Thank you, Mr. Chair.
In this amendment, it's a deletion, so I just remind committee members what would have been there. This deletes the clause that reads that “No civil proceedings lie against any person for their disclosure in good faith...”.
The testimony in a backgrounder that we received from Professors Roach and Forcese was the following:
The robust immunity from civil liability for good faith disclosures in s. 9 of the new Act, combined with its authorization in s. 6 for lawful disclosure of information (in accordance with the law) “to any person, for any purpose” runs the risk of repeating the Arar pattern of unfettered information sharing on a domestic stage and possibly internationally, minus the government's payment of compensation. .... Hence, s. 9, as presently drafted could preclude most civil recovery should someone in the future be harmed or even killed as a result of the sharing of information, as long as the subjective purpose behind the sharing was earnest, even if the conduct was negligent or ill-executed.
That's a quote from a backgrounder that we received, and this amendment to delete that line responds positively to the good advice that we received from Professors Roach and Forcese.