring to disclosure and redaction of documents?

Information & Ethics committee  It was assessed case by case.

Information & Ethics committee  Yes. In R. v. Norman, I gave the judge full access to the documents, because a court and a judge oversaw the process. In other cases, it is possible to disclose part of the documents by redacting certain passages, meaning by not disclosing names or certain elements…

Information & Ethics committee  I am not the one who made that decision. It was my successor, after I left.

Information & Ethics committee  It's about eight centuries' worth, yes.

Information & Ethics committee  There's a role for the clerk, which is defined in the Canada Evidence Act, and there are often disputes between Parliament and the executive about the release of documents. You may recall issues around Afghan detainees years ago, and so on, so it's always a case by case. It's not an absolute principle.

Information & Ethics committee  No, that's your interpretation, and I know it's the interpretation of the law clerks of the House. It's not an interpretation I agree with or that the courts have always agreed with.

Information & Ethics committee  I think the chair will rein us in as being off topic at today's hearing. I would say that I've given plenty of interviews and have podcasts about this topic, and you can find all of my output as a professor on my LinkedIn feed.

Information & Ethics committee  I think I've said that. What I would point out to you parliamentarians is that there are issues of ethics and behaviour and conduct that do not rise to the law of criminal penalties. That is why you—Parliament—created other laws and other independent bodies to deal with them. That is why you—Parliament—created the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner, the Public Sector Integrity Commissioner and the Commissioner of Lobbying, and allocated about $25 million to those three bodies.

Information & Ethics committee  So, as I said, I appeared before the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights five years ago. There are four hours of testimony on the matter. I testified before the Commissioner, as well. I explained everything to the Commissioner and to another parliamentary committee.

Information & Ethics committee  I was the Clerk of the Privy Council, meaning the deputy minister to the Prime Minister, until Easter weekend, five years ago.

Information & Ethics committee  It’s very thoroughly outlined in the report of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner.

Information & Ethics committee  That is what I understood.

Information & Ethics committee  The Parliament of Canada created several pieces of legislation. As I said, some legislation governs ethics and conflicts of interest. For instance, there’s the famous Public Servants Disclosure Protection Act and the Lobbying Act, to name a few. Other legislation provides for offences arising from unethical behaviour, but those offences do not necessarily fall under criminal law.

Information & Ethics committee  That was the Commissioner’s conclusion.