A member of the House of Commons ethics committee yesterday questioned censorship of records detailing attempts by now-Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino to backdate documents in a Federal Court case..“We don’t know whether it’s obfuscation, whether it’s abdication or whether it’s a cover-up,” said Conservative MP James Bezan (Selkirk-Interlake, Man.)..“This goes beyond the pale,” said Bezan. “They are taking everything,” he added..According to Blacklock's Reporter, the questions focused on Access To Information records withheld by the Department of Justice concerning a 2020 incident. Then-Immigration Minister Mendicino and the Privy Council Office backdated documents in an apparent bid to mislead a federal judge in a trademark dispute..The Department of Justice took 15 months to release a summary of its records in the case. Of 486 pages, a total of 336 were withheld entirely. The remaining 150 pages were heavily censored..“The question was about Minister Mendicino’s involvement with the potential falsification of records as to when the College Of Immigration Consultants Act was actually brought into force,” Bezan yesterday told the committee. “All the documents from the Department of Justice are redacted claiming solicitor-client privilege.”.“Is that proper for Access To Information?” asked Bezan. “Subject lines are even redacted. All we have is the email addresses of who it was between and maybe, ‘I hope you have a great weekend.’ That’s all that was available to the public.”.Bezan said, "you can’t even read between the lines if you can’t see the line.”.Bezan said 150 pages have been redacted or removed completely under section 23 of the Access To Information Act, which is the solicitor-client privilege case. “I wonder what type of faith Canadians will have," he added..Information Commissioner Caroline Maynard testified she could not comment on the specifics of the Mendicino case. The Commissioner said she knew of the solicitor-client privilege claim being used as an excuse to conceal federal records that should be public. “I am a lawyer and I do a lot of communication that is not solicitor-client privilege,” said Maynard..“The Access To Information Act is there to make government accountable and to improve our democracy,” said Maynard. “Without information, without knowing what decisions are being taken on what facts, on what data, what’s the money being spent, Canadians are not aware. We keep talking about Canadians losing trust in our democracy, losing trust in our government.”.New Democrat MP Matthew Green (Hamilton Centre, Ont.) faulted cabinet for what he called “a very secretive culture of obscuring the facts from the general public and the House of Commons.” Green has said he personally filed Access To Information requests for facts cabinet should have made public as a matter of ordinary accountability..“This government ran on being open by default,” said Green. “In fact, in 2018 it implemented a ministry of digital government," he said, adding that it has now been cancelled.
