Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you to the minister for appearing, as well as the officials.
Minister, in your opening remarks you talked about the incident that happened at the National War Memorial as well as what took place here on Parliament Hill. These incidents of terrorism were not simply attacks against an individual or a place where people go to work. These were attacks against our Canadian Armed Forces and against our institutions of governance. This was an attack against all Canadians.
At the start, when we talked about Bill C-44, I heard some comments that this was simply a knee-jerk reaction to those terrorist attacks that took place in Ottawa and in Quebec. In fact, Minister, this legislation has been in the works for some time and was to correct a problem that, as you mentioned, we saw an issue with before the courts, which were calling into question the authority of CSIS.
I'm just wondering if you could speak about that particular aspect, that this was not a knee-jerk reaction, and why this is absolutely critical for the operations of CSIS to continue to keep Canadians safe.