Senator Carignan: That reminds me of a song by Francine Raymond, “Y’a les mots.” Words, just words.

If what you say is true, why set off a witch hunt to scare public servants and prevent them from reporting this government’s wrongdoings?

Hon. Claude Carignan: My question is for the Leader of the Government in the Senate. Leader, in an article by the esteemed journalist Daniel Leblanc published on Radio-Canada last week, we learned that the federal government searched employees’ telephone records and emails last year in an attempt to flush out the confidential sources who had criticized the plan to appoint an American who does not speak French as head of the Canadian Museum of History.

The article stated, and I quote:

Investigators searched the emails of these employees to try to find evidence of leaks, without success.

They also searched telephone records to see if there were any incoming or outgoing calls to numbers associated with Radio-Canada and CBC.

Leader, does your government remember that in 2017, both houses unanimously passed Bill S-231 to protect journalistic sources?