Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
We're still within the sections that deal with the no-fly list and appeals against being on the no-fly list. I'll speak to both of my amendments at the same time, just to advance things for committee. They both speak to the same issue that was put forward by Kent Roach, by Alex Neve from Amnesty International, and by the Canadian Civil Liberties Association. The goal here is to appoint a special advocate so that during a no-fly list appeal hearing, where secret evidence is heard, there is an advocate for the public interest. Green Party amendment 38 sets out that there must be a special advocate. Green Party amendment 39 sets out the content of the responsibilities of the special advocate.
Again, this doesn't make any information public. It just ensures that the public interest is well represented. The use of special advocates, as I mentioned in yesterday's review of other clauses, stems from the post-9/11 anti-terrorism legislation of the Chrétien government, that if you're going to have security certificates, there be somebody there in the room who represents the public interest, because these hearings are extraordinary. They're secret. The rights of the individuals whose lives are being affected can't be represented by them in the room, so the special advocate's role is terribly important for protecting civil liberties in this country.
I hope you'll give full consideration to including both Green Party amendments 38 and 39, when the time comes. I know that Mr. Dubé will speak to one of these as well. To have a special advocate in that hearing room to represent the concerns of inappropriate use of information or inappropriate denial of rights is a safeguard—it does absolutely no harm—to ensure that we are consistent with what we do with security certificates, with what we do when we're impeding people's rights to travel into other countries.