—the amendments.
I haven't given my reasons in favour of this, so I hope you'll permit me to do so very briefly.
I think this is responsive to some of the testimony we heard before this committee. It would limit the application of the ministerial discretion to stop reviews or stop proceeding to reviews of those ongoing national security activities; it would not provide for the stoppage of a concluded activity; and furthermore, it would require the minister to provide reasons when there is a refusal on the basis of an activity's being ongoing—which is, I think, consistent with what the minister said would be the committee of parliamentarians' bully pulpit function.
The other thing my amendments do is put a positive obligation on the minister to remain apprised of and up to date on the status of those activities that have been requested by the committee. If the status of those ongoing activities is that they are stopped, for whatever reason, then the minister must report back to the committee; this would then ostensibly allow them to conduct a review, which is part of their mandate.