Thanks, Mr. Saini.
If colleagues will permit me, I have a few questions myself.
Obviously, Canada is member of Interpol. My question is for those of you who might want to talk about this.
This continues from your line of responses, Mr. Oliver.
Back in the spring, based on some of the attacks that had been happening in Europe, Interpol had a conference. At that conference the Secretary General, who was Jürgen Stock, suggested specifically that “police at the local level must be able to access information shared by local and national police forces across the world.... And law enforcement agencies need to start sharing more of that information, so that a global information network can be 'uncompromisingly and fully [utilized]' by local and national police.” According to Stock, “To be fit for purpose, our response must also be global”. This was the theme of that particular conference.
Now, the Privacy Commissioner has a number of recommendations that have been made so we can update the Privacy Act. The Privacy Commissioner has also been quite vocal about some of the concerns that he has with some of the anti-terrorism legislation that we've had here in Canada in the past.
There seem to be competing interests—this is not a secret—between, obviously, the concern that the citizenry has for the proper and respectful treatment of their private and confidential information and the fact that citizens at large want to know that they can go to bed safely at night, knowing that those who are charged with the responsibility of keeping us safe have the information they need in order to do that.
My question to any of the folks who are here is, do you see any concerns with some of the recommendations that the Information Commissioner is proposing? Do we need to do more as a country to carry our weight when it comes to sharing of information with organizations through Interpol and the like, in order to keep Canadians safe? What assurances can you give me, as a person who makes the decisions from time to time on public policy, that citizens in my riding, for example, and in all ridings across this country can be assured that their personal and private information in the hands of the government is not going to be compromised?
That's a very broad question, but I want to get the Interpol perspective.
Mr. Oliver, I think you're most suited to proceed in answering this question.