Information & Ethics committee  Thank you. Yes, I am in favour of collaboration with our allies. I think, in fact, that being a member of NATO has kept us safe since the Second World War. In this age when borders are less relevant, I think that's important when it comes to international crime, which includes terrorism.

Information & Ethics committee  It seems like a longer list than is necessary. I would think that Canada should be focusing its efforts with respect to national security, rather than diffusing them across a whole bunch of organizations.

Information & Ethics committee  I'm not sure. Certainly since 2001—

Information & Ethics committee  I would simply be speculating, but I would assume it would relate to pandemics.

Information & Ethics committee  I think my first suggestion would be to scrap it.

Information & Ethics committee  It would be to scrap this statute, SCISA, and take a look at what is already in the Privacy Act, because every one of these organizations is subject to the Privacy Act, and the Privacy Act already has a scheme that allows one government institution to disclose information to another government institution, and it would naturally fall into that.

Information & Ethics committee  Yes.

Information & Ethics committee  I don't think we've heard anything about what is going on in the background or between these organizations, and I don't think we are likely to hear about it. That's one of the problems. If there were oversight and accountability and we could actually get a line of sight into what was going on, if they had an obligation to publish in the Canada Gazette all the information-sharing agreements and the magnitude of them, and if they had to report in Parliament every year—as is required for wiretap warrants, for example—then we would have some insight, but as a lawyer, when I look at this and read the statute, I wonder what could go on in here.

Information & Ethics committee  Thank you very much.

Information & Ethics committee  I'm not sure that we've necessarily seen that there was such a problem in the previous regime that it needed to be completely thrown out with a blank cheque handed to these authorities, but—

Information & Ethics committee  I'm not sure that it was proven, when the statute was originally introduced, that it was so necessary, that there was something so wrong with the way that the Privacy Act worked in allowing information sharing among government departments. We've certainly seen evidence of, and royal commissions referring to, the challenges of information sharing between government departments that exist and national security agencies.

Information & Ethics committee  Thank you very much. Thank you very much to the committee and to the chair for the opportunity to speak with you today about this very important subject. I will introduce myself. I am a privacy lawyer practising with McInnes Cooper in Halifax. I've been practising law in this area for more than 15 years, and in that time I've had the benefit of advising clients on a full range of privacy, access to information, and technology issues.

Transport committee  I think there should be demonstrable user competence, and I think the way you do that is by operators. I think that any drone over coffee-cup size should be registered.

Transport committee  I agree with that entirely.

Transport committee  I'm not aware of any either.