Yes, just very briefly, Mr. Chairman.
In general, if you put an obligation, and this applies more to some of the amendments, I think, that have been stood, but it applies here as well.... If you put a positive obligation into a statute and you don't provide otherwise in the statute, then the criminal offence under section 126 of the Criminal Code applies, which is disobedience of a statute. Anyone who does or admits to doing anything that is an obligation under the statute could be liable for that offence. It triggers a general criminal offence unless you provide otherwise.
The only other comment on this particular amendment is that there are several hundred reporting obligations in various federal statutes that cover various sorts of activities. If we were asked to draft something like that, again I would refer to my initial remarks about getting policy direction on exactly what the report was intended to include, but in a great many of them, there is some kind of an exemption that effectively does not compel ministers to report on something that might be sensitive in terms of international relations or national security.
That doesn't seem an obvious issue with this, but it's something that would have to be looked at, I think. If you look at it, there is a wide range of reporting requirements. There are several in the Criminal Code on things like electronic surveillance that are very detailed. Some of them are very general. Whether this is or is not a criminal law bill I think is in the hands of Parliament. Right now, I would describe it as a criminal law bill as it stands.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.