Thank you, Mr. Chair.
First of all, it's a pleasure to be here this afternoon. I'll take a few minutes, but no more than ten minutes, I promise, to cover the role of the department and the minister with respect to the designation protocol and reporting requirements as they relate to the law enforcement justification provisions.
On our role in terms of the Minister of Public Safety, he is responsible for designating individual peace officers or public officials with peace officer powers who fall under the purview of the Department of Public Safety. This currently applies to the RCMP in terms of the officers and senior officials and also includes CBSA, the Canada Border Services Agency, officers and senior officials in respect to the enforcement of acts for which the Minister of Public Safety has responsibility. Under emergency circumstances as well, there are 48-hour designations that can be issued by designated senior officials.
With respect to the second role of the Minister of Public Safety, it's the publishing of an annual report that details the number and nature of emergency designations issued during the course of the year; the number and nature of acts or omissions requiring prior authorization, and the nature of the conduct being investigated in respect of these; and the number and nature of acts or omissions, and the nature of the conduct being investigated in respect of them, where, due to exigent circumstances, officers proceeded without authorization from a senior official.
With respect to the designation process, so as to ensure that the law enforcement justification provisions are not subject to abuse or misuse, a strict designation protocol has been established which contains the following elements: eligibility criteria — who can be designated — eligibility conditions, the designation procedure or what steps need to be followed, and finally the required annual reports and the procedures which must be followed to produce them.
Senior officials and public officers are eligible for designation based on the following criteria.
They may be designated based on need. With respect to senior officials it may be based on written advice from the commissioner of the RCMP. As for public officers, they may be designated based on written advice from the assistant commissioner, federal and international operations.
They may also be designated based on their office. For senior officials, at present, the Office of the Assistant Commissioner FIO must be designated. In addition, both the Assistant Commissioner Criminal Intelligence Directorate and Chief Superintendent Drugs and Organized Crime are also designated. Public officers are recommended members of the undercover program pool and other special duty sections, for instance special entry, boat captains, etc.
There are also eligibility criteria in respect of training. Senior officials must have received training on sections 25.1 through 25.4 of the Criminal Code of Canada. Public officers need to have received training on the same sections as well as other training as and when required. This includes public officers with limited designation.
With respect to the eligibility conditions, designations are good for three years. They expire after three years unless renewed. Under subsection 25.1(10), persons acting at the direction of a designated public officer must be made aware of the provisions under this subsection.
With respect to revocation, senior officials, and public officers, if a designate no longer holds a required office or departs from the RCMP or no longer meets the criteria, the designation may be revoked, and the Minister of Public Safety is to be notified without delay. The minister must also be advised that the potential designate has been previously designated and be made aware of all relevant information that could have an impact upon the approval, as well as of additional conditions that could be applied to the designation.
With respect to the process and the designation procedures themselves, the Assistant Commissioner FIO, or the Assistant Commissioner CID and Chief Superintendent of Drugs and Organized Crime must be the first designation issued.
On recommendation of public officers, it's by the senior official in writing, using a standard designation request template. The requests are sent to the policing policy directorate of the Department of Public Safety. Two copies of these are sent, one with the officer's name and one without. They are then forwarded to the deputy minister and minister's offices respectively for approval.
If it is approved, the minister will sign the designation document. Copies that are retained by the department are copies of the one without the officer's name. The one with the officer's name is returned to the RCMP, and there are locator numbers that allow us to work with the RCMP if we had to join these two documents and make the link between them.
With respect to reporting, the following information must be collected by the Assistant Commissioner FIO and provided to the Department of Public Safety for inclusion in the minister's public annual report: the number and nature of emergency designations issued under subsection 25.1(6), whereby a senior official may designate a public officer under exigent circumstances with the caveat that such designations apply for only 48 hours; the number and nature of the acts or omissions requiring prior authorization, and the nature of the conduct being investigated in respect of them—this would encompass all actions that would likely result in the loss of or serious damage to property or where designates are directing another to commit an otherwise illegal act or omission—and the number and nature of acts or omissions and the nature of the conduct being investigated where in exigent circumstances officers proceeded without authorization from a senior official under subsection 25.1(9).
Concerning the annual reports themselves, there is an overview on page 7. Two annual reports have been tabled and published, one that covers the period February 2002 to January 2003 and one for February 1, 2003 to January 31, 2004. The report for 2004 will be made public in the near future; it's currently being finalized.
On page 7 you have an overview with respect to the number of temporary designations issued in those years. You'll notice in 2002 there were two for investigations into alleged offences, for assault, aggravated assault, assault with a deadly weapon, theft, causing a disturbance. For 2002 as well, for the number of times prior authorization was required and issued, there were eleven, and six in 2003.
Although the Department of Public Safety is not responsible for provincial annual reports, we provided an overview of published annual reports. Since 2002, provincial use of the law enforcement justification regime under sections 25.1 to 25.4 has varied considerably.
Currently, all provinces except Saskatchewan and Newfoundland have designated officers. Annual reports for all provinces (except for Newfoundland, PEI and Saskatchewan) have been published — some 2004 reports have yet to be published.
Reports for Alberta, BC, Ontario and New Brunswick are available online. You may also note that only Ontario and Quebec have reported incidents when prior authorization was required and issued: on two occasions in 2003 in Ontario, and on ten occasions in 2004 in Quebec.
That concludes our presentation on the designation process and the role of the department and of the Minister for Public Safety.