Yes.
What this amendment is proposing is that we delete lines 31 to 36 on page 130, which deals with the recognizance specifically. It deletes the changes to the Criminal Code for these recognizance orders under this legislation and reverts back to the threshold for seeking a recog order that “is likely”. That's what I'm proposing, that this goes back to the old language that it's “likely to prevent”, as opposed to the new language which is “necessary to prevent”.
In my opinion, this change raises the bar on getting a recog order to make them harder to obtain. That's why we want to be able to do that. I'll draw back on my experience, not specific to terrorist issues, but on having recog orders, and they can be a valuable tool.
Quite frankly, as we heard from our experts who testified before the committee, recog orders are the most usual tool now that our national security enforcement agencies use to try to keep tabs on an individual who poses a national security risk. We already know that the threshold to obtain those might be somewhat challenging. The threshold right now is “likely”. If we're changing it in Bill C-59 to “is necessary to”, that is upping the threshold, which makes it even more difficult for these orders to be obtained. If we're really trying to put some sort of monitoring mechanism in place for those who are a national security risk, then I don't understand for a moment why we would suggest that we want to raise the bar to that level.
In my opinion, recog orders are about as useful as the piece of paper they're written on. Unless you do constant monitoring, it's a piece of paper. You're asking someone to follow the rules. If they don't want to follow the rules—they may or they may not—at least you then have a recourse if they breach those conditions. If you're making it harder for law enforcement and national security agencies to even obtain that recog order in the first place, then it's even more useless than we have right now.
That's the reason we are concerned about the replacement of “is necessary” from “is likely”. After debate, I'd certainly appreciate any comments that our officials may have on the implications of that sort of language on the ability to even obtain a recog order in the first place, and whether that threshold is increased to the extent that it is going to continue to maybe put a risk to public safety and national security because we just don't have that threshold met on an individual. If they did do something, we don't have a mechanism in place where we can even hold them accountable before the courts.