Public Safety committee  It's an excellent question, sir, and I think it would be difficult for perhaps either of us to give you a truly fine-grained, evidence-based answer to your question. I have views on this, and they're views of long standing that have evolved since 9/11. I think the first thing that has to be said is that what I call Canadian literacy on national security issues is low.

Public Safety committee  Certainly. First of all, I think that probably all Canadians would agree that if we can in Canada, we want to avoid the problems the Americans have had with their own multiplicity of no-fly lists, border lists, watch-lists, and so on, which is a machine which is truly out of control.

Public Safety committee  I would be looking for people who have expertise in national security law with regard to national security practices, with regard to law enforcement, with regard to intelligence, with regard to civil liberties and privacy issues. I think you could put together a useful, diverse group of that kind, and perhaps there would be other voices that would need to be heard there.

Public Safety committee  Mr. Brassard, thank you. It certainly could do. What I had in mind was that if the government is going to be faced with a virtual deluge of responses, which would be the best outcome from a public consultation of this kind, and if perhaps, as the science indicates, they are not ready with a plan as to how to deal with that volume of information, then it might be very helpful to have an additional set of critical eyes on the inputs from the consultation process.

Public Safety committee  Monsieur Dubé, I would add that we probably have to keep our attention focused on the problem we are trying to deal with. The inspector general was a small office within what became the Department of Public Safety to provide reporting directly to the minister on the activities of CSIS.

Public Safety committee  Chair, and members of the committee, it's my pleasure to have the opportunity to present my views on the government's green paper on national security, and the online consultations that Canadians are invited to take part in. I will focus my brief introductory remarks on the following four issues: the significance and importance of consulting Canadians on national security issues, proposals for utilizing the consultation process, the green paper, and some problems with the green paper.

Public Safety committee  Thank you, Mr. Easter. My comments regarding CSE being the secret elephant in the room really refer to the fact that CSE is one of our leading national security intelligence agencies, with a three-part mandate, as you will know. It includes foreign intelligence gathering; cyber-security, a cyber-security mission and a third part, which is assistance to law enforcement and security agencies in Canada.

Public Safety committee  Very briefly, I'm very much a fan of the British model, the Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament, which has now been in existence for a number of years. Its powers were recently expanded. If we were to adapt such a model to Canadian needs, it would not only fill a huge gap in the current accountability regime, which is the inability of Parliament to successfully scrutinize security and intelligence activities in this country, but it would also provide for a kind of strategic level look at the whole range of intelligence and national security activities, which is also currently absent from our accountability system, as Justice O'Connor understood in volume II of his report in the Arar inquiry.

Public Safety committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair, and members of the committee. It's dangerous to ask an academic to speak for only 10 minutes. I'm going to read from a prepared text. I thank you for this opportunity to address the committee on the important matter of Bill C-51. This is the second occasion in which I have testified in this House on omnibus anti-terrorism legislation.

Public Safety committee  That's absolutely correct. There's nothing explicit in the bill at all, and what the existing practice is in that regard informally is a matter of official secrets.

Public Safety committee  Mr. Casey, I think it's an excellent question. Let me first give you my view of the nature of the critiques, and they're very close to the way in which you present them. One of the responses to any kind of measure to reform the nature of the parliamentary review of security and intelligence in Canada is an argument that existing departmentally focused, if you like, parliamentary committees can adequately do this job.

Public Safety committee  —a non-partisan atmosphere to work.

Public Safety committee  If I could just add to that, we could look at the Five Eyes partners, in particular, and I think we would find in that look that they all have different forms of judicial or executive authorization for surveillance abroad, and indeed for surveillance at home. They're probably all variations on a theme.

Public Safety committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Ladies and gentlemen of the committee, it's a privilege to appear before you. I'm grateful for the opportunity. I'm the long-winded witness, so I'm going to read a condensed version of my statement. Since the 9/11 attacks, the role of intelligence in Canadian national security policy has been revolutionized.