Sure. What the minister had said to the committee was that Americans would only be able to conduct a strip search if a Canadian officer were unavailable and that would be a fairly rare occasion, but the bill permits the Americans to strip search not only if a Canadian officer isn't available within a reasonable time but also if the Canadian officer fails to show up for an appointment to conduct a strip search at the specified time, and third, if the Canadian officer declines to conduct a strip search.
Our submission last day was that this is fairly shocking, particularly the last one, but all of them on the whole. We can see no circumstance in which there should ever be an occasion for an American to perform a strip search.
If you think about the context of law enforcement where strip searches happen, they are not happening exigently out on the street—oh my God, we have to strip search this person right now. In almost every case they take place back at the station after some time has elapsed, after the person is secured, and so forth.
Given that—and case law backs us up on this—the strip search is a venue where your rights are being infringed most intimately, and we allow that under certain circumstances. But given how rich an area it is for rights violations, we don't think the Canadian government should delegate that. It should be Canadian officers who conduct it. If that takes 20 extra minutes, or an extra hour while CBSA handles this or that, we think that's a fine price to pay given the stakes that are involved.