Evidence of meeting #94 for Public Safety and National Security in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was security.
A video is available from Parliament.
12:55 p.m.
Member-at-Large, Immigration Law Section, Canadian Bar Association
I apologize.
12:55 p.m.
Liberal
12:55 p.m.
Conservative
12:55 p.m.
Conservative
Glen Motz Conservative Medicine Hat—Cardston—Warner, AB
Thank you.
I have a couple of questions.
Ms. Szurlej, I would hope that you're not asking the Liberals to regulate showers.
12:55 p.m.
Endowed Chair, Atlantic Human Rights Centre, St. Thomas University, As an Individual
I'm certainly not. That was a joke.
12:55 p.m.
Conservative
Glen Motz Conservative Medicine Hat—Cardston—Warner, AB
If you do, they just might consider it, so let's not go down there.
12:55 p.m.
Conservative
Glen Motz Conservative Medicine Hat—Cardston—Warner, AB
Sorry, I couldn't help myself.
Mr. Edelmann, I want to ask you questions given your background. If you were to add something to Bill C-59 that you think is absolutely critical for public safety, balancing the need for rights and privacy, what would you suggest that be?
12:55 p.m.
Member-at-Large, Immigration Law Section, Canadian Bar Association
We have 30 recommendations in our written submissions.
In terms of public safety itself—
12:55 p.m.
Conservative
12:55 p.m.
Member-at-Large, Immigration Law Section, Canadian Bar Association
I'll be very quick. In terms of the public safety mandate or aspect, I would say that the mandate of the NSIRA is something that ought to be clarified. Some of the things I talked about at the beginning, regarding the lack of clarity with respect to the definitions around national security, actually do undermine the overall functioning of the infrastructure. Therefore, in terms of the broad picture, the one thing that I would fix is to make sure that you get the forest right. I have a whole bunch of recommendations around trees. That would be my recommendation around the forest.
12:55 p.m.
Conservative
Glen Motz Conservative Medicine Hat—Cardston—Warner, AB
Thank you very much.
For my last comment, I can't help but suggest, Ms. Szurlej, that regarding your analogy to the shower, your shower has never threatened to blow you up because you live in a democracy. The whole issue of national security, the whole issue of terrorism, and the risk that we have in this country is serious. Obviously, as a committee, that's something that we are taking very seriously, so I appreciate the comments that all of you had to make.
Mr. Fragiskatos asked the question about all of your assessments, in regard to the risk of terrorism globally. Please respond with yes or no. Have you had any training or operational experience on risk assessments of terrorism?
12:55 p.m.
Member-at-Large, Immigration Law Section, Canadian Bar Association
Other than in my work in national security cases, no, I do not have training in risk assessment.
12:55 p.m.
Member-at-Large, Immigration Law Section, Canadian Bar Association
I recognize that there are multi-faceted risks from a number of different places.
12:55 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal John McKay
Thank you very much.
On behalf of the committee, I want to thank each of you for your efforts to come here and share your insights with us, as we study this very important bill. With that, I'm going to adjourn, but I will remind those who are on the subcommittee that we are meeting immediately after and it is in camera. I would ask for co-operation in emptying the room from those who are not entitled to be here.
The meeting is adjourned.