National Defence committee  I believe you probably know a lot more than I do on that subject. All I know is what I read in the papers. To my knowledge, no official mechanism has yet been introduced to gather the views of the various monitoring agencies.

National Defence committee  Yes, absolutely. I've just come back from a trip to France, at a time when France and Great Britain had just signed a security agreement. President Sarkozy said some words I found marvellous. He said the objective is prevention and the means harmonization. The French are very goo

National Defence committee  In fact, as I said, I already have some ideas about that, but I will have to confirm that when I see the situation, but it's obvious that... Will the solution be a super-structure, a new bureaucracy? For the moment, in my mind, all solutions are possible. I think we're obviously

National Defence committee  Thank you, madam.

National Defence committee  What is certain is that there is a globalization of information, that there is an increased interdependence of information, of foreign intelligence, that there is an obvious need for cooperation with certain foreign entities and with entities in Canada. In that sense, we are hea

National Defence committee  The reason why I accepted a mandate such as this one is precisely the Commissioner's independence in the mandate he carries out. As I said earlier, I have administrative and budgetary independence. I hire the staff I want, I'm not subject to the rules of the public service with r

National Defence committee  So far it's been a little beyond my expectations. In practical terms, I was told that I would have to spend about two days a week over 40 weeks, the equivalent of some 80 days. That's all very relative; it depends on needs. Obviously, since I was appointed in June, I have had a

National Defence committee  Absolutely not.

National Defence committee  Absolutely. All that is really specific to the CSE, which is subject to the customary rules, but that's not my field.

National Defence committee  It consists of the executive director, an assistant executive director; a number of analysts, two individuals constitute the support staff. My per diem is nevertheless included in that—although that's not going to break the budget, I must say. And there are people who work on con

National Defence committee  It's curious that you ask that question today because this week my office organized a training course for the analysts from the various security monitoring agencies in Canada. This is the first time this has been done, and it was my office that took the initiative to make people

National Defence committee  It might be premature for me to go into that right now. Perhaps I can get back to you on that in a few months.

National Defence committee  Thank you.

National Defence committee  At this point in my activities, I must say I haven't really had a chance to look into those questions. I'm not sure either of the extent to which my role as Commissioner would lead me to examine those assumptions.

National Defence committee  I'm entitled to an in-house lawyer, if I can use that expression. I don't have one right now because the person who occupied the position has just gone on maternity leave. I'm currently looking for a lawyer, and I can hire any expert I need to help me in my duties. I also have an