Chair, thank you very much.
As Ms. May has mentioned, this amendment would remove changes that were made to the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act or IRPA in 2015. The changes were made to help the government protect classified information that is used in security certificate proceedings before the Federal Court.
The changes were crafted in response to a Supreme Court decision, Canada v. Harkat, in 2014 to ensure their charter compliance. If the amendment goes forward, the government would lose the ability to immediately appeal or seek judicial review of an order requiring public disclosure for information that the minister believes should not be disclosed. In those circumstances, the government may be forced to withdraw this information to protect sensitive national security interests, and that would weaken the case before the Federal Court.
In my submission, this amendment should not be pursued.