National Defence
Three files, fourteen questions, the same forty-six words
Answer 17 Sept In writing.
The answer in full
Three requests were filed on 29 and 30 August 2026. Between them they carry fourteen numbered items: whether the Department holds any assessment of the reliability of allied nuclear assurances, whether it has ever costed an independent Canadian deterrent, which instrument records an obligation of any state to defend Canada against nuclear attack, whether the plan for nuclear attack that subsection 6(1) of the Emergency Management Act requires exists, and the nuclear certification status of aircraft Canada is buying, among others. Each request asked that, where no record exists for an item, the answer say so item by item. Three letters arrived on 17 September, over the signature block of the Executive Director, Access to Information and Privacy. The operative passage is the same in all three, to the word:
We regret to advise you that this Department neither confirms nor denies records exist pursuant to section 10(2) of the Access to Information Act. If the documentation did exist, it would be exempted in its entirety pursuant to section 15(1) of the Access to Information Act.
National Defence, files A-2026-01143, A-2026-01144 and A-2026-01154, 17 September 2026
No record was released. No item was answered on its own. Forty-six words cover fourteen questions on different subjects across two different periods. Both provisions relied on confer a discretion to be exercised on the particular information; one text applied to fourteen unrelated items is the record of a discretion that was not exercised. One of the fourteen items is a plan that a statute requires a minister to prepare. The Department will not say whether it exists.