Public Safety committee  The Belgian model came out of a catastrophic failure in the Dutroux case. I would suggest that one of the reasons we would want to look at accountability is precisely to avoid any risk of such catastrophic failure of a security system. I won't go into all the details, but I would be happy to provide the committee with the contact information of the senior judge who heads the organization in Belgium, who I know quite well.

Public Safety committee  I do think the Belgian model is perhaps one of the most effective in terms of the accountability it provides both in terms of the tack in operational accountability for the organizations in question and in the way that accountability is reported to the legislative branch.

Public Safety committee  The precise nature of the statement was that I'm concerned that, when hard-pressed, we have a tendency in Canada to err on the side of individual freedoms, civil liberties, and privacy rather than on the side of public safety and security for Canadian society as a whole. I would suggest that some of our allies have perhaps struck what I might term a bit more of a mature balance, because they have had to live with the phenomenon of terrorism much longer than we have.

Public Safety committee  I do indeed. Teaching at the Royal Military College, this is the framework in which the Canadian Forces are deployed. I think we have ample examples, not just of the Canadian Forces, but, of other government departments, conducting operations abroad, and doing so within the legal and constitutional framework that Canada applies and expects of those organizations.

Public Safety committee  In essence, I endorse the current amendments, however, Bill C-44 does commit one sin of omission, in my world. Many more expansive powers for security intelligence should be balanced with robust parliamentary accountability, not to be confused with oversight. My preferred model is Belgium's, where two permanent agencies headed by judges are empowered to audit not only past, but also ongoing investigations in real time and report their findings directly to a select group of security-cleared members of Parliament.

Public Safety committee  If I may, I will read you one paragraph that I skipped over that I think responds to your question. I value limited state intervention, but I also value peace, order, and good government. So when confronted with the rare and hard choice between individual freedoms, civil liberties, and privacy on the one hand, and public safety and collective security, it is within the federal government’s constitutional purview and obligation to err on the side of the latter, including foreign intelligence activity.

Public Safety committee  Ladies and gentlemen, I will give my presentation in English, but I can answer any of your questions in either official language. Mr. Chair, distinguished members of the committee. I have entitled my intervention “Peace, Order and Good Government: Parliamentary supremacy as the ultimate sovereign constitutional responsibility”.

Public Safety committee  The RCMP is a structured force that looks very different from the provincial police forces in Ontario and Quebec and any municipal force in this country. This comes out of its paramilitary heritage. We see this in the type of esprit de corps within the RCMP. We see it in the values for leadership and promotion as opposed to other police forces in this country.

Public Safety committee  Certainly an organization that until now had offered unlimited sick days to its membership offers no incentive to ever take long-term disability. Why would you take a 30% cut in pay when you can take unlimited sick leave? Indeed, reform is necessary. At the same time, suite à votre question, I would encourage the committee to provide more opportunity for researchers to gather data and to study our security organizations, which are often very closed organizations that are very reticent to have anybody from the outside study them.

Public Safety committee  I support the process, but I think there are different types of models to try to achieve those particular outcomes. I think we're still doing too much experimentation and we haven't really had the type of leadership that we need ultimately to arrive at a more comprehensive model.

Public Safety committee  The federal government could conduct a study on all the costs and requirements imposed on police forces, whether it is the RCMP, the Sûreté du Québec or other provincial or municipal bodies. The idea would be to determine which costs and which requirements they are responsible for, which ones they should really be responsible for and which ones should be paid for by the courts, the defence or civilians.

Public Safety committee  Well, as a student of federalism, I would submit that by and large this is a municipal coordination problem in most cases. There's considerable variation across this province, for instance, as to who gets called out and when. In principle, I entirely concur with you that it's hardly a good use of taxpayer resources to call the ambulance, the $350,000 fire truck with eight people on board, and the police cruiser when grandma, as tragic as it is, breaks her leg walking down the stairs.

Public Safety committee  What I would change is the entire way you get promoted. The way you currently get posted into Depot, because it's the quickest and easiest way to get promoted, is that you go into the applied police science program and you teach in that program, and this is sort of your path to promotion.

Public Safety committee  My concern is that we focus too much on the actual cost of what we pay police officers and not enough on what we actually want these officers to do. Then we have them do all sorts of functions that ultimately aren't in their particular field of expertise. I think it is important not to demonize police officers who are putting their lives on the line for duty, and in many cases, are absolutely terrific.

Public Safety committee  I'll give a very quick answer. One example is Frontex. The private data on over 300 million European citizens shared among the law enforcement agencies of 27 European Union countries. Their system works terrifically. I'd be happy to provide you with lots of examples. Police college....