The destruction by the Quebec Minister responsible for Canadian Relations, Sonia LeBel, of her text messages of correspondence with her government counterpartfederally, Dominic LeBlanc, revealed by journalist Thomas Gerbet, of Radio-Canada, should sow concern among many users of information such as journalists, lawyers, managers, historians — to name a few. And archivists, of course!
The proof and the possibility of asserting it when necessary are closely linked to the existence of the information which guarantees its knowledge and use. This is precisely where the application of the law and the law and the sound management of archival documents come together, governed by the Law on Archives (this law, which dates from 1983, is currently in the process of revision and modernization).
In archival science, the document, whatever the medium (text message and others), and the information it contains have two values: primary value and secondary value. The first is qualified as administrative, legal and financial. It is administrative when it refers to the usefulness of information in relation to the administrative process and the functioning of an institution. It is legal when it refers to the usefulness of the information to assert what is the basis of the legal existence of an institution. Finally, it is financial when it refers to the usefulness of information for keeping track of the economic activities of an institution.
We therefore understand that the proof of any activity, whatever it is and for whatever institution, is intimately linked to this primary value that all information has. On this point, we therefore understand that archival principles provide essential support, among other things, for the legal dimension of the activities of any institution. This, a former Minister of Justice certainly understands. And in any case, the text messages in question here certainly correspond to one or the other, if not to the three dimensions mentioned above – administrative, legal or financial – and are public archives, “archives of public bodies”, as defines it in Article 2 of the Archives Act.
The secondary value, meanwhile, is also of great importance in this file of eliminated text messages. This value is defined as being the purpose of the document and the information it contains based on a scientific utility which will later allow a reconstruction of the activities of an institution by the marks, the traces left by the said document and the information that it encloses. Again, evidence is being referred to, but this time for reasons other than what the document and information was created for.
This opens up the dimension of proof-testimony that archivists use to preserve definitively the information that bears witness to the activities of an institution. This memorial dimension certainly interests historians and all those “reconstructors” of the past. Should they also be worried about such eliminations? Definitely ! A nation whose motto is “I remember” cannot forget these marks, these traces, these proofs of what it was, of what it did, of what it built.
So, Madam Minister, it would be wise to consult your archivists at the Directorate General of Archives of the Bibliothèque et Archives Nationales du Québec before eliminating this only evidence, these only marks, these only traces of the exchanges you have with your colleagues in ‘Ottawa. This information is essential so that we understand your present actions, your future steps and so that future generations can be inspired by them, provided that traces of them have been preserved.