Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to the minister and the officials for appearing today.
Obviously, on all sides of the House we share the concern about preventing terrorism, but what we've seen with the introduction of this piece of legislation and several others causes concern because it appears the government is relying on further legislative measures, some of which clearly have impacts at least on basic rights, while at the same time cutting budget spending in the front-end areas of law enforcement and the Canada Border Services Agency, which might have the biggest impact in actually preventing terrorism. That's the context in which I am approaching my questions: this question of balance between the measures we're taking in order to prevent terrorism and basic rights in Canada.
You started off by talking about why we need investigative hearings and recognizance with conditions, since they were never used when they were in place. What consultations have taken place at this point that would lead you to believe these measures should be reintroduced? In other words, where is the demand? Has this come from law enforcement, has it come from community agencies, has it come from CSIS? Why are you bringing these back at this point in Parliament when they had never been used before?