Thank you, Mr. Moore and Mr. Barrette.
I might add, as a former police officer and major crimes investigator, I had occasion many times to use everything that we talk about here, from wiretaps, to warrant applications, to various forms of interception, and even what this legislation permits right now. At that time there was no legislation that permitted it, but we needed the use of agents frequently, always tightly controlled by the police.
I can't recall in my time how this legislation, which would permit police officers to do the same thing as they did before and the controls.... There were always elements of problems with controls, and that's not going to change, whether you have legislation or not, when it comes to agents or the use of agents. But to repeal this and not allow the police to utilize these investigative tools actually does harm to society because so many investigations require a complete toolbox full of such things as we talk about here.
To have to run to a judge every time a decision is made in an investigation to comply with what you're suggesting would hamper an investigation. I would suggest that even in this last on-the-record initiative that is now taking place with the arrests of several alleged terrorists in this country, such rules and such applications of the law were applied.
And here, if you want to talk about protection of evidence and people.... And I can name other situations where organized criminal activity takes place where the life of even an informant hangs in the balance and where the release of any of this information to the public would be absolutely detrimental, whether it's now, at the time, or even years in the future after the case is all over with.
So I fail to see how the repeal, as you have suggested right at the onset, might be beneficial to our society.