Information & Ethics committee  You're asking why it wasn't used?

Information & Ethics committee  I don't know. It's certainly used by other institutions to withhold information obtained in confidence from other governments. I haven't even seen the documents, so I don't know why one section was used. I'm hoping the Information Commissioner can shed some light on that.

Information & Ethics committee  The bad old days.

Information & Ethics committee  Absolutely. For National Defence, there are a lot of really good news stories. I look at the way things were conducted at all different levels in missions like Somalia, and some of the missions in Bosnia, in the early nineties and mid-nineties, and the support that the soldiers got, and then I look at today, and there's a big difference.

Information & Ethics committee  Well, they said they haven't found any records under their control that are relevant to my request. My belief is that there's a division within PCO that I think would very logically be the recipient of the type of report that has been released. They have an international assessment directorate that does these kinds of analyses for the government, and I have copies of them.

Information & Ethics committee  I don't know.

Information & Ethics committee  As I mentioned, this is dated May 14, so I got this yesterday, and I have not finished with this. I will be following this up, because it strikes me as so strange to get that kind of response in light of everything that's been going on with respect to the DFAIT report.

Information & Ethics committee  Gotcha.

Information & Ethics committee  Well, it depends on the direction that they've received. In circumstances in which an issue is big enough and sensitive enough, teams are often formed, and there's an agreement amongst the teams as to what constitutes something to be withheld and what does not. So in other words, the sections of the act get reinterpreted for application at that time and place by those people.

Information & Ethics committee  I think that DND has undergone an incredible change at levels that make a difference. I think it's possible to have relapses. I think we're seeing one. I think the detainee issue has precipitated a falling back into some old ways. I can see that from the people I talk to, from the requests I make, from the answers I get, from what I'm seeing coming out of the department.

Information & Ethics committee  I don't know.

Information & Ethics committee  If I can add to my earlier comments about supporting the troops--and I hear what you're saying, and people can be disillusioned and stuff--I think there's very much a danger of compartmentalization of some of this knowledge, and I'll give you an example. With reference to the report we're all talking about today, while I put a request in and I got the response, actually, on May 14, my request was to the Privy Council Office.

Information & Ethics committee  I think it depends on the level of the individual. We talk about troops as being a homogeneous group, but actually there's a very strict hierarchy and there's a need-to-know aspect. You don't want the master corporal who is riding in a convoy on a Coyote to be concerned about these other issues; you want him to be trained, to be knowledgeable that there are going to be bombs on the side of the road that'll go off remotely, or whatever, and that's what you want focused on.

Information & Ethics committee  I don't. I haven't been involved in those.

Information & Ethics committee  What the Access to Information Act says is that the government is lawfully able to withhold information, but that such exemptions must be “limited and specific”. In other words, the law does not contemplate being able to throw blanket exemptions over certain documents. Section 25 of the act is what is called the severability principle.