Mr. Chair, thank you very much.
This is the amendment that will provide the completion of proposed section 44. Proposed section 44 of the proposed CSE act allows the CSE to disclose “information that could be used to identify a Canadian or a person in Canada and that has been used, analysed or retained” under a foreign intelligence ministerial authorization under proposed subsection 27(1).
What this amendment does is bring in proposed subsection 41(1) as well, which is the disclosure of Canadian identifying information obtained under an emergency ministerial authorization. Without this amendment, a situation could result in which the CSE could not disclose Canadian identifying information obtained pursuant to an emergency authorization to designated persons in the event of an emergency such as an imminent terrorist attack.
I should also add that this is a very limited five-day emergency authorization, as discussed in previous amendments, that would only be used in truly exigent circumstances and when the intelligence commissioner is incapacitated or unavailable to render an approval.