Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I am really insulted to hear parliamentarians here in Canada, from the House of Commons and the Senate, say that other parliamentarians are not eligible to consider situations in which national security is threatened.
I hear that the Prime Minister has the power to do this or do that. Since when? Since that committee was created, has he interfered?
I said just now that that committee was entitled to manage its proceedings. So it does its work and produces reports. The reports we receive, that are tabled in the House, are necessarily redacted, because national security is in issue.
We are told that the parliamentarians waive their immunity. We have no immunity, that is true. It is important that we keep the information we analyze secret. Myself, and I am no longer a member of that committee, Mr. Chair, if I were to disclose some piece of information I had learned during the work we did while I was a member of the committee, I would be risking life in prison.
I am therefore being very careful when I speak today on the work of that committee. Even after my term in office, on whatever date it may be when I have to leave politics, I will still be subject to that law and I am still going to risk prison. Former parliamentarians and committee members always have that sword of Damocles hanging over their heads. Do you think that means nothing?
That is why I would like to ask the Minister, since she sent those documents, whether she really trusts the parliamentarians who sit on the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians, or NSICOP.
What do you think, Minister?