Declaration of Emergency committee  Thank you for your question. Anyone can say that things are charter-proof. I've written extensively about how the charter sets only minimal standards, but there were many aspects of the emergency order, not only the financial aspects, that I think could be charter-suspect. Being able to seize or freeze assets without any discernible due process is something that could be vulnerable.

Declaration of Emergency committee  Me too.

Declaration of Emergency committee  Thank you, Senator Harder, for that question. I think CSIS came very late to recognizing that violent extremism, particularly from the far right, was taking far more lives than terrorism inspired by al Qaeda or Daesh. Again, when we evaluate CSIS's determination that there was not a threat to the security of Canada, we have to recognize that it was coming fairly late to that game.

Declaration of Emergency committee  Absolutely. I mean, if the police have complete operational independence, then they're essentially self-governing, and they're restrained only by the fact that we have good police that are generally restrained. To go back to the McDonald commission, they always said that policy of operation was a matter for the responsible minister, but it's too easy for the responsible minister or the police service board to say, no, that's a matter of operation.

Declaration of Emergency committee  Exactly. The part of Bill C-303 that I think is good is that it picks up Justice Linden's recommendation with respect to how this is going to be an area that will change over time, and when the responsible political authority assumes responsibility, they should do so in writing and there should be a presumption that what that direction is will be made public.

Declaration of Emergency committee  I think if there was some formal coordination that included the federal involvement, then you would ensure that NSIRA and the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians could at least have some review over that. The problem is that there is nothing like NSIRA or the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians at the provincial or municipal level.

Declaration of Emergency committee  Absolutely.

Declaration of Emergency committee  I would look to the Toronto example, where there were barriers put in place that protected the critical infrastructure of the hospital. There was a full briefing by a police board, which the mayor actually sat on, and there wasn't the sort of disarray that you saw both in the Ottawa police and in the Ottawa Police Services Board.

Declaration of Emergency committee  Yes. For example, it's been mentioned that the OPP had undercover operatives in the Ottawa protest. We don't know what they came up with. I really think that you can only fully investigate this if you do so in a manner that is in camera, subject to national security confidentiality.

Declaration of Emergency committee  Yes, the OPP operational handling has actually gotten a lot of praise. I'm not going to join that bandwagon. My concern is that intelligence operations started with respect to indigenous occupations. Also, some of the product we've seen uses phrases like “the patriot movement”, which don't really seem to me to strike down.

Declaration of Emergency committee  Thank you very much. You're quite right that the premier and the solicitor general did not testify and successfully invoked parliamentary privilege, so that's obviously a problem going forward, but I was actually surprised at the level of provincial and municipal buy-in at the Rouleau commission.

Declaration of Emergency committee  Thank you very much for this invitation to assist with the important work of this joint committee. Although I am a member of the Public Order Emergency Commission's research council, I should stress that I am speaking only in my individual capacity and, indeed, I am not privy to the commission’s internal deliberations as it prepares it report.

Public Safety committee  Well, I think you need to look at training. You need to create some sort of advisory board that would deal with people who are specialists with migrants and the issues that migrants go through. I'm a bit skeptical about pushing it into the RCMP review body, which is already struggling.

Public Safety committee  I think it should be done through the Criminal Code, perhaps with regulations that have a standard as they have in the U.K. In the Golden strip-search case, the Supreme Court practically begged Parliament to regulate strip searches. We know that strip searches are a problem in some police forces and not in others.

Public Safety committee  With regard to the second question, Surrey did a lot of work and found that by leaving contract policing, it would have its own police board where the mayor would be chair, and it could appoint people who represented the demographic diversity of Surrey. It also found that it would have much more flexibility in terms of hiring people and that there would not be this three-year cycle.