Thank you, Mr. Chair and witnesses.
The position of the Liberal Party on this bill is that we're supporting it. Nevertheless, we benefit greatly from hearing from law enforcement officials, and in this case Mr. Trudell as well.
Today, there are a couple of common themes. One is that we are all here attempting to make our society safer. We all recognize that organized crime is organized and is becoming more so. And we all recognize that the Criminal Code is a mishmash of additions and improvements, gaps and irregularities, and that we're doing more of the same here. We all recognize this. Nevertheless, we're all trying, through swift passage of this bill, to add to some of the tools that law enforcement officials have—and doing so without changing, I would add, with due respect to Mr. Trudell, any of the ground rules of our rights and liberties.
I have some very specific questions arising from the comments made. The first deals with some of the testimony you gave, Chief Superintendent Shean, on behalf of the RCMP, with respect to corruption and infiltration and intimidation. That's my first set of questions.
The next set is about the use of wiretaps, or the interception of information, which both Staff Sergeant Renwick and Chief Beazley talked about.
First, on the corruption aspect, it's quite a shocking statement, Chief Superintendent Shean, for you to say that organized crime is “becoming efficient at exploiting and victimizing people”—which I think people understand—and at “subverting legitimate business, and corrupting parts of our political and judicial systems”. You went on to talk about intimidation. We read about intimidation daily, and I think we understand it.
My question is really twofold. What instances of corruption of public officials are we talking about, and at what level? Overall, with respect to corruption and intimidation and infiltration, what more can we do to combat these?