Hon. Marc Gold (Government Representative in the Senate): Thank you for the question. As anyone in this chamber with legal background knows — and certainly experienced parliamentarians who have worked in committees would know — the law of Canada and the Canada Evidence Act explicitly recognize, as all democratic countries do, the balance that needs to be struck between the disclosure of documents relevant to litigation and those rules protected by privilege that protect the disclosure of documents that would be injurious, in this case to national security or potentially other interests, such as privacy concerns, confidential information and the like.

Honourable senators, it is the role of the courts to determine whether or not those rules are properly invoked. The Government of Canada has every confidence in the courts to do their job appropriately to make sure that all relevant information is disclosed, but that information that is otherwise properly protected by privilege remains so.