Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I have a question for Ms. Des Rosiers, and afterwards for Mr. Vernon.
Ms. Des Rosiers, exceptional powers would be granted under this act. You were referring to abuse of these powers, as others have on this panel, except perhaps Mr. Vernon. As you know, and it is not the first time we have discussed this, CSIS has acknowledged having used information obtained through torture. I would imagine this information is unreliable, because someone who is tortured will eventually say anything to escape the pain.
If this service is basing its risk analysis on intelligence obtained through torture, ethnic criteria, anything that can be found in newspapers of the Arab world or internationally, what you can see in the media, on TV and the Internet, on investigations whereby they apparently walk into people's homes to question them again based on ethnic criteria, do you not believe that there is risk not only that CSIS may abuse its power, but also that it may target the wrong people? I am not questioning the work of the RCMP, which, in my opinion, is better than that of CSIS, given that they are required to conduct real investigations involving wiretapping, for instance. In fact, we should address the issue of CSIS and the way that it operates in a broad-based way, so that their information is based on facts rather than on ethnic criteria or on biased information obtained through torture.
Should we not be looking into the operations of CSIS to ensure it performs better in the field, rather than extending this legislation?