Hon. Pierre De Bané:

Honourable senators, I would like to report to the Leader of the Government in the Senate a sad state of affairs that has really shocked me. I telephoned a certain department and told them that I would be a speaker, along with parliamentarians of other countries, at an event where we will be briefing young parliamentarians of emerging countries in sub-Saharan Africa about how democracy works.

I asked the civil servant to please send me off-the-shelf documentation about their department that I could use while doing my briefing with members of Parliament from other Western countries. His reply was: "I would love to help you, but I would feel more comfortable if your request came to me through the office of the minister."

I am old enough to know that there are sensitive matters that have to go through the office of the minister, of course. However, it is a different situation when one is asking for off-the-shelf documentation that may be published on the Web or wherever.

I was told to make my request through the minister's office. That is something I have never experienced before. Even for mundane, regular material — I did not want anything confidential, of course — I was told to go through the minister. This is shocking. After talking about transparency, accountability, and so on, I think that the department should be more forthcoming.

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