Yes. Thank you, Chairman.
I generally agree that the authorities that are being proposed for CSEC are a good thing. I would put it somewhat differently. Monsieur Boisvert said that a good defence involves an offence. I would say that in the area of cyber, it's actually difficult to distinguish offence from defence and that, for example, you can sit in Canada and build up firewalls. That's purely defensive, and we're doing that now. Is it actually offensive, when you know somebody's about to come in and do you damage, to try to do something about it? I would say that's still in the realm of defensive, although it's in a grey area. “Offensive” would mean actually going out with a plan and a strategy and trying to do damage to somebody else.
At an absolute minimum—and I agree with the bill—you need to give CSEC the capacity to move outside Canada and to take some positive steps. I'd also note that I agree with Mr. Boisvert. All of our close allies have been doing this for some time, and we've been subject to some under-the-radar criticism for not being able to do it. I would also note that because the authority exists doesn't mean that it will be used blithely.
However, I think one of the great challenges of the day is cyber operations and cyber-activities, and we need to have this, I think, to defend ourselves, using the word “defence” in the broadest sense.