I call the meeting to order.
Good morning, colleagues. This is the last meeting we'll have, I think, before the impending adjournment of the House of Commons for the Christmas break. We are continuing our study of the Security of Canada Information Sharing Act.
Colleagues, I don't want to get into the discussion right now; I just want to let you know that after today we will have heard from about 25 witnesses on this matter. According to my discussions with the clerk, we have about 70 witnesses who are scheduled or who have been suggested for the committee to hear from. This puts us at about the one-third point if we are going to hear from all of the witnesses. We'll need to make a decision—if not today, as soon as we get back—in regard to how much longer we wish to continue and when the committee feels that it has heard sufficient evidence on this matter.
I'm leaving that out there. It's not for discussion at this particular time, but just as a thought that you ought to have, because we'll need to make some decisions when we return about where we would like to go.
At any rate, we are pleased to have with us today, from the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association, Micheal Vonn, who is joining us by video, and, from the Centre for Law and Democracy, Michael Karanicolas, who has been here recently. An individual who is here before us and actually in the room is Lisa Austin, who is an associate professor from the University of Toronto's faculty of law and the David Asper Centre for Constitutional Rights. We thank each of you for taking the time to be with us here at this committee this morning.
I'm sure that all of you are familiar with our process here. You have up to 10 minutes for a presentation. I'd like you to stay as close as possible to that. I'll give you a little bit of leeway, but if you start stretching it out near 15 minutes, you might see me intervene.
We'll start with the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association, please, for up to 10 minutes.