Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, colleagues, for the invitation.
I was, as you kindly noted, Mr. Chair, a couple of minutes late. I had a discussion with some people in Montreal last evening around an issue that's important to all of us—gun control. I came back from Montreal this morning, and as some of our colleagues from that great city will know, the traffic sometimes is relentless. I apologize, but I arrived directly from Montreal, Mr. Chair.
I'm very happy to be here. Thank you for inviting me to talk about the mandate. Thank you for introducing my colleagues. Al Sutherland, I think, is a frequent flyer before this committee and does great work on democratic institutions, as does our deputy secretary, Mala Khanna.
For the new deputy minister of public safety and the new director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, Trish and Dan, it is their first time to be with me before a committee. They've been in the important functions in the jobs they have now but for a week or 10 days.
Trish and Dan, thank you for joining us.
Democracies around the world are being tested. In this turbulent context, the fact remains that Canadians have many reasons to be proud of our democracy and the integrity of our electoral system.
Of course, democracy requires our attention every day, not just at election time. We must always ensure its health and vitality, because our democratic institutions and traditions are the very foundation of our values; they reflect who we are as Canadians. As elected officials, we have a responsibility to look after our democratic institutions and traditions and to keep them healthy, of course.
We won't always agree on how to do that, but our democratic institutions and traditions exist precisely to help us overcome those differences and to keep the public interest at the forefront.
Over the course of the next two hours, I look forward to discussing, through that frame, what we can do together to keep our democracy strong. Over the last number of years, our government has put in place a range of measures to protect democratic institutions and, in particular, address the evolving and growing threat of foreign interference. In advance of the 2019 election, as colleagues know, we established the plan to protect Canada's democracy, bringing together all agencies and departments that have a role in ensuring our elections are secure, fair and transparent. To ensure our measures remain adaptable in the face of new and evolving threats, the plan was updated ahead of the 2021 federal election. We're going through that very exercise again ahead of the next federal election.
All of this work is being coordinated by a group at Privy Council Office known as the protecting democracy unit, which our government established in 2023 to ensure there is a central coordinating body for all things related to threats to our elections. We've also put in place the security and intelligence threats to elections, SITE, task force. You've heard about these groups, I'm sure, in many of your proceedings. They are composed of experts from CSIS, the Communications Security Establishment, the Department of Foreign Affairs, of course, and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. This is the principal mechanism to monitor the threat from hostile state interference during elections and by-elections.
The SITE task force works closely with the members of the panel that governs the critical election incident public protocol. In the event of a threat to the integrity of the general election, the protocol lays out how political parties and all Canadians are informed of that threat. The panel is chaired by Canada's most senior public servant, the Clerk of the Privy Council, and is composed of senior public servants who bring experience in national security, foreign affairs and democratic governance.
Taken together, these measures have significantly strengthened our ability to address threats to our democracy, but we must always ask ourselves what more we could do. That's why, in September 2023, as our colleagues are well aware, the government announced the launch of the public inquiry into foreign interference in electoral processes and federal democratic institutions. The establishment of this commission, chaired by Justice Hogue, followed extensive consultations with all recognized parties in the House of Commons. All political parties agreed on the terms of reference and the appointment of Justice Hogue. For its part, the government has ensured that the commission has unprecedented access to classified information and cabinet confidences. You will recall the extraordinary discussion we had in June on this very topic. As members of this committee are well aware, the commission submitted an interim report on May 3, 2024, with the final report expected on December 31, 2024. We look forward to reviewing the commissioner's final report and recommendations to better protect federal democratic processes from foreign interference.
During the second half of my appearance today, I'm looking forward to discussing Bill C-65, which proposes amendments to the Canada Elections Act to further remove barriers to voting, encourage voter participation, protect personal information and, of course, strengthen electoral safeguards against foreign interference.
Once again, Mr. Chair, thank you to you and your colleagues for this invitation. You can't imagine how much I look forward to the next two hours.
