I thank Parliamentary Secretary James for her question, Mr. Chair.
The definition of a terrorist act is widely accepted throughout the world, and it has three components. The first is that an individual or a group attacks a symbol of a nation. We are talking about the military uniform and we are talking about our sacred National War Memorial. It is also committed based on an ideology. We clearly saw that those two individuals were embracing extremist, fundamentalist, radical Islamic views. They were going against the Criminal Code by committing violent acts against innocent people.
Clearly, what took place in Canada on October 20 in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu
… and that targeted Warrant Officer Patrice Vincent, and Nathan Cirillo in Ottawa, are both terrorist acts.
That is what the president of Holland noted when he visited Parliament. The U.S. secretary of state, John Kerry, noted that as well, as did the RCMP commissioner. Under the Criminal Code, it was terrorism.
It is important to take a measured approach when dealing with the terrorist threat and not react excessively, but we must not stand idly by in the face of the constantly changing terrorist threat.
Ms. James, I believe you know that the bill in question was to have been introduced on October 22, the very day of the attack. Shortly after the attack, we did not know that were were going to be confined here all day. We were living in uncertainty, but I was still hopeful I would be able to introduce it that day.
Consultations were held before the introduction of this bill which, as I explained, followed on an invitation by the courts to clarify the legislative provisions so that CSIS could exercise its mandate adequately.
I am pushing the importance of adopting this bill because CSIS' current capacity to fully exercise its duties is limited by court decisions. As parliamentarians, we are being asked to get this bill to royal assent in order to restore existing powers to CSIS at a critical time when we are facing a real terrorist threat.
To answer your question, I would say that this bill was in the works long before the two terrorist attacks in Canada in mid-October, but that those attacks make its adoption much more important and urgent.