Public Safety Committee on Feb. 18th, 2016

[Gina Wilson]

There will be a report that comes out from that round table, and I'd be happy to make that available to the committee.

[The Chair, Liberal, Rob Oliphant]

It would be great if it could be sent to the committee.

Thank you very much.

Mr. Rayes.

[Alain Rayes, Conservative, Richmond—Arthabaska, QC]

Good morning.

I would like to join my colleagues in thanking you for being with us today.

I have three questions.

I'm going to pick up on what my colleague, Mr. Miller, was saying about Syrian refugees coming to Canada. Mr. Oldham pointed out that, if everything goes smoothly, we should hit the target of 25,000 refugees by month's end. We are hearing that the government wants to increase that target to 50,000 by the end of the year, if I'm not mistaken.

You said that a number of screening measures were being carried out on the ground. The process is the same for any refugee wanting to come to Canada.

My question is very straightforward. It's a fact that Syria has more terrorist cells than anywhere else in the world. What percentage of refugee applicants were denied during the screening process because they were found to pose a potential risk? Is that a figure you could kindly provide us with?

[Gina Wilson]

I don't think we are able to answer that kind of question. Officials from the Department of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship would be better-suited to answer that.

[Alain Rayes, Conservative, Richmond—Arthabaska, QC]

Very well.

That means that the people working for you who carried out the screening—

[Gina Wilson]

They weren't necessarily people working for the public safety department.

I believe most of them do work for IRCC, the actual screeners.

[Craig Oldham]

It's a combination of screeners from different departments and agencies, and we simply don't have that kind of data at this point. Also, we need to consider that whenever there is any doubt of any sort, people are simply set aside. You could be set aside because you just don't have all your data, or it could be for another reason. We're not at the point in the operation where we've had an opportunity to go back through all of that and look at the data. The answer is simply that it isn't available to us at this point.

[Alain Rayes, Conservative, Richmond—Arthabaska, QC]

Your department is responsible for public safety. And I believe that many Canadians are worried about terrorism, in light of all the occurrences of terrorism happening around the world. It would be helpful to have that percentage, but we'll ask the other witnesses questions.

My second question pertains to the counter-radicalization office. I'm very glad to learn that best practices in use throughout the entire country are being taken into account. I'm also very glad to see that the city of Montreal is leading the way with such an initiative. I would have preferred, however, for Canada to take that lead.

Much has been said about the desire to communicate with stakeholders such as police forces, municipalities and provinces. But there has been no mention of schools. This is an issue that affects young people. I'm wondering whether that was taken into consideration. I used to be a school principal. I have also been a mayor and a teacher. I think young people are the most susceptible to radicalization.

My colleague brought up human trafficking, which also ties into this.

What measures do you intend to take to have an impact in all those settings? There are countless elementary and secondary schools, not to mention colleges and universities.

[Monik Beauregard]

Earlier, when I was talking about the communities we wanted to work with, in conjunction with the community groups on the ground, I didn't mention schools, but there is no question that they are included.

In fact, I encourage you to ask that question to RCMP officials when they appear before the committee. I know the RCMP has done a lot of work with schools in the past to raise both student and teacher awareness, as well as with youth community centres, to help them understand what being radicalized means and what the signs are. It's also necessary to work with teachers and coaches, especially, so that they can watch for and recognize the signs. That way, when they think that a young person has been radicalized, they will be able to report it.

[Alain Rayes, Conservative, Richmond—Arthabaska, QC]

Actually, my question is more specific. With respect to the counter-radicalization office, I know that the RCMP, the Quebec provincial police, and other police forces engage in outreach and education. I've seen it for myself, in fact. They do an excellent job. What I'm interested in, however, are really the efforts made to detect these kinds of cases, from a public safety standpoint.

Are there policies you would like to put in place, as you are looking to do with the municipalities and as Montreal has tried to do? Do you plan to establish a direct line of communication with school principals?

[The Chair, Liberal, Rob Oliphant]

Please keep your answer short, Ms. Beauregard.

[Monik Beauregard]

Are you referring to measures for detecting individuals engaged in radicalization?

[Alain Rayes, Conservative, Richmond—Arthabaska, QC]

Yes.

[Monik Beauregard]

Within our portfolio, we, too, endeavour to target those individuals. But that's not necessarily part of the same outreach work. It's done more within the portfolio, in cooperation with the RCMP and the Canada Border Services Agency.

[The Chair, Liberal, Rob Oliphant]

Thank you, Ms. Beauregard.

We started a couple of minutes late, so I think I can give Mr. Erskine-Smith three minutes.

[Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, Liberal, Beaches—East York, ON]

Thank you.

Thank you, all. I'll be brief and keep my questions as short as I can.

With respect to the no-fly list in the Secure Air Travel Act, have any Canadians been mistakenly placed on the list since its inception?

[Gina Wilson]

Yes.

[Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, Liberal, Beaches—East York, ON]

Has the department reviewed the appeal mechanism? In the department's experience, is the appeal mechanism satisfactory or is it something this committee should look at?

[Gina Wilson]

In the spirit of continuous improvement, we're definitely looking at it.

Monik, are there other things to add?

[Monik Beauregard]

Yes. This is something that will no doubt be part of the consultation process that we want to do around the new national security framework that we want for Canada and Canadians.

Yes, we're always looking to continuous improvement.

[Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, Liberal, Beaches—East York, ON]

Thank you.

With respect to the kinetic powers that have been granted to CSIS, you'll hear the word “kinetic” all the time. Can you give this committee a few examples of what those kinetic powers are in the new powers that CSIS has been granted?

[Gina Wilson]

I certainly can't.

[Monik Beauregard]

I would recommend that you ask CSIS that question.

[Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, Liberal, Beaches—East York, ON]

Okay.

With respect to the information-sharing provisions under the Canada information sharing act, can you explain to this committee to what extent information-sharing has increased since that act's inception?

[Monik Beauregard]

We would have to come back to you on that to demonstrate how it's been increased.