Appendix C: Comparison of Cardinal Principles of Salmon Report
with the Conduct of the MacLənnan Commission
1. Adequate time should be taken to conduct proper investigations prior
to the commencement of public hearings in order to determine which
lines of enquiry are relevant.
Inadequate time was taken before the beginning of the first
(Nelligan, Q.C.) hearings which should not have begun until the
Commission knew something about the facts of the eans, Beveridge, Q.C,
took some two months to prepare before the hearings resumed (in which
time the investigations continued) although little or no discernable
benefit has resulted. As will appear from below, no effort has ever
been taken to weed out irrelevant lines of enquiry before evidence is
heard in the hearings,
2.
Before the hearings begin the Commissioner should publicly interpret
his terms of reference and indicate the extent of the intended lines
of enquiry (i.e. decide which lines are relevant and which are not);
thereafter only demonstrably relevant lines of enquiry be pursued in
the course of public hearings: ́and; irrelevant evidence should not
be made public.
The Commissioner has never publicly interpreted the terms
of reference or indicated which lines of enquiry are relevant or
The Commissioner was asked (in Chambers) in January,
irrelevant,
1981 by counsel for the Attorney General's Chambers to publicly
interpret the terms of reference and to rule on the relevance or
SECRET
/otherwise of