Information & Ethics committee  I think the things I've been asking for under ATI over the last six months to a year have been much more politically sensitive than anything I had been doing up to that point. So it's difficult to know the baseline. When you're asking about stuff that's fairly innocuous, then the information flows more easily; the requests are answered faster, and they tend to have fewer exemptions.

Information & Ethics committee  Absolutely, in my opinion.

Information & Ethics committee  That's a good question. I started doing it after I got out of the military in 2000. I was medically released due to a service injury. One of the things they want you to do in your transition to civilian life is something within your skill set and capabilities. This prevents somebody who may be a pipefitter in the military and who wants to go out and be a brain surgeon from saying, “You need to pay for all my education.”

Information & Ethics committee  Do I think it will? No, I don't. I don't think we're talking about anything that due process in other forums wouldn't uncover or question. I'm giving the very best evidence I can based on my experience and my activities. I'm not being really subject to cross-examination. There may be higher levels of credibility that other people in decision-making areas would like.

Information & Ethics committee  Yes, I think that has to be adjudicated. That's a legal question. I think any institution that withholds information has to have a reason, and the Information Commissioner will come in and ask for the rationale. It's the injury test, where if you can make a reasonable argument--I say reasonable and acceptable to a legal mind--that revealing such and such information could be injurious to the ability to conduct international affairs or international security, or whatever, then that determines whether or not there's criminality.

Information & Ethics committee  There are some very fine points. This is a very controversial exemption that allows, on a discretionary basis, for institutions to withhold information that is deemed to be considered advice to the minister. So this is not to be confused with a cabinet confidence, which is an entirely separate issue.

Information & Ethics committee  Mr. Chairman, I said it was being liberally used, like “overly”, like “very freely”, not--

Information & Ethics committee  I think everybody has a level of professionalism and ethics, and they want to do a good job. They want to do the things that they're asked to do. In the military it's perhaps even more pronounced, because everyone wears a rank, and you want to be seen to be carrying out orders efficiently and effectively, solving problems, and all the rest of it.

Information & Ethics committee  I don't think I can give an answer as to why somebody would do something or not do something. To go back to the earlier part of your question--and I don't know if you've ever worked in government or not--when you're working in the federal civil service, either in uniform or as a civil servant, and you see your minister being zeroed in on day after day about a certain issue, then it tweaks an extra level of sensitivity and caution around that.

Information & Ethics committee  I don't recall whether the Somali report.... I know that the exemptions were made under subsection 15(1), but we weren't the ones who were making them. So I don't know how.... Again, I get back to the idea that exemptions must be limited and specific. As to whether or not the designation “15(1)” is sufficiently specific, the view of the Information Commissioner is the first opinion I look at.

Information & Ethics committee  I'm good.

Information & Ethics committee  Again?

Information & Ethics committee  Sure. On March 14, they received my request that was worded: “A copy of DFAIT's 2005-2006 annual or semi-annual report or the 2006-2007, if it has been drafted, on human rights performances in countries around the world.”

Information & Ethics committee  No.

Information & Ethics committee  No. He's the lawyer.