Commissioner, thank you for being here today. I also appreciate the apology you have offered to Mr. Arar and Monia Mazigh.
I have some questions dealing with the existing protocols governing the sharing of criminal intelligence with foreign entities prior to 9/11. I want to know if you can inform this committee as to the nature of those protocols, and if indeed those same protocols were applicable to the sharing of national security information and intelligence after 9/11.
If there were strict guidelines with respect to the sharing of intelligence with foreign agencies, can you tell this committee who authorized the RCMP, and more specifically Project A-O, to circumvent the existing protocols in the Arar case? Have you tried to find out if anyone from Project A-O was in fact responsible for this? Did they ever voice concerns to you? And why didn't you raise these concerns with the minister?