Thank you, Mr. Clement. It's an excellent question.
I'll draw the attention of committee members to what section 8 of the Security of Information Act says under the heading of “Special Operational Information and Persons Permanently Bound to Secrecy”. I think Mr. Clement is absolutely right in describing this as a kind of kitchen sink catch-all. The dimension of it that particularly concerns me, if it were literally applied to the work of the committee in terms of information that the committee would not have access to, is under paragraph (f) of subsection 8(1). I'll read it. It's a short paragraph, but this is what it says, to give you the flavour of it. Under the Security of Information Act, special operational information would include:
the means that the Government of Canada used, uses or intends to use, or is capable of using, to protect or exploit any information or intelligence referred to in any of paragraphs (a) to (e), including, but not limited to, encryption and cryptographic systems, and any vulnerabilities or limitations of those means
It also refers to the analysis of information, collection of information, and handling reporting systems for all of this. It is everything under the sun.
You could rely perhaps on the discretion of the government in power not to abuse that exemption power, but on the other hand, there is no particular need to have this written into the legislation. I would encourage the committee to follow the U.K. practice, which is simpler in terms of exemptions. In a quite common sense form, it refers to exempting information from the committee in very limited circumstances, whereby the provision of information might be, in the intelligence security committee legislation, injurious or prejudicial to the practice of the intelligence and security agencies of the government. That can also be broadly interpreted, I suppose, but it seems to me a narrower exclusion and, in a way, easier to interpret by both the executive and legislative branches, than what you would have by reference to special operational information here.