OTTAWA - A Tory aide did not understand his duties when he improperly blocked release of an internal report sought under the Access to Information Act, says a senior bureaucrat.
The aide "misunderstood his role in reviewing these documents," said Tom Makichuk, who is in charge of handling access requests at the Public Works Department.
Makichuk was testifying Tuesday at a House of Commons committee which is examining claims of political interference in the release of information under the Act.
Sebastien Togneri, an aide to then-Public Works minister Christian Paradis, has already testified he mistakenly prevented release of a document requested by The Canadian Press.
Last summer, Togneri ordered officials in the department to "unrelease" the report. The document's release had already been approved by authorized officials.
But Togneri's urgent demand sent a bureaucrat dashing to the mailroom to retrieve the document, a 137-page accounting of the government's massive real-estate portfolio.
Under pressure from Togneri, bureaucrats eventually released a heavily censored version of just 30 pages. The truncated report arrived 82 days later than allowed under the law.
Makichuk told MPs on Tuesday that Togneri was not asked for his opinion about the release at the time, though it was not immediately clear why the aide's order was obeyed.
"This particular request had not followed the normal path," Makichuk testified.
"That situation transpired in a very brief moment. ... This was an extraordinary circumstance."
Under questioning by opposition MPs, Makichuk acknowledged that committee member Pierre Poilievre, a Tory MP, had earlier in the day supplied him with a list of questions to be expected from government members.
The meeting Tuesday also heard from four other bureaucrats in charge of Access to Information Act requests in other departments.
Most said senior officials in ministers' offices are routinely tipped to the pending release of "sensitive" documents but that the political arm of government is given no say in deciding whether material should be made public.
Togneri currently is the subject of a priority investigation by the information commissioner of Canada into alleged political interference.
Togneri has said Paradis was not involved in the blocked-report incident.
The Act has criminal penalties for destroying, concealing or falsifying records -- including sentences of up to two years and fines of up to $10,000.
Paradis has since become Natural Resources minister, and brought Togneri with him. But he stripped Togneri of any access-to-information duties in the new posting once The Canadian Press reported on the blocked Public Works report.
