These communities, which have been most impacted by PRC interference, have been asking for an independent public inquiry. They put their hope in Parliament, over the last four years, that we would get some real action through Parliament, but unfortunately, because Parliament has been unable to do its job because of a lack of information from the government, a lack of documents, a lack of forthcoming testimony and forthrightness from government witnesses at committee, we've all, in Parliament and within the diaspora community, now put our hopes on an independent public inquiry with the full powers of a public inquiry to subpoena witnesses and to call for the production of documents so that the government can be held accountable as to what happened and so that these long-standing issues can be addressed.
What would you say to those who've said that an independent public inquiry can be held while at the same time protecting national security? Reference was made earlier to the fact that we've had inquiries before like the Maher Arar inquiry, which dealt with highly classified intelligence information. In fact, some of that information was Five Eyes' intelligence. That is the most sensitive intelligence because it comes from our Five Eyes partners and not from domestic intelligence agencies.
We've also had the former head of CSIS, Dick Fadden, say that a public inquiry is possible on this matter. We've had Dan Stanton, a former CSIS officer manager, also say that a public inquiry is possible. We've had the former Chief Electoral Officer of Canada say that a public inquiry is necessary.
In light of all these calls for a public inquiry, how can the second part of your mandate restore confidence?