Information & Ethics committee  I'd say our relationship with the CBC is like that with all other licensees: essentially they go along. Obviously, they challenge you when you take a position they disagree with. They try to convince us of the error of our ways. Sometimes we have issues in terms of compliance, wh

Information & Ethics committee  Yes.

Information & Ethics committee  As you know, I used to be a judge on the Federal Court, so I look at this through that judicial focus. I read the judgment, and it is a disagreement between the CBC and the access commissioner on how to interpret that section, especially on whether she is entitled to look at docu

Information & Ethics committee  Mr. Butt, that's for you as a legislator to decide. You can say, “The act does not apply, period,” in which case it doesn't apply; or you can say, “The act applies, but this information can be withheld, provided A, B, C, etc.” It's one way or another. Unfortunately, the section

Information & Ethics committee  Let's imagine that we had information on CBC, and the corporation told us that the information was confidential. We could be talking about information on advertisement, for instance. That's an area where CBC is in competition with the private sector. If someone requests that info

Information & Ethics committee  That's obvious, as that is CBC's position. However, as you know, there is an exception to the exception. That's the problem. You have read Judge Baudoin's decision. He stated his reasons. We will see what the court of appeal has to say about that. The principle is clear: the prob

Information & Ethics committee  You are asking for a political opinion. Clearly, most of Canadian television production has public support, be it through our tax or subsidies system, funding, or other. However, I think that saying that we don't have any private productions or broadcasting is an exaggeration. We

Information & Ethics committee  That's a value judgment. You've read Judge Boivin's decision. It's now under appeal. If you wanted to ensure...all you'd have to do is to change that very provision and say the CBC may claim exemption for journalistic...and leave out the last tail, except for the exemption to the

Information & Ethics committee  If that's your wish to do it that way, that's fine. You, as the legislature, makes a value judgment. If you say, yes, that you feel more comfortable with that, then you do it. If you say that you are prepared to rely on the judgment of the broadcasters to decide what is journalis

Information & Ethics committee  No, I appreciate why it was drafted and what they were.... I just think they tried to avoid the underlying decision, which is now before you. Should the exercise of this discretion be subject to review by the commissioner or not? It was a funny way of drafting things; I've rarely

Information & Ethics committee  No, that is always for the commissioner of access to information. This is really her bailiwick.

Information & Ethics committee  Regarding CBC, section 68.1 of the act states the following: "This Act does not apply to any information that is under the control of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation that relates to its journalistic, creative or programming activities [...]". That's clear. In such cases, th

Information & Ethics committee  There would be no issue if the sentence ended there. However, there is another exception. It says: "[...] other than information that relates to its general administration". That means that the act does not apply to journalistic activities, but it does apply to information that r

Information & Ethics committee  Yes. All information provided to us is stored for a certain amount of time before it is archived.

Information & Ethics committee  No, no. Would you like to answer?