Information & Ethics committee  One thing that has been made clear by the Federal Court of Appeal decision is that the law was anything but clear. We were trying to get clarification, and that's what we've received. The judgment actually states that in a number of instances. The philosophical objection we had to the commissioner looking at the documents had nothing to do with our programming activities; it had to do with our journalistic activities.

Information & Ethics committee  We don't know who the requesters are.

Information & Ethics committee  It's the war for talent, basically. If precise salaries for our talent or even our programs are known, then others can try to poach them or somehow compete more efficiently against us than they would otherwise be able to.

Information & Ethics committee  They can try, but if they know exactly how much to offer, it makes their life a lot easier.

Information & Ethics committee  Yes. The commissioner's concerns with respect to the guidelines had to do with the fact that some of the requests on their face clearly fall within programming. For example, if somebody wants to know all of the materials that were used for the purposes of making the show Being Erica, we don't really have to see the documents to know that all of that is going to fall under programming.

Information & Ethics committee  That's correct, it is a fairly complex analysis at times. The person who is charged with that analysis in CBC/Radio-Canada is assistant general counsel. She's a lawyer in my legal department. She is the sole authority in terms of determining whether something falls within section 68.1 or not, and of course she applies the case law and our guidelines to that determination.

Information & Ethics committee  The fleet question has to do not so much with the fact that this request was made or that we somehow tried to hide information. On the contrary, a year ago we came up with our guidelines, at the suggestion of Justice Boivin in the judgment of first instance, as to how we would apply section 68.1.

Information & Ethics committee  I'll take that one. I think the commissioner was alluding to changes that she would like to see in the law. The law as it stands now doesn't have any injury-based test in connection with the review of our programming or journalistic or creative activities. So right now we'd be working with the commissioner on the law as it currently stands.

Information & Ethics committee  It is the access to information coordinator.

Information & Ethics committee  My assistant counsel. She looks after media rights. She is my right arm.

Information & Ethics committee  She makes the decision herself.

Information & Ethics committee  No.

Information & Ethics committee  I don't know if a specific request regarding Mr. Mansbridge's salary has been made--

Information & Ethics committee  --or frankly regarding any other journalist, but I can tell you that we considered the specific information that you're talking about to definitely be part of our programming information. The question of accountability to taxpayers to me is best answered by talking about the kind of information we have been asked for and that we have released--information, for example, on the salary ranges of the entirety of the organization.

Information & Ethics committee  We're not saying you should take our word for it. Parliament has lumped together in the exclusion the programming, the journalistic, and the creative activities. Essentially, when it comes down to records that fall within these three categories, if there is a disagreement about whether something should or should not be excluded, the Federal Court is there and there are some fairly clear criteria on whether or not, for example, journalistic sources ought to be disclosed as part of a record.