Thank you.
CCLA has always taken the position that we didn't know why Bill C-51 was needed. We knew that we had had these tragic events. We all agreed that they were tragic, but we did not know what the gaps were in the October 2014 existing laws that Bill C-51 was remedying. What we do know is that Bill C-51 introduced a whole new set of problems, and very serious problems, and that's what we're concerned about.
I guess my summation would be that the open-wound problems we see in Bill C-51 need to be addressed. I would also completely agree with Professors Forcese and Roach, as they've said at other times, that the problems we have with respect to intelligence and evidence have to be addressed. It comes full circle, in a way, to the question you asked two questions ago and to what I referred to in my opening statement, which is that nothing in SCISA ensures that we have reliable information. If our goal is to keep Canadians safe and to protect against threats of terrorism and terrorist activity, we must have reliable information, and we don't have that.
We've referred in our submissions elsewhere to William Binney, who was a whistle-blower in the U.S. You've all heard this analogy before, but it's worth repeating today: if you're looking for a needle in a haystack, don't create more hay. I'm afraid that's what we've done, but it's not as benign as just more hay. There are also other problems.