Dimitri Soudas on Sebastien Togneri's resignation

PMO spokesman Dimitri Soudas had this to offer in scrum earlier this morning on the resignation of Sebastien Togneri, over his meddling in at least four different access-to-information requests to Christian Paradis' department while the minister headed the Public Works portfolio:

Soudas: Ministers are responsible to Parliament for their ministry, their department and everything else. Individuals are also accountable for their own personal responsibilities and Mr. Togneri in this case offered his resignation.

Reporter: unintelligible

DS: In this case the staffer resigned therefore he's no longer an employee, therefore no longer works, therefore that's the responsibility that the minister is holding accountable. See staff are accountable to their ministers and ministers are accountable to parliament. Therefore Mr. Togneri in this case is accountable to his minister, correct? That's what we've been saying all along. Therefore Mr. Togneri resigned. So for example, the news organization that you work for is accountable for everything it publishes, everything it writes, correct? Now if you write something that is offline, offside, wrong, well then you would be accountable to the organization that you work for. It's exactly the same thing.

Reporter: What has Paradis done towards Parliament to be accountable?

DS: Well if Parliament has any questions they can ask him in the House of Commons.

Reporter: The Conservatives never asked for the resignation of a cabinet minister over the actions of their staff?

DS: I'm not sure what you're...

Reporter: When John Baird, he explained that he was testifying because he was the one responsible, not his staff...

DS: Correct. So if the committee for example would like to hear Mr. Paradis on the actions of Mr. Togneri, they can invite him to appear.

Reporter: Right, but to finish my question he wouldn't allow Mr. Togneri or any other staffer to testify...

DS: Correct, because staff are accountable to their ministers.

Reporter: ...so how has Paradis been held accountable for what has happened in this particular instance.

DS: Well in this case, like I said, staff are accountable to their ministers and ministers are accountable to ministers, correct? So in this case Mr. Togneri, the consequences of his actions is that he tendered his resignation for his actions. So if Parliament, which is where ministers are accountable, has any questions on this issue, if they'd like to invite this minister to appear at committee, ask questions in the House of Commons...like I'm not going to comment on behalf of the opposition here guys.

Reporter: But it sounds like you're cherry-picking of when a minister is responsible...

DS: No, not at all. No, the minister is responsible to Parliament. So if Parliament and if parliamentarians have any questions, they can invite the minister to committee to explain the actions of his staffer. LIke I'm not sure...you're not following.

Reporter: No I'm not.

DS: Well clearly not, clearly not. Like I said when your media organization makes errors, if you make an error, you're accountable to the people you work for. And the people you work for, in this case the CBC, is accountable to the public.

Reporter: So why didn't he resign last spring when we learned about the first case?

DS: You know human error occurs all the time. In this case Mr. Togneri, and there was a story yesterday by the Canadian Press, that there were two or three or four more occasions and he tendered his resignation on it.