Yes.
Evidence of meeting #13 for Public Safety and National Security in the 41st Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was firearms.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Evidence of meeting #13 for Public Safety and National Security in the 41st Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was firearms.
A recording is available from Parliament.
12:45 p.m.
Privacy Commissioner, Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
Yes.
12:45 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kevin Sorenson
Thank you very much. You have 30 seconds left, but I'm not going to give them to you because I want Mr. Scarpaleggia to have....
We're going to go until ten minutes to the hour, so you have about a minute or two minutes to make a statement or ask a question.
12:45 p.m.
Liberal
Francis Scarpaleggia Liberal Lac-Saint-Louis, QC
I don't know where to start, Ms. Stoddart.
Mr. Breitkreuz has said on a couple of occasions that data from the registry—correct me if I'm wrong, Mr. Breitkreuz—somehow has on occasion leaked from the registry or has gotten into the hands of people who shouldn't have it, and therefore he fears that to maintain the registry or to transfer it to the provinces means that there's a chance that criminals, for example, could get access to that information and use it as a shopping list, I guess, for break and entry.
Have you heard of these incidents at all?
12:45 p.m.
Privacy Commissioner, Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
No, I haven't heard of those incidents, but when I was privacy and access to information commissioner in Quebec, it is on record that there was a serious attempt by criminal elements to gain access to the drivers' licence database. I'm not surprised that someone might refer to some phenomenon, because as privacy commissioner in Quebec I had to deal with that issue.
12:50 p.m.
Conservative
12:50 p.m.
Liberal
Francis Scarpaleggia Liberal Lac-Saint-Louis, QC
We know that police officers are accessing the registry against their own best interests, because doing so puts their lives at risk, according to many witnesses. My question is, why are your colleagues doing something that is so blatantly not in their self-interest?
12:50 p.m.
Cst John Gayder
I believe that was addressed by previous witnesses who talked about the automatic nature of—
12:50 p.m.
Liberal
Francis Scarpaleggia Liberal Lac-Saint-Louis, QC
But there are also specific requests. There are some automatic ones, but there are also some specific requests; a previous witness mentioned that.
12:50 p.m.
Cst John Gayder
I don't know why they would do that, because the registry is not very efficient, not very knowledgeable.
12:50 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kevin Sorenson
Thank you very much.
I want to thank all of our guests again for appearing here today. We appreciate your different opinions and perspectives.
We're going to now move into committee business.
I'll allow you a few moments to exit from the table, if you want.
We are going to deal now with a motion. We're moving to committee business, and there's no need to go in camera on this business. My understanding is that we're going to deal with a motion brought forward by Monsieur Chicoine:
That the Standing Committee for Public Safety and National Security shall convene for the duration of one meeting to invite Mr. Bob Paulson in order to discuss his appointment as the new Commissioner of the RCMP.
Mr. Chicoine, I will give you the floor. If you want to speak to your motion and introduce it a little bit, I'd welcome that.
12:50 p.m.
NDP
Sylvain Chicoine NDP Châteauguay—Saint-Constant, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Yes, we wanted to invite the Commissioner who was recently appointed by the Minister of Public Safety to find out about his priorities for the coming years. There are certain difficulties affecting the RCMP, and we'd like to have a chance to find out what Mr. Paulson's priorities are in this connection. So the purpose of the invitation is to get to know Mr. Paulson better and find out about his priorities for the coming years.
12:50 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kevin Sorenson
All right. This motion is in order. It was presented properly and we have been given our 48-hour notice on it.
Ms. Hoeppner.
12:50 p.m.
Conservative
Candice Bergen Conservative Portage—Lisgar, MB
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I think on the government side we would completely agree with this motion. It might be in translation, so I might suggest a friendly amendment. The motion says “to discuss his appointment”, but I wonder if we want to discuss his role instead of appointment. We don't really want to discuss the appointment; it's more the process. I think we would want to discuss his role.
Would you be open to a friendly amendment?
12:50 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kevin Sorenson
We'll just make that note. We have a fair bit of latitude when he appears anyway, so definitely we would be discussing the role and the—
12:50 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kevin Sorenson
Yes, you'll get that. We're just making that change. That is accepted, then, as a friendly amendment.
Continue, Ms. Hoeppner.
12:50 p.m.
Conservative
Candice Bergen Conservative Portage—Lisgar, MB
Thank you.
If we do go ahead and accept this motion, just in regard to timing, I'd like to see us finish this bill first. And then ideally what would be good is if we could at least give instructions to the analysts on our report on drugs and alcohol, and while they're working on that, the meeting could be filled up with this. I just wanted to present that as an option in regard to the timing of when we bring the RCMP commissioner in. As well, I think it would be nice for him to have just a little bit of time in his role, so that we get his perspective and not just the briefing notes he would have just received.
So we do support it. On timing, we would like to be the most efficient we can.
November 22nd, 2011 / 12:50 p.m.
NDP
Randall Garrison NDP Esquimalt—Juan de Fuca, BC
I just want to make sure I understand. You're proposing during that meeting that we deal with two topics. Or are you suggesting a sequence of meetings? I'm not sure I understand your suggestion.
12:50 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kevin Sorenson
Go ahead, you can explain it.
I think what I'm hearing is that we want to finish this before we proceed with Commissioner Paulson.
