Sure. Absolutely. I have some thoughts to share, so I might as well share those while I have the floor. I'm sure this could go around in circles for a while, so I can always get back in line to share some more, but I want to give my initial thoughts on what's happening.
I was pleased with today's meeting. The motion that Mr. Cooper has brought forward and now the amendment that Mr. Turnbull has brought forward are giving me déjà vu. I'm sure they're giving the same feeling to many others in this room in that we're having a very similar discussion.
I know that the motion Mr. Cooper has brought forward is slightly different, but in essence, it's not all that different from the one we were discussing about a week ago. At that time, this committee came to a decision to move forward with studying and shedding more light and transparency on the issue of foreign interference. At that point, we voted to move forward and bring a whole bunch of witnesses to this committee.
Mr. Turnbull's amendment includes bringing Morris Rosenberg, who has just authored the “Report on the assessment of the 2021 Critical Election Incident Public Protocol”. That is a very interesting report, by the way, which was made public just a couple of days ago. In that report, they've done a lot of work. In essence, that report has, I think, shed a lot of light on what has happened.
Mr. Cooper talks about sunlight and all of those things, but in essence, it seems to me that Mr. Cooper is more interested in who heard what, and when, and the Prime Minister, and is wanting to create a big show out of our security agencies and out of our system.
What I am more interested in is continuing on with our meetings. Even in the last several meetings, we have discovered some really good information. We've been given some good suggestions and ideas, whether through the report that Mr. Rosenberg authored or through the witnesses we have seen.
I know many issues have come up, such as widening the scope that the SITE task force has so that it's not just during the writ period. That's a very interesting suggestion. We've heard time and time again that we should probably move forward with adding a registry of foreign agents. We've heard that Australia has been successful in doing so. We've heard a few other suggestions as well. I think those are all really great ones, and I think we can continue with the witnesses we have, because they are essentially the ones who are responsible for making these decisions.
We heard today from the national security advisor that they have all the tools and that CSIS has the tools that are needed in order to prevent or interfere when they have knowledge of an incident of foreign interference occurring. They have that capability.
I don't know what.... There's a discussion of a big public inquiry, and I see that there are obviously benefits to the public being aware about what is happening. We are in a public forum right now. I'm really hoping and urging that we can put the partisanship away and suggest how we can make this about our democratic system.
At this point, the SITE force has already assessed that the integrity of the 2019 and 2021 elections was not compromised, although they did it under a framework that perhaps Mr. Cooper is not happy with. Interference did not rise to the level that would have had an impact on the overall election outcomes. I believe Mr. Cooper has even said so in several interviews, and I think we have agreement on that fact.
I think there is this desire to drill into issues when we know, as my colleague Mrs. Romanado said, that we will not be able to get unredacted documents on some things. A lot of what is in that original motion is wishful thinking. It's never going to happen. We're not going to get unredacted documents. I don't even think the law clerk of Parliament has the ability to pass those on to us in that manner. There is a process, and I think we are confusing the public through a lot of this back-and-forth.
As responsible parliamentarians, we know that no party wants foreign interference to happen, whether it's by China or any other country. We know that many countries are involved in this type of activity in Canada and that it's happened for quite some time, not just in these last two elections. Our goal and our mission in this committee, within what we have control or purview over, should really be about strengthening our future elections. As the procedure and House affairs committee, we should be interested in this aspect, since it is within our mandate. It's not about dragging in staff members and dragging the name of the Prime Minister through what has been mentioned and whether he allowed somebody to run or didn't. It's really not about any of that. It's about protecting our democracy and our elections.
I think a lot of us already well understand the information and advice we've been given by our intelligence agencies and we understand what we should do in response. That's where I'm leaning.
Let's continue to have these meetings. We have a few more that are already laid out. After those meetings, we can see whether we're satisfied with the recommendations we can put forward at that point or whether we're not satisfied and there are other witnesses still to be heard from.
I'm sorry, but I think what the Conservatives are asking for is not for the greater good. It's about what happened in one particular riding, not about the overall election outcome. We've seen in the most recent report that it wasn't the case that this affected the general outcome of the election. Therefore, I think we should learn from what has happened. We should learn from all of the security agencies and the witnesses who are coming before us and we should take their advice. They see where the gaps are and they've been identifying the gaps for us. There are many other former intelligence officers we could also call forward to get their advice. Some have already come before our committee, and they've provided some good things.
I truly believe that if we put forth a strong report to Parliament, the government will be interested in acting on the advice of our committee and we could make a big difference through our work. If we want things to come off the rails and go sideways just so we can have a dog-and-pony show, so be it, but let's do this for the greater good and let's make a difference so we don't have to worry about talking about this again. We want to have transparency in future elections so this doesn't happen to any future candidates.
Thank you.