Mr. Speaker, I for one am very pleased that my colleague from Vancouver East has raised her concerns about what may or may not be a worry with respect to this particular legislation.
It is absolutely incumbent upon every single one of us to heed the warnings about how, in the absence of due process, the absence of transparency and accountability, the suspension of the presumption of innocence, all of these things, we need to be extremely concerned about where we are headed.
I am sure the member from Vancouver East is aware that prophetic words were spoken by an Afro-American congresswoman in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 when she said that in the attempt to defeat terrorism, let us not become the evil we deplore. That is why I think we need to proceed with extreme caution.
One cannot oppose the principle of better cooperation among the agencies, particularly in the instance where public safety is threatened or where public security is at risk. However the issue is what are the checks and balances and what kind of accountability is there.
In the absence of it being clear exactly what some of these processes will be, it is necessary to have more information about what the intent is, and not just the intent. We also need to know how the important due process of law that needs to apply is going to be maintained and in fact strengthened, given the concerns we have about the suspension or the weakening of due process in far too many cases of late. I would ask the member for Vancouver East for her comments.