Email from Peter Land, lead investigator for the Husch Blackwell UMD investigation (emphasis mine)

From: Land, Peter
Date: Tue, Mar 22, 2022, 3:40 PM
Subject: RE: request for interview
To: [redacted]
Cc: ACNA HB Investigation <ACNA.HB.Investigation@huschblackwell.com>

[redacted],

Thanks again for your message, and we appreciate your interest in understanding whether and to whom names of people who speak to us will be shared.  I was hoping to talk with you about this issue because it has more complexity to it than might initially be apparent.  The relatively straightforward parts are that: (1) we will issue a report to a leadership team at the Province that will include names of people we talk to that share with us information that is material to what we are investigating (we cannot know for sure if the information will be material until we learn what it is and how it relates to other information we gather); and (2) our report will be made public, but the public version will redact names of people who do not work for the UMD, ACNA, or any of its churches, and the public report will redact identifying details about such people, as appropriate.  

Also, depending on the nature of information that a person shares with us, we may need to share that person’s name during interviews of other witnesses (including those who work for the UMD or its churches) in order to conduct our factual investigation in a thorough way.  In asking interview questions, we are very careful about protecting confidentiality and privacy by avoiding sharing information with a witness in the way we ask a question whenever possible, but there are times (for example, reports of a one-on-one conversation about a material topic) when we would need to use a person’s name when asking a question to ensure we gather facts thoroughly. 

Again, we understand the sensitivity of the decision for people to share information with us, including for the very clearly described concerns in your initial email below.  We cannot promise complete anonymity but hope this helps provide a better understanding of our process.

We are indeed accepting appointments and would welcome receiving the document mentioned below in advance of your meeting if you are willing to send that.  I will also be out of the office some the next week or so, but I have copied our “team” email address here that includes all four members of our team.  If you could please “reply all” when sending your document, our team can coordinate calendars and respond with potential dates that accommodate your upcoming travel.

Thanks again,

Pete

Peter​ Land
Partner