Justice committee  Once again, you will know as a lawyer that I have been asked to give a legal opinion. That is an ongoing continuum, as other legal writers have described solicitor-client privilege, and that is part of the continuum. I simply cannot answer that question.

Justice committee  Certainly, I can do that. A remediation agreement is another way that serious criminal behaviour can be prosecuted. It is another tool in the tool kit of our director of public prosecutions to go out and punish serious criminal behaviour without endangering innocent third partie

Justice committee  No, not before I was appointed. I had a general awareness of the situation, since I am a Montreal MP and this was discussed in the papers. As has already been said, I took part in a meeting with lobbyists in May 2017, but there was nothing aside from that.

Justice committee  Never.

Justice committee  Honestly, I have no idea. I am proud to be a Montrealer, and I am one by choice. I chose Montreal. It was in Montreal, at McGill University, that I received bilingual and bijural training, of which I am very proud. I settled in Montreal about thirty years ago. My children were bo

Justice committee  Absolutely. It is part of the familiarization, if you will, with the dossiers that I have to work with in my time as Attorney General.

Justice committee  We are doing our best. I am doing my best as Attorney General to find a way for that to happen, which of course provides transparency to Canadians and fairness to the former attorney general, but also does not compromise any of those other matters that I mentioned at the outset

Justice committee  We're trying to sort through that as best we can.

Justice committee  The question of solicitor-client privilege and the question of whether it applies in any given set of facts, or the question of whether it has been waived in any particular set circumstances, are part of the general questions that I have to answer as Attorney General. I can't pro

Justice committee  I am going to decline out of prudence to give an opinion on that, because once again, it may be part of an opinion that I have to render.

Justice committee  The client is Canada. The question of waiving privilege, as you well know as a lawyer, is a very complex question in these cases, and once again, it falls under my responsibility to maintain that solicitor—

Justice committee  That is precisely the answer, from what I had seen.

Justice committee  Absolutely. As I said in my opening remarks, the Attorney General can't be an island. The whole point of the Shawcross doctrine is that an attorney general can speak with cabinet colleagues about a variety of different considerations that might be pertinent to his or her decision

Justice committee  It depends on the timeline of the discussion and the prosecution, but I can't say without any further context what would be appropriate or inappropriate.

Justice committee  I think, once again, the Shawcross doctrine would apply. Those kinds of conversations would be appropriate to the Attorney General contemplating a decision on whether or not to direct a remediation agreement, but it is up to the Attorney General to make that decision himself or