Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Ever since I got interested in the Arar situation, one thing has been troubling me. I am convinced that the work of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service is absolutely vital to protect us against terrorist threats that have hit to other democratic countries. As a matter of fact, that work is even much more important than that of amending legislation. Therefore, one has to give the Canadian Security Intelligence Service the freedom it needs to do its work, within certain limits. Also, it must be able to communicate closely with other similar organizations in other countries.
If, in a democratic country, we have reasons to believe that a foreign citizen has relations with terrorists and that this person intends to come back to the country of which he or she has become a new citizen, it would seem normal to me that the intelligence service of that democratic country provide warning to the new country.
In other words, if the US had reasons to believe that Mr. Arar was linked to terrorist organizations, it would have been absolutely normal, and even unavoidable, that they give that information to the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.
Am I wrong? Since you have looked at many SLOs of other countries and at the relations they have with each other, have you observed this practice?