Thank you, Mr. Chair.
My question is for the representatives of the Communications Security Establishment.
You may be testifying before the committee for the first time, but you must know that your organization is central to the legal framework we are studying. We are talking about foreign threats. Given that you do not handle what happens on Canadian soil, if, in your surveillance and interdiction efforts, you were to hear a conversation involving a Canadian citizen, you would be required to destroy this information. Defending the rights and freedoms and protecting the lives of Canadians are always the excuses given. You would have to prove that there is a threat or a reasonable suspicion of a threat to obtain the warrants required to investigate.
How can you prove that there is a threat if, by destroying information concerning Canadians, you lose information about behaviour or behaviour patterns that could be used as proof of an emerging threat?
Obviously, my assumption is that the source is in another country but is relying on co-operation from Canadians.