Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I would like to start off by thanking the witnesses for being with us today.
We all know that access to information is extremely important. I remember a committee meeting that took place barely a year ago, when a superintendent from the RCMP lied to the committee. He misled us. This serves as a reminder that there is still progress to be made in this field.
I would like to start with the representative from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service. I'm interested in requests for permission to undertake an historical study. Witnesses, such as Mr. Andrea Conte, who was interested in the COINTELPRO file, have told us that the Canadian Security Intelligence Service still considers this to be an operational threat in Canada. Ms. Conte had to go to the United States and visit the National Archives in Washington to gain access to the very same file.
The United States seems to have an automatic declassification policy that kicks in after 25 years. Wouldn't it be a good idea to have a similar policy here, so that we would have some consistency? I presume that the fact that the Americans have declassified the documents does not constitute a threat to our national security.
Do you have an opinion on this?