Late on the night of Wednesday, August 5th, an email from Montreal lawyer Stephen Fineberg began with…..

..THIS EVENING I HAVE THE MATERIAL IN MY HANDS….

He hadn’t started his review, but the packaging indicated there were 4 DVD discs recorded by a hand-held camera, and one DVD disc from a fixed camera.

As well, “we have also received a number of pages of written reports. Some material has been withheld on the authority of Privacy Act section 22(1)(c): disclosure would be injurious to the security of penal institutions; and section 26: requested material concerns another individual who has not given his consent, and certain conditions listed in section 8 are met. Section 8 allows for exclusion in multiple situations, including the public interest in disclosure does not clearly outweigh any invasion of privacy that could result from the disclosure.”

No conclusions should be assumed about the contents. Time will tell if/what information has been excluded, particularly the most incriminating of the DVDs.

Brennan wants copies of everything when that can be arranged although much, if not all, is in French.

This can’t be repeated often enough. We elect, appoint, and employ men and women to be our nation’s housekeepers. This isn’t easy work. But, it’s unfortunate that one of the first things these men and women servants do is build firewalls to protect themselves from………us.