I can say that this concern arose from both sides. As I said, many of the sections were involved in the drafting of this document. One of the concerns that was raised with this actually came from the military law section, and it had to do with whether or not you were going to get buy-in from the national security establishment itself. The concern is around both the public and the individuals, the people who are working under the agencies, having confidence in what the purpose is. What is this committee doing? Why are they doing what they're doing? Does it make sense? What is the definition that you're working on with national security? Why are you trying to undertake this study or asking for this information?
With an unclear mandate.... The reason that the mandate is unclear is that, after Bill C-51, we now have a multiplicity of definitions of national security floating around in our legislation. The question is, are we dealing with this extremely broad definition that is in the information sharing act, or are we dealing with a more restricted definition that is in the CSIS act or in other pieces of legislation that generally refer back to the CSIS act with respect to that definition?
It creates some concerns on both sides around understanding what this committee is doing, and why. In terms of the public, what is this committee doing and what is its mandate? Also, from the perspective of the agencies that are under review, there is concern in terms of understanding why the committee is engaging with them and having those working relationships with those agencies.