Information & Ethics committee  I can't add anything to Duff's expertise.

Information & Ethics committee  That's a very thoughtful response, because that could be the explanation. The first two answers were, it doesn't exist, there is no questionnaire, which put a drop of skepticism in my mind when I was later told it was a national security issue. But the tens of thousands of strang

Information & Ethics committee  I think it should. It would make sense to have some exemptions for business secrets or trade secrets. I look, for example, at the CBC. Certain aspects of their work are covered; certain are exempt. I think they have too many exemptions and I think they're too slow, but that's an

Information & Ethics committee  I'm sorry. Could you put that last part again?

Information & Ethics committee  I spent some time trying to get into the mind of the new government. I've watched more Liberal videos in the last few days than I have in my whole life. I believe it, actually; I believe that one of the motivations of Liberal MPs was a frustration such as all outsiders feel with

Information & Ethics committee  The Prime Minister said $5, and if you don't get it in time, you give that back. I think that $5 is enough to stop absolutely wasteful people, but it's not too high to stop low-income people, let's say, or people on a budget. On the question of what a frivolous complaint is, let

Information & Ethics committee  I'm going to yield to my friend. I think I'm more respectful of cabinet confidences than, perhaps, my friends are. I understand there has to be a place where the most frank conversations can be had, those that would be embarrassing to the country, not just to the politicians, i

Information & Ethics committee  I have a lifelong track record of Conservative activism, and I'm appearing before a committee under a Liberal majority government. I accepted the invitation in the hopes that, instead of just being a Liberal-Tory back and forth, we could talk about the specifics. I lead with the

Information & Ethics committee  I'm asking you to live up to your own standards.

Information & Ethics committee  As I say, I'm not here with a large prescription like my friends. I think that sometimes cost issues are put up as a barrier. That should be looked at, and I know the Prime Minister has said it should be five loonies, and you should get them back if it's not on time. I support th

Information & Ethics committee  You know what? Leading by example from the top is always the best way. I want to give you an example that I did not raise because I didn't want to be overly partisan.

Information & Ethics committee  I chose one issue and I chose the egregious issues that I would hope that even the most partisan Liberal would say that this is not us. Because I'm a political fella, we put in an access to information request of email communications between the Prime Minister's principal secret

Information & Ethics committee  Our little shop started in February. We did an enormous number of access to information requests to the federal government under the last administration. We did not receive any responses of this order of magnitude, 300-day extensions. We did not have an example like this.

Information & Ethics committee  I accept that, and I'm not here to defend another government. I'm here to bring to the attention of the new government something being done under the new government. I do not take away from any criticisms of the previous government.

Information & Ethics committee  Thank you very much for the invitation to be here. I'm grateful to be asked for my point of view on access to information. Unlike Vincent and Duff, I am not a subject matter expert, and my history on the file is not long. For the past 15 months, I've run a small alternative new