Ms. Bernier and Mr. Baggaley, thank you for your opening remarks. I have already had the pleasure of hearing this presentation or a similar one.
What I am still troubled by is the relationship between the Canadian government and the American government. As you already indicated, there is a geographical problem. We have to cooperate with the Americans because we use a right that belongs to them, that is the right to fly over their territory.
But the problems that I guess we still all have.... And I don't want to bash government on this because it's a necessity that our governments need to negotiate overflight, given that at least half of all flights in Canada emanate from southern Ontario, i.e. Pearson International. We will have, no matter what, a situation where approximately half the flights are going to go across American airspace even though they're not going to the States. So the negotiation is important.
But I'd like your impression about the secure flight program, especially since the Americans can ignore our Privacy Act, everything you stand for, and everything you have indicated simply by using the Patriot Act. Once they engage the Patriot Act, everything that you say and everything that your colleague Madame Des Rosiers said from a human rights perspective goes completely out the window.
It's wonderful to say that we need to integrate security concerns in the aviation industry or, as was said by some of the people from the airport authorities who preceded you here, that we need to integrate security as part of the customer service package that we provide.
But if the Americans are determined to use the Patriot Act to tell you to go fly a kite, rather than a plane, what do you propose?