I'm an optimistic academic and I'm convinced that the government will, indeed, move to fulfill its election promises to amend the problematic aspects of Bill C-51 that are now embedded in different forms of legislation.
With regard to your best path forward, I've said that this isn't perfect legislation. I've suggested, as Mr. Atkey has done, that elements of it can change. What I would really see, and I agree fully with Ron on this, is this legislation passed in some form in this parliamentary session to allow us to get on with the work. It will be reviewed in five years.
I would be more encouraged to see a genuine all-party consensus on revised legislation. That would be a big achievement. I'd care less about the exact details of how you're going to revise it. I think there are certain elements of it that you should focus on. I wouldn't focus on the membership questions. I would do some fine-tuning of the powers of the committee in terms of access to information and the exclusionary elements that it can't get into. Elements of that can be fine-tuned, but I don't think you need to go through the whole thing with a fine-toothed comb. Large elements would stand.
If, at the end of the day, you're happiest in an all-party sense to just pass the legislation as it is, I would still, in a way, cheer to the heavens. I've been waiting for a very long time to see this kind of parliamentary activism on national security, and the biggest benefit it will have in the long run will be to better educate Canadians about the realities and challenges of national security and intelligence work in Canada, where I think we have a profound democratic deficit.