Information & Ethics committee  Mr. Chair, I'll let individuals draw their own conclusion. What I come back to is that we operate within a set of regulations and parameters. Unfortunately, we made the effort to get additional information, and it was refused.

Information & Ethics committee  As with any file, sometimes a file takes a different direction where it requires additional resources, so we prioritize the work that needs to be done and assign, on occasion, additional resources to a specific file.

Information & Ethics committee  We're good.

Information & Ethics committee  I would add, Mr. Chair, that it was not to follow the evidence. It was to glean additional information that could be evidence.

Information & Ethics committee  Mr. Chair, operational independence is highly important, of course. I shared earlier that I've been in senior positions since 2016, and I can probably count on one hand the number of times I've briefed the Prime Minister or the minister for ongoing.... We don't brief them on a regular basis on the files that we're doing, even less if a file involves an elected official.

Information & Ethics committee  I agree, Mr. Chair.

Information & Ethics committee  That's correct. I mentioned that earlier, Mr. Chair.

Information & Ethics committee  Yes, I did make that statement, as I made the statement here in front of the committee members.

Information & Ethics committee  Mr. Chair, I do not agree that we made less of an effort. The parameters of an investigation by the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner and those of a criminal investigation are completely different.

Information & Ethics committee  I will refer the question to Mr. Pincince.

Information & Ethics committee  That is indeed the case, but that decision is not up to me. Even if we had submitted a request that was accepted, I don’t know what information we would have obtained.

Information & Ethics committee  Greater transparency, if information about what’s going on can be disclosed, would certainly be an improvement. It goes back to what we said earlier about public trust and ethics.

Information & Ethics committee  I have no issue with you making that recommendation in the interest of transparency.

Information & Ethics committee  I will refer the question to Mr. Pincince.

Information & Ethics committee  I would say that notwithstanding the parties, we're independent in what we do. As I said, since I've been in senior positions, I think I have briefed the Minister of Public Safety maybe three or four times throughout the last five years, and the PM maybe once or twice, so I don't update them on a regular basis on any of our criminal files, even less if it's a file that involves the Prime Minister or even the minister.