Ethics watchdog says PCO refused to extend confidence waiver to witnesses in SNC probe – iPolitics
acted inappropriately in the SNC-Lavalin affair, the Privy Council
Office (PCO) declined a request from his office to lift cabinet
confidences to gain access to information from the witnesses.
After weeks of discussions between the ethics watchdog’s office and
the PCO, newly-minted Privy Council Clerk Ian Shugart sent a letter to
Dion dated June 13 rejecting Dion’s request for access to all government
confidences with respect to his probe.
Dion expressed disappointment in the decision by the PCO, the
secretariat to the cabinet and department that forms the spine of the
federal service.
“Because of the decisions to deny our office further access to
cabinet confidences, witnesses were constrained in their ability to
provide all evidence,” he writes in his report. “I was, therefore,
prevented from looking over the entire body of evidence to determine its
relevance to my examination.”