I think that was one of the issues we spent a lot of time looking at. Our concern was that we felt there were adequate protections with respect to privacy within Canada because the law pertains. We do have privacy laws. We do have a privacy commissioner. There are, we think, reasonable questions of privacy in Canada. But that isn't the concern we had. This has a farther reach than Canada.
What happens if information obtained in Canada is then transferred to agencies outside of Canada to deal with the problem? That was, to my mind, a major gap in the legislation. Our committee came to the same conclusion, and we proposed in recommendation 13 that information from Canadian sources be given to foreign intelligence units where privacy legislation that is consistent with the Privacy Act in Canada pertains.
The reason I say that is that it would then allow a Canadian citizen not only access to his rights under the Privacy Act and the provisions here, but he would also have a consistent right to go against another country if information based on his privacy was breached.
I don' t think we've come to a good answer to this, but that was the best we could do. When the legislation comes back to us, I can tell you, we'll be looking at this question again.