Thank you.
I will not be supporting this amendment, which is changing the threshold. When we get into other sections of this bill with regard to Criminal Code amendments, we're lowering the threshold. It's been very clear that when the threshold is too high, it simply will not be utilized. You can't meet that criteria.
Within the proposed information sharing act there are robust safeguards already. Among the individuals who came to testify, we had someone with, I think it was, 35 years of experience in law enforcement and intelligence gathering, who said that the aspects of this bill are absolutely crucial for information sharing among agencies to ensure national security. He also went on to say that there were safeguards. In the same meeting we heard from someone who said this bill had nothing to do with terrorism and that we were only targeting a specific group.
This amendment to the bill would make it way too high, would go against its purpose and the ability to share information that is relevant—and “relevant” is the key word here. Obviously, when you say something is necessary, it almost has to be to the point where it's too late.
For those reasons and many others, I will not be supporting this amendment.