Ex-minister Lametti agrees to send social media records to official archives following Rebel suit

In a Federal Court case that raises questions about the preservation of politicians' public records, former justice minister David Lametti has offered to transfer his once-deactivated X account to Canada's official archives.

Lametti, who served as attorney general between January 2019 and last summer's cabinet shuffle, agreed to a multi-step undertaking after Rebel News and its founder Ezra Levant took him to court for deactivating his account on X, formally known as Twitter.

Lametti, who left federal politics at the end of last month, maintained an account to communicate with the public. His account had a grey check mark, meaning his account had been confirmed as representing a government or multilateral organization or official.

The court heard that after Levant realized around Jan. 25 of this year that the account had been deactivated, he quickly filed a motion on behalf of himself and his media company to have the account reinstated before it was permanently deleted after 30 days.

Levant and Rebel argued that by deactivating his account, Lametti «prevented them and other X users from viewing, replying, reposting, or using the Community Notes feature on any and all posts previously made on that X account.»

The community notes feature allows users to add corrections and clarifications to posts.

Levant and Rebel also argued that by deactivating his account, Lametti hindered public access to government information, suppressed «crucial voices in public debate on posts that can no longer be interacted with, shared, or commented on,» and violated Charter rights.

They also expressed a particular interest in the public posts made by Lametti related to the government's decision to invoke the Emergencies Act in early 2022.

Lametti