Thank you, Mr. Chair. I certainly appreciate the opportunity to discuss this important legislation with our panel.
To the panel, I want to thank you for your expertise and experience. It's most welcome.
As the Minister of Justice said in his testimony in the last meeting, terrorism, nuclear or otherwise, is a “borderless” issue, and we must work cooperatively with our international partners.
Assistant Commissioner Malizia, in points that you raised in your briefing, you said that one of the keys to denying terrorists the capability to engage in nuclear terrorism is the effective cooperation among the full range of security and intelligence partners, both domestic and international.
For an example of this, I note that the briefing note points to a recent case to illustrate the importance of cooperation. It's the arrest of Mahmoud Yadegari, an Iranian Canadian citizen, in April 2009.
In the Yadegari case, a U.S. company tipped off U.S. export officials about Mr. Yadegari's attempts to purchase and hide the specifications of pressure transducers, which can be used in gas centrifuge plants to measure the pressure of uranium hexafluoride. Such dual-use technology has been linked to Iran's efforts to produce weapons-grade nuclear material. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement alerted both the CBSA and the RCMP about Mr. Yadegari's efforts. Thanks to the cooperative efforts, Mr. Yadegari was prosecuted and received jail time.
You touched on some of the measures that we are taking internationally to build further cooperation against these kinds of cases. In your opinion, has the RCMP developed close partnerships with the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission and Atomic Energy of Canada Limited, as well as the owners and operators of Canada's nuclear plants?