Information & Ethics committee  I wouldn't delegate it down, but every charge doesn't come up to me for approval.

Information & Ethics committee  I would be informed and I would be supportive, but it's not every charge that makes its way up to the commissioner.

Information & Ethics committee  I would have been guided by my subject matter experts and supporting them. Obviously, if we were charging the Prime Minister, for sure, I would have been on board.

Information & Ethics committee  As with any charge that falls under the Criminal Code, there are always elements that must be met.

Information & Ethics committee  In both cases, we didn’t meet the necessary criteria to go down that road.

Information & Ethics committee  As RCMP commissioner, I consider it important to have the public’s trust when the RCMP conducts investigations. In this case, I won’t comment on the ethical aspect of certain situations or the trust people may have in the government. However, I can state that our team used every means at its disposal to obtain all the necessary information that would have enabled it to pursue this investigation as far as possible.

Information & Ethics committee  Mr. Chair, other than the report that was released under an access to information request, no documents come to mind. Again, your question has more to do with ethics in relation to the government and the Prime Minister. If that’s the case, it’s not something I’m going to comment on.

Information & Ethics committee  As I mentioned earlier, it’s important for us to have the public’s trust in order to complete an investigation. If you look at the SNC-Lavalin file on its own, without considering its political aspect, and review the work of the team led by Mr. Pincince, you will see that the outcome of the charges speaks volumes about our members’ professionalism in this area.

Information & Ethics committee  It was at the beginning of the investigation, which is when we were gathering the available information. We were looking at two potential charges under the Criminal Code, obstruction and intimidation of a participant, an officer of the court.

Information & Ethics committee  No.

Information & Ethics committee  Yes, sir.

Information & Ethics committee  No, not at this time, Mr. Chair.

Information & Ethics committee  I thank the member for his question. Much of the information that was available at the time was protected by attorney-client privilege. There were also confidential cabinet documents. To apply for a search warrant, we need credible information, corroborated by other sources. That allows us to obtain a legal document for the purpose of conducting a search.

Information & Ethics committee  I would say that the information we had didn’t warrant going any further, that is, obtaining the legal documents required in order to pursue an investigation.

Information & Ethics committee  We will close an investigation unless additional information surfaces that would lead us to reopen that investigation.