Public Safety committee  Yes, I will.

Public Safety committee  That would be a Criminal Code enforcement. It wouldn't pertain to the service. It would be police forces that would do that.

Public Safety committee  It is important to understand that some people look at what happened in Ottawa in 2014 and say that as tragic as the events were, in fact it was only two events. To me, that is wrong logic that forgets important factors. We must not forget the number of people who are currently in prison for terrorist activities, the economic impact that terrorist activities would have on our country, the Canadian victims of terrorist attacks abroad and the Canadians who have taken part in terrorist activities in other countries, including Algeria in 2013.

Public Safety committee  Good morning. I do have opening remarks. Good morning, Mr. Chair and members of the committee. I am pleased to be here today to provide an overview of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, CSIS, and to speak briefly to the key features and trends affecting Canada's national security and what they mean to the service and to Canada.

Public Safety committee  Thank you for the question. You will understand that I cannot comment on specific points concerning the operations. All I can say is that if there are any activities that represent a certain threat and that fall under the definition of a threat as set out in the Canadian Security Intelligence Service Act, we are doing what we have to.

Public Safety committee  The vast majority of that money you see in the main estimates is actually reprofiling of money for projects that were delayed. The bulk of that $20 million—in fact, close to over $19 million—is reprofiling of money.

Public Safety committee  It's money we have for specific projects, such as infrastructure, for example, that were delayed. We're reprofiling that money to this fiscal year.

Public Safety committee  To be brief, I would qualify the terrorism threat at this time as persistent and unparalleled, and the volume of the tempo is something that we haven't seen before. That is happening at a time when the other threat, cyber espionage, is also increasing. It's a very challenging time in terms of the threats that this country faces.

Public Safety committee  As I testified before on Bill C-51, the info sharing act, there's nothing hidden in there that changes the CSIS Act in terms of the types of activities that we can or cannot investigate. In the CSIS Act it's clear that lawful advocacy, protest, and dissent are not something we can investigate unless it's done in the context of using violence.

Public Safety committee  It is part of the training. It goes from the charter, flows into the CSIS Act, ministerial directive, and then operational internal policy. They're all linked.

Public Safety committee  From memory, I wouldn't do it justice. Prior to that, the certification of the director's annual report to the minister was done by the inspector general for two or three years. Now it's done by SIRC. Again, from memory, in all of those annual reports, the certification was always that our activities were done in conformity with the CSIS Act ministerial direction and it was never an abusive or excessive use of our powers.

Public Safety committee  There has been criticism and recommendation on ways to improve the way we do things but not in terms of breaking the laws.

Public Safety committee  Back in the fall of 2013 when the decision came down, the first thing we did was we stopped doing the activities that were caught in that process. It is very difficult for me to talk about some of the issues because there are still questions that are now in front of the Supreme Court and it would be improper for me to comment on this.

Public Safety committee  I've testified a number of times that in my opinion SIRC is a robust review mechanism that has proven over 30 years its value, its impartiality. I've said publicly again a number of times that our organization is a better organization because of the work of SIRC.

Public Safety committee  I don't know if I have time to add one little thing. In terms of being lawful in the country where it's going to take place, you can imagine the difficulties in the countries I listed earlier. But I just talked about mobility. If we were to obtain a warrant where it would be lawful to do whatever we want to do in Syria, and the next week that person is in Iraq, and the following week that person is elsewhere, again, in terms of, as we say in French, … “practical”.