Public Safety committee  It's a two-part answer, sir. In conducting his inquiry, I believe Mr. Justice O'Connor had unfettered and full access to any and all information that related to this. Secondly, as you know, there are some aspects of this matter that are subject to national security confidence

Public Safety committee  I think Mr. Justice O'Connor made it clear in his report that, absent testimony from representatives of three foreign governments, it was difficult for him to ascertain what, if anything, they knew or did not know about Mr. Arar. My recollection again is that when the former Soli

Public Safety committee  I do not.

Public Safety committee  As a general principle, one hopes we would have information regarding a threat in Canada.

Public Safety committee  It's always a very difficult issue, as I tried to point out in my opening comments. One cannot necessarily presuppose that information received from a country with a poor human rights record is necessarily a product of torture. Over and above that, though, again as I tried to p

Public Safety committee  As a practical matter, I wasn't the director of CSIS at the time. Perhaps Mr. Elcock could answer.

Public Safety committee  That's correct.

Public Safety committee  We have relationships of some kind or another with a number of foreign agencies. As I tried to state in my opening comments, we do not identify specifically which agencies we have contacts with for various reasons, including the generally accepted principle in international deali

Public Safety committee  That would be unlikely.

Public Safety committee  I would say it is a two-way street, but I think you have the traffic flow reversed. My experience to date at CSIS has been that we are significantly a net importer of information from foreign governments. In part, that is a function of the fact that we have, among other things, r

Public Safety committee  As I said, sir, I very much regret what happened to Mr. Arar, but the broader issue of an apology is one that is now before the government in the context of the overall compensation negotiations with Mr. Arar.

Public Safety committee  Having read the transcript of the former Solicitor General's appearance before this committee, I believe he said that over and above the advice that he had received from both CSIS and the RCMP, he himself had misgivings for various reasons on signing off on such an approach, whic

Public Safety committee  I'm not disputing Mr. Justice O'Connor's conclusions. I'm just trying to explain to you the circumstances at the time that led to the advice being rendered to the Solicitor General at that moment.

Public Safety committee  The assessment was done at the time by the individual who had responsibility for the issue at the time. Whether that individual did or did not have the record of expertise is something that certainly Justice O'Connor has commented on. I can't provide you with a ready explanation

Public Safety committee  As you know, in my opening statement I certainly expressed my regret for the ordeal that both he and his family endured as a consequence of this. More broadly, as our minister stated before the committee and as was reiterated by another member of the government yesterday, the bro